Second Information Session Scheduled for McMillon Innovation Studio Contest

David Speer

The winners of the first design contest conducted by the McMillion Innovation Studio last spring.

The second information session for a contest with a $15,000 prize for University of Arkansas students to start a new business will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, in the McMillon Innovation Studio in the Harmon Parking Garage.

The competition is open to all University of Arkansas students. Free pizza will be available at the information session.

Clint Johnson, director of the McMillon Innovation Studio, said the contest, conducted in concert with DataNinja of Bentonville, will challenge students to create a solution that can pull together information from many different sources — local news sites, social media and other online sources that influence shoppers' decision making — to discover why certain items are selling or not selling.

Sean Nicholas, DataNinja's chief executive officer, said such a solution could help suppliers and brands understand the "why" of their analytics in addition to the who and where. Coaching sessions for competing teams will be held throughout the fall, with judging set for November by DataNinja, local entrepreneurs and StartupJunkie of Northwest Arkansas.

A third information session is set for Tuesday, Sept. 12, also at 5 p.m. in the McMillon Innovation Studio. In the studio's first contest last spring, Lovelace Technologies, made up of students from both the Sam M. Walton College of Business and the College of Engineering, won $10,000 in seed money to start their business.