Grant Hughes (’13) and his business partner Cavan Canavan from Focus won the $20,000 Pryor-Hale Award for Best Business. Focus is a digital personal trainer integrated into a wristwatch-like device capable of automatically recording repetitions, sets, rest periods, weights and exercises or motions.

Hughes stated in an interview, “The Michigan Business Challenge has been a comprehensive, varied and challenging endeavor,” Hughes said. “Now that MBC is behind us and we’ve won, we not only get $20,000 to continue product and business development, but we also take with us the experience and confidence of having won a prestigious competition such as this as we build our concept into a viable company.”

In addition, the Erb Award for Sustainability for $7,500 went to Centricycle, a nonprofit company working to improve health care in rural India through the use of sustainable diagnostic technology and education.

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More than $100,000 awarded to U-M student entrepreneurs (html)[