Venture Challenge 2006, the 17th annual international new venture competition hosted by the Entrepreneurial Management Center, took place on March 23rd and 24th at the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley. Teams representing twenty universities from across the country and around the world presented their new business venture plans to a panel of judges made up of distinguished businesspeople and successful entrepreneurs.

   Second place in this year's competition went to Quanlight, which "provides a novel yellow-red light-emitting diodes (LED) technology with an order of magnitude increase in lumens per dollar." Quanlight represented the University of California, San Diego. Rounding out this year's winners was the University of Oregon, with FloraGenetics. "Applying breakthrough genetic technology to ancient plant breeding methods, FloraGenetics will transform this process by offering plant breeders genetic fingerprints to make selection decisions years sooner."

   A complete list of winners can be found below:

“We’re thrilled that our entrepreneurship program continues to be recognized by our peers as one of the best in the nation,” said Gail Naughton, dean of SDSU’s College of Business Administration. “Our faculty and staff work very hard to ensure our students have the best educational programs and experiential opportunities. Also, the private support we receive for our Entrepreneurial Management Center gives us an extra margin of excellence in our research, curriculum and outreach.”