A total of $15,500 in cash and prizes was awarded on Tuesday in the TOP DAWG Business Plan Competition at Louisiana Tech University.  Awards were given to the top three finishers as well as for spirit and best presentation. CC SynFuels (Cecil Garrick, senior accounting major, John Rollo, senior nanosystems engineering major, and David Veals, senior mechanical engineering major) won first place and $4,000 with a new system of chemical reactors which produce a synthetic diesel fuel. Second place and $2,000 was awarded to Veritas Imaging (Alan Katzenmeyer, junior environmental science major and Casey Roper, junior finance major). Veritas develops custom imaging systems focusing on scanning, archiving, comparing, and analyzing images. WebGrams (Gadhadar Reddy, masters in molecular sciences and nanotechnology major and Mohit Jain, masters computer science major) won third place and $1,000 for a web portal allowing convenient access to Web 2.0 applications. In addition to the cash awards, the Louisiana Tech Enterprise Center sponsors incubator space valued at $4,500 for six months to the winning teams. Teams that competed in the TOP DAWG Idea Pitch were selected to then compete in the TOP DAWG Business Plan Competition. Jones Walker recognized the team with the most entrepreneurial spirit through sponsorship of the $2,000 Jones Walker Entrepreneurial Spirit Award. This award went to Prodigy Powersports (junior mechanical engineering majors Roy Humphries II, John Dighton, and Sierra Irwin) for an innovative electric four-wheeler. Jones Walker has grown over the past several decades in size and scope to become one of the largest law firms in the Gulf South. With more than 270 attorneys, Jones Walker serves local, regional, national, and international business interests in a wide range of markets and industries through offices in Alabama, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. For more information, visit www.joneswalker.com. Veritas Imaging also won the $2,000 Ruston-Lincoln Parish Business Awards Best Presentation Award. Proceeds generated by the Ruston-Lincoln Parish Business Awards Breakfast, a collaborate event of the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Louisiana Tech College of Business, fund the award. Supporting sponsors for the TOP DAWG include the Louisiana Tech College of Business, Louisiana Tech College of Engineering, the Louisiana Tech Student Activity Grant, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology (CEnIT), the Louisiana Tech Enterprise Center, and the Technology Business Development Center (TBDC). Nine, multi-disciplinary teams progressed to Tuesday’s final round.  Teams are scored on the quality of their plan and presentation as well as the overall viability of their business concept.  The TOP DAWG was established in 2002 and was organized by the student organization, ABESE (The Association of Business Engineering and Science Entrepreneurs). ABESE promotes and cultivates an entrepreneurial culture on the Louisiana Tech campus. For more information on the TOP DAWG Business Plan Competition, contact Debbie Inman at (318) 257-3430 or debinman@latech.edu. Written by Debbie Inman – debinman@latech.edu