A team of three students from Grand Valley State University won first place and $25,000 at the fourth annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation competition in Detroit on Nov. 14.

“We want to buy ourselves new computers and use the rest for product development to make sure we can get our product out by February,” said Michael Kurley, a member of the winning group, Team Soletics.

The team consists of Kurley, Lindsay Noonan and Vanessa Gore, three undergraduate students who are members of the GVSU Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization. Out of the 35 student teams that participated in the competition, four were from GVSU, and three of them made it to the top 10.

“We presented our idea, how we plan on taking it to the market and what we could use the money for,” said Kurley, a senior management major. “We’ve been in a lot of competitions and gotten so close, but to actually take one this time was good.”

He said Team Soletics is a “student start-up” that focuses on solar-powered athletic gear. Kurley said the team plans to create ski jacket systems to heat the extremities, cool the core, and provide power for mobile devices. He added that the team wants to launch “thinner, more efficient” gloves as its first product. These will be heated and integrated into the jacket when it is created later. Kurley said the team’s goal is to create a line of these products as “smart accessories.”

Team Soletics began in an entrepreneur class in October 2012, when five strangers worked together on a group project. They competed in the Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge, a competition that occurred in February 2013, where Soletics won for the best prototype. At the project’s end, three of the group members wanted to continue their ideas and “pursue it as an actual company,” Kurley said.

In May 2013, Team Soletics was invited to the International Business Model Competition at Harvard University, where it beat 1,300 others for the 28th spot. Recently, the team won the National Award for Entrepreneurial Action. Kurley said this was awarded for having the most active student company of any student chapter.

Team Soletics is connected with many companies, including GR Current, Start Garden, Faurecia and Keystone Solutions Group. Kurley said these groups provide “a mix of product development, business mentoring and financial backing” for the project.

Timothy Syfert, affiliate professor in GVSU’s management department, is the faculty adviser for entrepreneur students and a member of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He said it was in his management 330 class that Soletics was formed.

“Team Soletics is on a mission to launch their business,” Syfert said. “All three team members are still going to school to round out their education, participating in these competitions to earn startup monies and make necessary business contacts, as well as actively working their business plan to move to the next stage with their company.”

For more information about Soletics, visit www.teamsoletics.com.