When some people think of the Invent Penn State Venture and IP conference, they immediately think of the Tech Tournament, which centers on startups themselves, but the Top Entrepreneurs and Inventor of the Year honors shouldn’t be overlooked. The products and services introduced in the Tech Tournament are exciting and innovative, but equally as important are the minds that conceive them.

At this year's conference, three winners of Top Entrepreneur honors were awarded trophies, as well as undisclosed monetary prizes from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

Third place was awarded to Lang Mei, CEO, Informu Inc., creator of the world's smallest predictive loss prevention device, integrated with an AI app. The device doesn't just tell you where you left something, but also predicts when you’re about to lose or forget an item. In five months, more than 7,000 units have already sold to customers in more than 60 countries.

In second place was Maureen Mulvihill, CEO, Actuated Medical. Actuated Medical is a fully integrated medical device company that "incorporates electronically controlled actuation into medical devices to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and increase profitability." The company launched three products to date: the TubeClear system, the GentleSharp device and the NeuralGlider System, and is currently working toward development of a unspecified robotic medical device.

Grand prize was awarded to Hunter Swisher, CEO, Phospholutions. Their product, Rhizosorb, is already in use on golf courses. A granular soil amendment in the product controls the natural release of nutrients from fertilizers based on an individual plant’s unique needs. This process also encourages deeper root growth, which leads to healthier grass over time. In addition, their unique process has been proven to reduce product runoff by up to 98 percent when compared to conventional fertilizer processes.

Mei, Mulvihill and Swisher were not the only innovators honored with awards.

One final award was presented to the Inventor of the Year, Jim Adair, professor of materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and pharmacology at Penn State. Adair works primarily with nanoparticles, specifically in cancer treatment through the use of nanoliposomes at Keystone Nano, where he is the chief science officer. Adair is the first recipient of this award and was presented with a one-of-a-kind 3D-printed metal trophy designed by students at Penn State