Zachary Gilchrist, a senior electrical engineering student at FAMU, won the $200,000 grand prize at this year’s Black Ambition Initiative, sponsored by Pharell Williams. The Miramar, FL, native, will use the money to launch and market his app The Move, a social media app for parties, events, and cool areas for college students.
“This win is a game changer for me. I built The Move app by myself so it was difficult to keep putting out updates while also managing the business side of things,” Gilchrist said. “I now have the funds to hire developers to help me and a marketing budget to promote The Move across the U.S.”
The Move primarily focuses on two things: community and safety. The app allows students to vote on which events they want to attend each day. It also has group chats for each event with danger alert buttons, so students can notify each other of potential danger at parties or public events they attend.
Gilchrist said he created The Move as a website about a year and a half ago. “When I came to college, I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know who to follow to find out what events were going on, and I just felt disconnected with the campus community,” he said.
“The Move was really my way of trying to make it so that no college student ever had to experience that again.”
SBI student places third
Another FAMU student, Nicki Ekhomu, an MBA student from of Bolingbrook, Illinois, placed third in the competition and won $50,000 for her HBCU Award Product Idea for The Equalizer (EQ1). She describes the EQ1 as “powerful pain relief in the palm of your hand.”
EQ1 is an all-inclusive physical rehabilitation device that provides athletes with every treatment needed for a speedy and effective recovery without the need for an icepack or bulky equipment. EQ1 gives users six treatments in one wireless portable handheld device. Offering temperature therapy, cold and hot massage, electrical stimulation (TENS and EMS), and infused padding. The devices are Bluetooth-enabled with the ability to be controlled from EQ1’s mobile application while also having access to personalized rehab routines, pain management tools, and the option to connect with physicians.
“We are very proud of both Zachary and Nicki," said Jason Black, director,
Interdisciplinary Center for Creativity and Innovation (ICCI), and associate professor of Information Systems and Operations Management in the FAMU School of Business and Industry (SBI).
“Our job here at FAMU is to provide these students with access to opportunities like this, because we have no doubt that when they are on the stage with other students from other institutions, the excellence that is taught and instilled in our students at FAMU will shine.”