Congratulations to Shanti Thiyagaraja on winning the Spirit of Innovation Competition, sponsored by the US India Chamber of Commerce DFW (USICOC), on December 4, 2014. Shanti is a CSE graduate student in Dr. Ram Dantu's Network Security Lab. Shanti won $5,000 for her presentation on "Smart Phone Monitoring of Second Heart Sound Split." Students from local universities, including Southern Methodist University (SMU), the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and the University of North Texas, participated in the competition. 

This is the second year that the USICOC has hosted the Spirit of Innovation Competition. This event brings together students from local universities and gives them the opportunity to showcase their innovative business ideas. This year 29 submissions were reviewed by a panel of judges which included professors from all four universities, venture capitalists and management from Texas Instruments and other companies. Eight finalists were selected to present their concepts to the judging panel live at Texas Instruments. The winners and more information are included in this USICOC press release.