Onward State is at the first ever Innoblue Demo Day this evening. We’ll be bringing you information throughout the night as the twelve ventures present to the crowd. Innoblue staff say that there are also about a dozen potential investors are in attendance.

5:00pm Spotted a mold of a GinzVelo velomobile while entering Beaver Stadium. Heading up to the Recruitment Lounge now, where the event will be held.

5:40 pm Looks like presentations are going to be starting soon.

5:45 pm Innoblue co-founders David Adewumi and Jon Tornetta are welcoming the crowd and describing some of the vision behind the organization. Innoblue was founded last spring following Adewumi’s unsuccessful bid for UPUA president.

5:50 pm Dean Christian Brady of the Schreyer Honors College welcoming the crowd

5:55 pm Blistt, one of the ventures we’ve been hearing about for the longest time, is presenting its idea. In short, a Facebook-enabled website that connects people who want to do things (like skydive) with companies that can help make it happen, including activity and destination vendors. Plans monetization through commissions, ads, and sponsorships. Some info available on the website, but founder David Hartmann (a Penn State senior) says that they want to keep the product private for now, so nothing was actually demoed.

6:05 pm WishVast, a cell-phone based social network and trust building system, is being shown now. Chanakya Mehta, HESE faculty, leading the presentation. Three revenue streams: charging users for accessing the network via premium SMS, charging users to check a WishVast user’s reputation, and running advertisements on the network.

6:10 pm Mashavu, another venture, out of the Penn State HESE program is presenting now. Mashavu is a computer-based telemedicine system. Basically it’s a low cost kiosk outfitted with medical diagnostic devices that can send data back to… where, I’m not exactly sure. But the kiosks are really cheap. Info packet says they cost $150.

6:17 pm Mashavu will charge about $1 per visit to the kiosk. It is designed to be a self-sustaining venture. Already scaling up in Kenya. key partners are UNIDO and AMREF. Support from Accumen Fund and other private social investors.

6:22 pm Next venture, LivePSU, beginning presentation. Penn State student Paul McNamee is founder leading the presentation. Idea is to consolidate information about State College apartments in a single spot. Idea is to charge 5 cents a click for apartment vendors in State College, and offer promoted entries as an additional revenue stream.

6:31 pm Well this is pretty awesome… Wall Buddy is an inexpensive smart board system. They claim they can make for $100 what often sells for between $700 and $2000. Wall Buddy uses webcams and existing projectors, chalkboards, and dry erase boards to create an interactive teaching environment. The principal is Jason Binz, a grad student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Technology works by installing an LED on the back of a dry erase marker (or piece of chalk?). The LED is tracked by a webcam and translated into mouse movements.

6:41 pm The next venture is Ihrenes Space Enterprises. It’s goal, says founder Irene Schneider, is to make commercial space travel safe. The pamphlet given to attendees say that services would include “pre- and post-mission radiation analysis, code development, crew training, design and testing of novel space architectures, space suits and completing space habitation studies.”

6:47 pm Altag is the next venture to present at this evening’s Demo Day event. Founded by Penn State student Matt Barnes, Altag plans to produce a “novel technology” that can be used to convert a regular bicycle into an electrically propelled vehicle. Hopes to hit the sweet spot of commuting distances- less than 25 miles. “Instantly attaches or detaches from bicycles.” Barnes hopes the kit will be usable with any of the billions of bikes worldwide.

7:08 pm Short break at Innoblue Demo Day right now. Starting up in a few minutes.

7:16 pm InnoBlue 2010 trailer just released. Not too many people watching it. The collisions going on are just more exciting!

7:19pm Found the clip online.

7:22 pm Now ViewCubed is presenting. It’s a social storytelling engine… and yes, if you’ve been paying attention at home, this idea is indeed very similar to Heekya, the venture which Innoblue founder David Adewumi launched a few years ago. Heekya received VC funding but ended up being shut down. The intent of ViewCubed is to consolidate social media and other content into a single embeddable piece of dynamic content. Founder Andrew Pitz says that they plan to offer an API. Pitz made some point about a partnership with the Centre Daily Times, but it was extremely unclear what he was talking about.

7:27 pm Here’s an example of what an embedded ViewCubed story would look like:
[iframe http://viewcubed.com/stories/embeddedview/51 720 630]

7:28 pm Pitz describes three core pillars in company’s vision: human focus, visible everywhere, and ‘on-the-go’ stories.

7:31 pm Pitz says that ViewCubed is seeking $500,000 for product development, costumer acquisition, and marketing.

7:32 pm Rebel Turtle is presenting now. Company “designs comfortable solutions for college living.” Main product is the Study Buddy. Study Buddy is a reclining cushion that a student would use to study on a bed in a more ergonomic manner. It’s a good idea, IMO, but there are definitely other similar products on the market already.

7:42 pm Penn State’s Eco Car team is presenting now at Innoblue Demo Day. Here’s more information about the competition that spawned the team. This is the third year of the competition. Last year the team received the donated General Motors vehicle and replaced stock parts with hybrid parts. Now, say Eco Car spokespeople, the team is trying to increase fuel efficiency.

7:50 pm Next venture is GinzVelo, a “human hybrid vehicle company.”

8:00 pm Up now is BuzzleGoose from Nick Weingartner and John Noonan. It’s a daily online arts magazine. Pretty classic website start-up. Looking for funds to expand marketing efforts.

8:08 pm SleepPhones is up at Penn State Demo Day now. Definitely the most advanced company presenting this evening. SleepPhones are comfortable headphones that can be worn at night. Very interesting story about growth since launch in June 2007.

8:20 pm And that’s a wrap… the first ever Innoblue Demo Day is over. Watch for a recap tomorrow.