A $7,500 grand prize is on the line as four teams of UCSB students enter the final round of the 10th New Venture Competition tomorrow.

The competition – which began in January with more than 25 different student teams – was organized by the UCSB Technology Management Program to allow hopeful student-run companies with new business pitches to compete for money and recognition. The final four will compete tomorrow at the Loma Pelona building on campus from 4 to 7 p.m.

Following months of marketing, financial planning, discussion and judging, the four final teams were narrowed down from 13 groups. Aside from facing off for the grand prize of Most Fundable business idea, the student companies will also compete for cash in other categories including Best Pitch and Best Business Plan, which each offer a $5,000 award.

The teams vying for the prizes – Accelo Med, Life Cube, Pro.Found and Screen Price – have all created products and businesses that embrace diverse applications of technology.

According to Pro.Found founders Tyler Crain and Chris Herbert, the company has developed a device to help locate lost cell phones and other easily misplaced items. Pro.Found has patented the technology for a computer chip small enough to fit onto a keychain or wallet that is capable of tracking the distance between the chip and a lost smart phone, Herbert said.

“[Our product] is targeting business people as well as students who rely on smart phones, and it goes through Twitter,” Herbert, a fifth-year engineering major, said.

Aside from the cash prizes, Gary S. Hansen, a professor and Associate Dean of the Technology Management Program, said in an email that the main goal of the NVC is to provide opportunity for students to get their fledgling companies off the ground with the help of the major investors who will attend the finals.

“Events like the New Venture Competition are principally to provide a highly involved learning opportunity for the students across the UCSB campus that reinforces our classroom instruction,” Hansen said. “Why the NVC? Because it is a great way to truly learn how to identify market opportunities, create a business team, develop a business model and express that idea in both written and verbal forms! And, students love it.”

The student business teams will present their ideas in a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of around 100 or 150 people and answer questions from a panel of four judges. The judges, whose names have yet to be announced, Hansen said, are all highly successful business executives.