3 local college students take top prize in national competition for young entrepreneurs - Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) - Three local college students are being applauded for taking home the top prize in a national competition for young entrepreneurs.

With the help of their school, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Antonio Marzoratti and Ivan Zou teamed up with Boston University student Arav Tyagi to create what they call a "Portable Affordable Wheelchair Enhancer" or PAWE.

"People want to be able to move around themselves," Tyagi said. "But if they're in a manual wheelchair, they usually don't have the strength to push themselves around."

PAWE is an adapter that converts a manual wheelchair into an electric one. An innovation that won the teens first place in the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization Global Pitch Competition in Tampa, Florida.

They say the simple materials make the device affordable and accessible.

"It's a really great feeling to either when we're bringing it to senior centers to demo it, let people try it out, or just people coming up to talk to me about how this would effect them," Marzoratti said.

But the budding entrepreneurs have their sights set on helping even more people.

"We're not necessarily gonna be always producing technology for disabled individuals, but just stuff that improves the standard or living for as many people as possible," Tyagi said.