Four Augusta University students and one alumnus will be competing for a chance to build their own public health company during the 2018 Southeast Startup Challenge Summit – an initiative funded by a $550,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The pitch competition is the highlight of the event and features 10 startups that are competing for $25,000 in cash and services to finance their public health startup.

Medical College of Georgia students Safia Siddiqui, Mike Mallow, Kyle Dymanus and Nathan Dillard are part Let’s QuaranTEAM Up!. They have already incorporated their startup as R6 Industries with the goal of developing a service to monitor occurrences of symptoms in disaster areas to quickly identify an outbreak and stop the spread of the disease.

Master of Public Health alumnus Rabei Alaisami is part of WIC Uptick, a project that aims at increasing the number of Richmond County families participating in the Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program. This federally-funded initiative helps improve the health and nutrition of low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women as well as children ages 1-5.

The summit will also bring together entrepreneurs, researchers and public health policy experts to create achievable initiatives to improve public health in Georgia communities. The agenda includes a community health panel and a summit expo featuring the 10 startups that are participating in the pitch competition.

The summit will take place 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. on June 18 at the Mercer Innovation Center in Macon, Georgia.

This free event is a collaboration between the Clinical and Digital Health Sciences Department in the College of Allied Health Sciences at Augusta University and theClubhou.se, an innovative workspace in Augusta.

People who want to attend the summit, which is open to the public, must register. Space is limited.