BU Today – $50,000 in Prize Money Awarded at SHA’s Poyiadjis Hospitality Innovation Competition
BU Today – Kaushik Vardharajan (from left), an associate professor of the practice and director of the innovation and entrepreneurship program at the School of Hospitality Administration; Alexios Poyiadjis, son of Roys and Donna Poyiadjis, the founding sponsors of the competition; Johar Singh (Questrom’24), cofounder of the winning team, Astra Wellbeing; Arun Upneja, SHA dean; and Robert Vail, senior head of innovation at the Boston Beer Company. Photo by Cydney Scott
Talk about dedication: two students studying abroad this semester in Sydney, Australia, woke up at 3 am (their time) last Friday to pitch their idea of how to improve the lives of healthcare workers for last week’s inaugural $50K Poyiadjis Hospitality Innovation Competition. And their commitment paid off: their team, Astra Wellbeing, took home the grand prize of $25,000