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Dental device wins RE business challenge

Pablo Rodríguez-Russowsky '23, Dashiell DeStefano ‘22 and Max Vallone '22 won first place in the Ninth Annual Ransom Everglades Business Challenge with their proposal for DIMS, a color-matching dental implant system. Their proposal wowed the RE alumni judging panel and earned them a bid to the Innovate South Florida business plan competition among South Florida independent schools on April 13.
The trio, who worked with local dentists to refine a proposed scanning device that would reduce mistakes in matching implants to permanent teeth, topped four teams at the March 15 final at the Posner Lecture Hall in the Fernandez STEM Center. The other RE finalists:

Celeste Viana ’22
and Juju Simoes ’22 explained their plan to use stuffed animals to monitor children’s vital signs. They called their proposal Alivimals, “a cuddly approach to pediatric healthcare.”
 
Sofia Piniella ’23, Owen Craig ’23 and Laura Suarez Herrero ’23 pitched room décor boxes to help high school and college students decorate their rooms at affordable prices through A Parallel Universe.
 
Alexandra Henriquez ’22, Amelia Fox ’22 and Katya Sucher ’22 shared their vision for two-in-one heel/flats (Changez) that would allow women to switch from professional to casual footware in an instant.
 
Dylan Miner ’23, Mae Signorello ’23 and Mia Albelo Calderon ’23 pitched their composting plan, WastEmbraced, designed tap into the huge market of food waste while ramping up community involvement and education.
 
Alumni judges Rudy Beeck '12, Seth Cassel '98, David Harris '95 and Maurice Ferre '13 evaluated the teams’ business plans, asked questions and selected the winner. Richard Jackson, a former RE parent and advisory board chairman of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship South Florida, helped emcee the event, and RE Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero introduced the teams.

The judges commended all of the participants, students in economics classes taught by faculty members Brandon King and Giacomo di Pasquale. 
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Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.