Stetson University School of Business Administration senior Bryson Pritchard of Ormond Beach has been selected as one of 10 finalists in the 2020 Collegiate Inventors Competition for his Dyad Syringe invention.

“I’m extremely happy that I was selected as a finalist in the 2020 Collegiate Inventors Competition,” said Pritchard, who is an entrepreneurship and professional sales student at Stetson. “I’m also grateful for having the opportunity to present my idea during this fierce competition.”

Pritchard, who is a critical care technician in the intensive care unit of Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, came up with the Dyad Syringe after responding to a patient in cardiac arrest four years ago. He noticed half-used saline syringes in the hospital room and a nurse struggling to attach one last syringe filled with medicine onto the patient.

The Dyad Syringe is a two-compartment syringe where the rear is pre-filled with saline and the front is empty, which allows health-care professionals to administer a specific dosage of medication to a patient before attaching the syringe to a Luer lock on an intravenous line (IV).

Pritchard has won around $41,000 during the past two years with first place wins in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization student entrepreneur pitch competition, 2019 Cairns Foundation Innovation Challenge, Southeast Entrepreneurship Conference, REEF Business Pitch Competition and Boeing Horizon X Venture, and a second-place win in 2018 in the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization’s global pitch competition. 

“This competition is important because it puts Stetson University’s School of Business Administration in front of a whole new audience and presents an entirely new set of possibilities,” said Lou Paris, MBA, director of Stetson’s Joseph C. Prince Entrepreneurship Program. “Qualifying for this event continues to prove that the faculty are providing entrepreneurship students with the best skills and training.”

“Professor Paris is the heart of the Prince Entrepreneurship Program,” said Pritchard. “He taught me how to sell my Dyad Syringe idea and become competitive. I wouldn’t be where I am today with my company and invention if it wasn’t for professor Paris and the encouragement and support that I received from the Prince Entrepreneurship Leaders Program.”

The National Inventors Hall of Fame’s Collegiate Inventors Competition is an annual event that has rewarded innovations, discoveries and research by college and university students and their faculty advisors for the past 30 years.

This year’s finalists will be presenting their inventions virtually to a panel of judges from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and United States Patent and Trademark Office for a chance at winning $10,000 on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The second-place winner will receive $5,000 and People’s Choice Award recipient will get $2,000. The winners will be announced on Thursday, Oct. 29.

-Sandra Carr