RUSTON - A total of $16,500 in cash and prizes was awarded to the first, second and third place teams during the final round of the sixth annual Top Dawg Business Plan Competition at Louisiana Tech.

The Robot Wars team, comprised of Karren Lovelady of Columbia, Heath Hemphill of West Monroe, Blake Hosli of Harahan, Noah Bergeron of Houma and Daniel Scoggin of Alexandria won first place and $4,000 with an online, live-action, warfare game featuring tank robots.

The Robot Wars team, pictured from left to right, includes Karren Lovelady, Blake Hosli, Noah Bergeron and Daniel Scoggin. Heath Hemphill, the fifth member, is not pictured.

Second place, which included a cash prize of $2,500, was awarded to Cellar Door Theater’s James Lanius of St. Francisville and Adam Tidwell of Monroe. Cellar Door Theater is a theater-based community center.

The SuperCap Power Management team of Joseph Cannon of Martin and Steven Bearden of Vivian won third place and $1,500 for energy storage technology.

In addition to the cash awards, the Enterprise Center sponsors incubator space valued at $4,500 for six months to the first, second and third-place teams.,

Jones Walker, a law firm serving local, regional, national and international business interests in a wide range of markets and industries, recognized the team which was the most entrepreneurial through the $2,000 Jones Walker Entrepreneurial Spirit Award. This award went to Uniform Rack’s team: Michelli McKnight and Sallie Martin, both of Ruston. Uniform Rack offers collegiate and MLB women’s sportswear lingerie.

Team TPSI, a tire pressure monitoring system, with Karl Matsumoto of New Orleans, Ling Wu of Hong Kong, Jeff Nelson of Pineville and Amanda Hollingsworth of Fayette won the $2,000 Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Most Improved Plan award. Proceeds generated by the Ruston-Lincoln Parish Business Awards Breakfast, a collaborative event of the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Tech’s College of Business, fund the award.

Sponsors for the Top Dawg include Tech’s College of Business, College of Engineering and the Louisiana Tech Student Activity Grant.

Judges for this year’s event were Sam Davidson, owner/manager of Samandy L.L.C in Monroe; Larry James, CEO of NetNearU in Bryan/College Station, Texas; Miriam Russell, northeast regional director for Louisiana Economic Development; Joel Trammell, co-founder and CEO of NetQos in Austin, Texas; and Bob Tucker, senior partner at Jones Walker.

Teams are scored on the quality of their plan and presentation as well as the overall viability of their business concept. The Top Dawg was established in 2002 and was organized by the Association of Business Engineering and Science Entrepreneurs. ABESE promotes and cultivates an entrepreneurial culture on the university campus.