Published: 
By  Jennifer McManamay

In January, the brother-and-sister team of Tim and Molly Shields had an idea for a new game called Uball, a homemade prototype and a conviction that people would be excited about their product. By the end of the Pike Engineering Entrepreneurship Fellows Program Final Showcase presented by the University of Virginia School of Engineering on Monday night, April 22, they'd convinced a panel of business leaders and investors they were onto something, too. Uball, one of six student teams participating in the fellows program, was named the winner of this year's $50,000 Pike Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The People's Choice Award of $10,000, decided by audience voting, went to CHIEF, a designer of outdoor gear that emphasizes user experience as well as functionality. ThePike program, created and sponsored with a $250,000 donation by Eric Pike and his son, Will (electrical engineering, 2016), offers the single largest competitive entrepreneurship prize at UVA.