AppitUP streams live today

What's the next big thing in a mobile app? You might buy a clue by clicking onto the live stream for AppItUP, the entrepreneurial  competition happening  this afternoon (Thursday) from 4 to 7 p.m.  at the Quorum at the University City Science Center. To  jump in and see, just click on https://www.facebook.com/appitup/.

Ten finalists  are in the running, drawn from 233 submissions from ten schools across the University of Pennsylvania, in categories ranging from mobile health to virtual reality/augmented reality (a new "track"  this year, AppitUP's fourth annual.) Not coincidentally,  VR innovator and Virtualize CEO David Mullett will be AppItUP's keynote speaker.

Representatives from five software development companies will  consider the proposals and make bids to build a functional prototype of their favorite idea. "We like to describe AppItUp as  'when Shark Tank Meets the Voice,'" said Karina Sotnik, Digital Enterprise Portfolio Manager at the event sponsoring PCI Ventures, a division of the University's Penn Center for Innovation. "If more than one developer chooses the same app to develop, then the tables turn and the group presenting the idea has to choose between them."

Once evolved into prototype form, finalist apps  will be up for presentation at AppItUP Demo Day in April 2017, where Ben Franklin Technology Partners will offer an investment to two out of five finalists.  Past finalists range from Rescufy, an app bringing help to  individuals with severe allergic attacks, to Reclamate, an app and dashboard that uses "gamification" and  analytics to lower recidivism rates.