Re-Hand, a software-assisted home-use hand assessment and rehabilitation device, won the 2012 InVenture Prize in front of a live television audience at the Ferst Center for the Arts last night.

“It was amazing,” said Re-Hand team member Daphne Vincent, who graduated in December of 2011 with a degree in biomedical engineering. “We are so excited. We now have our first investment and we will be able to get our invention into the hands of the people that really need it.”

As the winner, Re-Hand received a cash prize of $15,000, a free U.S. patent filing by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing (valued at approximately $20,000) and automatic acceptance to the 2012 class of Flashpoint, a Georgia Tech startup accelerator program.

Vincent’s team included three other biomedical engineering majors: Alkindi Kibria, Elizabeth LeMar and Kunal Dean MacDonald.

“The competition was nerve-racking, exhilarating and thrilling,” said Vincent “We worked really hard over the last year and especially over the past two months. We have had so many crazy times and late nights, but it finally paid off.”

Matthew Stoddard, an industrial design major, and Christopher Vollo, an electrical engineering major, finished in second place with their invention Stylii, an extraordinarily precise and pressure-sensitive capacitive stylus designed for use on the iPad.

Second place also receives a free U.S. patent filing by Georgia Tech, and automatic acceptance into Flashpoint, along with a $10,000 cash prize.

“The patent will help us out so much and we’re excited about anything that will help us get this to market,” said Stoddard. “With the right connections and the right progress, it (the Stylii) will be on market by Christmas.”

CardiacTech, a chest retractor for bypass surgery, won the People’s Choice award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize.

Mechanical engineering students Benji Hoover and Josh DeVane and biomedical engineering students Kevin Parsons, Matthew Lee and Priya Patil made up the CardiacTech team.

“Overall, we’re pretty happy with the People’s Choice Award,” said Hoover. “We would have loved to get a patent, but we are going to continue to work on getting our FDA clearance so we can get this thing into surgery.”