Hoping to claim one of the $300 grand prizes, aspiring entrepreneurs purchased items Friday at Memorial Union to create an invention for the Wiscontrepreneur 100-hour challenge.

The competition provides students with $10 vouchers to purchase supplies and gives them 100 hours to create and market a product.

University of Wisconsin’s Surplus With A Purpose brought a variety of surplus items from UW departments and state agencies to campus for UW students to buy with the voucher they received after registering for the challenge online.

“It’s really challenging kids to be creative entrepreneurs and do something different with recycled stuff,” said Doug Bradley, assistant director of marketing and communications for the UW Office of Corporate Communications.

Students are able to work in teams or individually and have until 10 p.m. tonight to submit their entries for the chance to win some money.

According to Bradley, winners will be selected in four categories: most revenue generated, most social value, most creative and a $100 “people’s choice” prize for the student whose entry is visited most often on the Web site.

Carrie Jensen, marketing supervisor of Material Distribution Services for SWAP said part of the challenge is marketing the creation.

“They’re just very smart in the whole process itself, of taking something other people will think is useless and having that mind to be able to put it all together but then market it as well,” Jensen said.

This is the second year for the Wiscontrepreneur challenge, and Bradley said they have already doubled the numbers they had last year.

Jensen explained SWAP is part of business services on campus, and they receive and distribute everything from filing cabinets to antiques.

“The athletic department might be done with their huge bookshelf, but there’s another department on campus that doesn’t’ have any budget and they need it hugely,” Jensen said. “It’s being able to use products that one person’s done with but another can use.”

The entries from last year submitted photos, slogans and YouTube clips to market their product.

Last year’s winner for most social value, Peter Dykstra, won for using a fan and a water pump to create a product that collected and stored rainwater and pumped it back out for other uses, like watering plants.

Dykstra, who is participating again this year, said he put the prize money toward school and thinks other students should participate in the event.

“I think it’s a good opportunity that students aren’t really aware of yet because it’s new,” he said. “It’s something that I think is going to become pretty popular on campus, and students should take advantage of it.”

Dykstra added bringing SWAP to campus from the usual location in Verona was really handy for students.

The number of participants doubled since last year and encourages students from all academic majors to submit entries.

“It’s encouraging, inspiring and challenging students from every discipline to think entrepreneurially and be creative,” Bradley added.

Venture Investors LLC and a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation supports the challenge that is usually held around Earth Day.

“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” Jensen added.