CHAMPAIGN – A Web site to enable collaborative song-writing and a venture to provide access to safe drinking water took top honors in the V. Dale Cozad New Venture Competition this week.

SongAlive – a Web site that allows musicians around the world to collaborate on songs using audio tracks – was deemed the most fundable venture of the seven teams that made the finals.

The winning team was made up of University of Illinois graduate students Adam Steele and Will Leinweber and UI senior August Knecht.

As first-place finisher, the SongAlive team qualified for iVentures 10, a 10-week summer program to help develop the idea into a working product. Participation in the program is valued at more than $25,000.

Steele, 26, said he got the idea for SongAlive after playing guitar in rock and hiphop bands while an undergraduate at Penn State. When Steele entered a master's program at the UI, band members went separate ways but still tried to work on music together.

Steele, who is now pursuing a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering, decided collaborating would be easier if band members could use "open-source audio content" on the Internet, breaking down audio files into different tracks and making "iterations" over them.

For example, one band member could come up with lyrics. Using open-source files, the drummer could devise and add a drum beat, and another musician could fill in the bass and keyboards.

"You kind of progress with different versions of the song," Steele said.

Steele said the team hopes to do some "chosen-customer" testing by the end of summer and launch a public version of the Web site by year's end.

Second place went to SPOUT Institute, which aims to help people gain access to safe drinking water. Martin Page, the UI doctoral student who had the idea for SPOUT, will receive $10,000 in venture funding, plus the chance to take part in an Advanced Invention-to-Venture Workshop, including air fare and lodging.

Page, a 28-year-old water disinfection researcher, said he wants to form partnerships with organizations working in developing countries such as Haiti and Mozambique.

Some technologies now used to disinfect water do a good job of removing bacteria, but not necessarily viruses. Page thinks he can improve on that.

"My challenge is to improve the performance without compromising the sustainability, practicality and simplicity of the system," he said.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to an improved water source, Page said. Plus, 1.8 million deaths each year are associated with waterborne diseases, some of which involve drinking water.

Besides taking second place, SPOUT Institute won Cozad prizes for Best Social/Nonprofit Venture ($1,000) and Best Green/Clean Technology ($1,000).

SongAlive also won the Adobe Technology Innovation Prize, which includes $2,500 worth of single-user licenses of Adobe products.

Three other teams earned awards in the competition. They included:

– Liquid Glass Sports, which won Best Consumer Product or Service ($1,000); Best Boot-Strapped Venture ($1,000) and an Advanced Invention-to-Venture prize (valued at more than $2,500). The team developed a golf club design that reduces slice, using new material technology.

– Vivo Research Technologies, which won the NI Development Prize, including $7,000 worth of hardware, software and training from National Instruments. The Vivo team developed a programmable automated slide stainer for use in labs.

– MedCheck Solutions, which won an Advanced Invention-to-Venture prize. The team developed a portable handheld device to electronically document and access medical records for use in health care facilities.

The annual competition on the UI campus honors the late founder of Cozad Asset Management.