Stern School of Business’ Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is starting their $200K Entrepreneurs Challenge today with a kick-off at the Paulson Auditorium in Tisch Hall. The competition will take place from September to May and offer hands-on experience for NYU startups through clinics, boot camps and one-on-one coaching sessions.

Since the challenge started in 1999, over 500 students from all schools of NYU have competed for the $200,000 in cash and startup venture services. All students, alumni and faculty are eligible to participate.

“[The competition] is one of the largest and most innovative accelerator programs in the world,” associate director of the Entrepreneurs Challenge Loretta Poole said. “It offers a step-by-step process of how to imagine a powerful market disruption and transform it into reality.”

Teams will compete in one of three categories — new venture, social venture and technology venture. Online registration for this year’s competition opened on Aug. 14 and will end on Oct. 2.

Miriam Altman, a Wagner alumna, was on the team that won the 2012-13 Social Venture section for its app Kinvolved, which used communication tools between families and teachers to target classroom attendance and truancy for at-risk students. Altman said the challenge provided her business team with feedback and the capital necessary to launch their app.

“They help you set and reach your next milestones,” Altman said of the Berkley Center.

Stern alumnus Robert Ritlop, a member of Oculogica, which competed as one of the 2012-13 technology venture teams, said the competition helped him and his partners expand their vision.

“It gave our team the confidence to take the next step,” Ritlop said. “It made us realize that commercialization was doable.”

Oculogica created a low-cost device that can be used to diagnose and detect head trauma without radiation exposure. Currently, the company is looking to gain regulatory approval and continue to expand its market.

“The [challenge] was a microcosm,” Ritlop said. “You know everyone’s level because you can see and hear them across the room. Things are a little more transparent and, in the outside world, you generally don’t have that transparency.”

Both Ritlop and Altman said the last round of the competition — the rigorous final pitches and presentations to judges and peers — had the largest impact on them and their teammates.

The last day of the challenge will not take place until May 1. Until then, competitors have eight months and a total of four rounds of judging. Once the winners are decided, the $200,000 prize is split among the winners of all three of the categories.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Sept. 18 print edition. Email Anna F Ferkingstadd at [email protected].