ITHACA, N.Y. -- A low-tech idea for a healthy and delicious fast-food snack took first place, and an award of $10,000, in a Cornell University contest for the best business idea.

The winning concept is Johnny Applestix -- sliced-to-order sticks of fresh apples lightly fried in canola oil, tossed in a secret blend seasoned with cinnamon and sugar, then served with the customer's choice of a vanilla or a caramel dipping sauce. It was developed by Mark Kuperman and Anthony Dellamano, both second-year students in the master's of management in hospitality program at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration. They hope eventually to market their product in malls, ballparks, airports and other high-traffic areas across the United States.

Now in its third year, the annual Business Idea Competition is sponsored by BR Ventures, a student-managed venture investment fund at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. The contest is open to any team with a business idea and at least one member with a Cornell affiliation -- students, alumni, faculty or staff. In the past, top-winning ideas have ranged from a mathematical formula to improve mammogram screening to a way to make specially enriched rice for developing countries.

Johnny Applestix Original uses all natural ingredients without preservatives, says Kuperman, who teamed with Dellamano to refine the product in Hotel School food laboratories, testing 12 different varieties of Cornell apples to come up with the two that worked best, Mutsu and Ida Red. The two then test marketed Applestix at a stand at the Cornell Orchards last fall. They'll use the prize money to build their business plan beyond the incubation stage so that they can attract additional capital to make and market their product nationally. Winning also earns them advice from successful entrepreneurs, most of them Cornell alumni, whose contributions help support BR Ventures.

Earning the second-place prize of $2,500 was a team of four Cornell engineering students. Samuel Lai, Howard Kwong, Kakit Tsui, all Class of '03, and Ernest Fung, a master's of engineering student. Their idea, Invendium Cell Microarray, streamlines the drug development process by combining high-throughput screening (HTS) and biosensor technologies to profile real-time cellular responses to drugs (see http://www.brv.cornell.edu ). The third-place team, Joshua Gordon '04, computer science, Michael Gordon, and Fred Dufour, won $1,000 for their idea for ClinicTracker. The data-management software application will help medical clinics manage patient information and clinical activities, comply with state and local regulations, develop statistical research data, and bring their operations to a higher level of efficiency (see http://www.ClinicTracker.com ).

"A lot of people have strong entrepreneurial concepts," said Daniel Motto, an MBA student who is a BR Ventures fund manager. "Through the competition, we try to provide them an opportunity to test out their ideas in a professional arena."

This year 90 entries competed for the top prizes. The winners were chosen after presenting to a panel of student managers of BR Ventures plus three fund advisers who are also Cornell alumni: Dan Simpkins '80, M.E.E. '81, CEO of Hillcrest Communications and an executive in residence at New Enterprise Associates, a Silicon Valley venture capital fund; Ralph Terkowitz '72, chief technology officer of the Washington Post ; and Jennifer Tegan, MBA '01, executive manager of the Cayuga Venture Fund.

Post-competition, many of the ideas submitted also are considered for funding and introduction into BR Incubator, a business incubator managed by Johnson School students that aids entrepreneurs in building their ideas into successful ventures. Armen Vartanian, another BR Ventures student fund manager, said, "This is a real 'value add' to the entrepreneur, as the school has tremendous resources to help build companies through utilizing the skills of its diverse student base."

For more on the competition and BR Ventures, see: http://www.brv.cornell.edu .