Students in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communications recently profiled more than a dozen state companies that are working on advancements the companies hope will net them sustained business success. 

The ideas range from a brewery with crowdsourced recipes to a magnetic tag game to a system to help restaurants build menus. 

The companies participated in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, which is in its twelfth year. This year’s winners will be announced this week at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Madison. 

See It, Like It, Rent It: Siliri looks to float your boat 
— By Amanda Halverson 

pHinding SolutIONS aims to improve laboratory accuracy 
— By Elyse Bergeron 

Microbe Detectives looks to offer comprehensive microbial test for drinking water 
— By Janalle Goosby 

HE System Technologies seeks to improve on compressed natural gas systems 
— By David Bartscher 

Local brewery uses crowd sourcing to stand out from its peers 
— By Jessica Graser 

‘Menu Builder’ helps restaurants put best choices forward 
— By Morgan Paige 

MagneTag takes ‘tag’ games to a more precise level 
— By Catherine Turng 

Kaliber Imaging develops system to assess mobility of people who fall 
— By Seth Braddock 

‘Sproutr’ aims to grow volunteerism by engaging youth in service 
— By Cassidy Wartenweiler 

Madison’s Tasso looks to offer solution to easy, painless blood collection sampling 
— By Jamie Liang 

Virtual fitness software turns physical activity into a 3-D competition 
— By Erin Anderson 

Little Green Pencil aims to bring new dimension to golf 
— By Robby Havenstein 

Micro-machines could mean big business for UW-Milwaukee startup 
— By Adam Hitchon