LIVONIA ? Civionics, an Ann Arbor wireless sensing system maker, won the $5,000 cash prize at the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship, known throughout the state simply as ACE.

Nine other entrepreneurs competed in the contest, which has now become the featured event, what with the demise last year of the former Great Lakes Entrepreneur?s Quest business-plan competition. In years past, ACE culminated the fall GLEQ competition with elevator pitches that weighed heavily on determining the winners. With GLEQ absent, the usual thousand or so attendees of years past dropped to a registered total this year of less than 600.

With the focus now on the ACE pitches, a cash prize was added this year, said Diane Durance, President of MIQuest, a former GLEQ president. GLEQ was merged last year with the Small Business Foundation of Michigan. Winner Civionics, represented by Andy Zimmerman, its CEO, was grateful.

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?I am thankful to ACE for providing the opportunity to showcase our technology to the best and brightest in Michigan,? Zimmerman said. ?We are definitely excited to continue this path for our company and look forward to bringing our product to market in the coming year.?

Other candidates vying for the trophy were John Lopes, Microcide; David Porter, Clavis Sinica; Nevin Brittain, Health Numeric; Lauren Shampo, Transcuro; Barak Leibovitz, Seat Side Service; Kevin Kesseler, AsystBio; Marshall Khwaja, Exo Dynamics; Alex VanDerKolk, Mountain Labs; Valerie Obenchain, Advanced Interactive Response Systems.

Judges included Jack Ahrens, partner, TGap Ventures and MiQuest Board Vice Chair; Terry Cross, founder, Windward Associates, LLC; Paula Cunningham, president/CEO, Capitol National Bank and MiQuest Board Member; Jody Vanderwel, president, Grand Angels; Nic Wetzler, associate, Augment Ventures.

Chris Holman, who has been a special contributor to ACE for many years and emceed the ACE Challenge said: ?”The ten competitors this evening represent the thriving entrepreneurial culture of Michigan — they are ambitious, smart and taking on their markets with gusto.” Holman continues with, “I have been honored to be part of this event for seven years and it gets better every year.”