The team's first place award is US$25,000 (Bt951,000) plus an automatic entry into the 2006 Moot Corp competition at the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition, the AquaSiam team from Thailand will receive an automatic berth in the 2007 New Venture Championship. The NVC is a nationally recognised international business plan competition hosted by the University of Oregon's Lundquist Centre for Entrepreneurship.

AquaSiam competed with an original business plan for treating wastewater to make it profitable, including ways to protect sources of water for rural villages and farms. Team members were Pranpriya Visarutnantha, Pattareeya Chalakornkul, Amarin Ilah and Songpathara Snidvongs, with Edward Rubesch as adviser. The students presented their plan to a group of judges that included investors, business executives and entrepreneurs drawn from across the United States.

"The competitors in this year's NVC were by far and away the most prepared and skilled group of venture teams in our history," said Randy Swangard, managing director of the Lundquist Centre.

The Intel Capital Finals Round Competition consisted of five new venture teams delivering formal presentations of their business plans, which were then followed by intense questioning from the four finalist judges. The overall goal of the round was for each team to convince the judges that its ventures represented the most viable, fundable enterprise.

Mahidol University also took home a prize of $2,500 for the Palo Alto Software Best Written Plan Award.