BUTLER TWP — Students from Slippery Rock University, Clarion University and Butler County Community College are $9,000 richer thanks to their participation in the inaugural Future POS Scholastic Challenge scholarship.

The Butler-based point of sale software firm decided to initiate the scholarship to see local talent as well as familiarize students about Future POS. The challenge was to create a new web and/or mobile innovation.

CEO John Giles said the challenge was intentionally left open to allow for creativity.

Students showed their creations to POS judges March 1 at BC3 with each category competing for a $3,000 first prize and $1,500 second prize.

Giles said he was particularly impressed with the mobile entries. The winning team in that category from SRU created a Dungeons and Dragons-like app, “almost like a Nintendo game,” Giles said. The second place team from Clarion created a marble dropping game.

“You could tell they put a ton of time into it,” he said.

SRU students Nicholas Botzer, Zachary Petrusch and William Botzer took first place in the mobile category, and Clarion students Aaron Whitmer, Eric McDonald and Corbin Troup took second place.

In the Web category, SRU students Tyler Bassett, Jacob Dunn and Eric McAlpine took first place, and BC3 students David Cribbs, Braden Macbeth and Gregg Bish took second place.

While Giles had hoped for a larger student turnout, he hopes the scholarship contest will grow.

“All in all, it was a success,” he said. “So I expect next year to be larger.”