By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
POSTED:03/04/2014 12:00:00 AM MST

A venture expo Thursday featuring 20 high-tech start-ups, 21 student teams, and four research projects will kick off this year’s Paso del Norte Venture Competition.

The expo gives the public and investors the chance to see the products and services being offered by those in the sixth annual venture competition, Cathy Swain, president of The Hub of Human Innovation, one of the organizers of the three-day event, said.

The expo, free and open to the public, is 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Thursday, at the Camino Real Hotel, 101 S. El Paso, Downtown. Companies will make five-minute pitches to judges and investors from 1 p.m.-4 p.m., as part of the expo. Student teams will compete beginning at 8:30 a.m., Friday at the UTEP Business College. Finals for the student and professional tracks will be Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m., at UTEP. The winners of each track gets $10,000. The winning student team gets to go to an international competition in Austin. More info: hubofumaninnovation.org