A Canton native is part of a team whose invention is competing for a top prize at Georgia Tech.

The Koozie Cooler, an invention by Nicole Miller and five other students at the university, is up for the InVenture Prize.

The competition will be broadcast at 7 p.m. on March 17 on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Eight teams are vying for a cash prize of $15,000 for first place or $10,000 for second place and a free U.S. Patent filing by Georgia Tech's Office of Technology Licensing, which has a value of about $20,000.

A $5,000 People's Choice award provided by the Georgia Tech Research Corporation will also be presented. The audience and television viewers will have an opportunity to select the winner of this award by voting online or texting.

Ms. Miller's teammates are Robert Gillan of Coral Springs, Fla., Matthew Hickey of Lawrenceville, Lindsay Brandino of Alpharetta, Matthew Kinsel of Cartersville, and Charles Puch of St. Louis, Mo.

The Koozie Cooler is a portable beverage cooler that keeps a drink cool while inside a koozie.

"I'm very excited," Ms. Miller said of the competition. "(The invention) was feasible to do, and we had fun with it."

Ms. Miller said the Koozie Cooler stands out because it's not only fun, it's also something anyone can carry around.

The InVenture Prize competition began in October when a group of faculty members wanted to "encourage creativity and innovation in our undergraduate students," said Ray Vito, vice provost for graduate and undergraduate studies at Georgia Tech.

"We were overwhelmed by student interest and support received around the campus," Vito said.

Ms. Miller graduated from Georgia Tech in December with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

She said she chose the Atlanta university because "she was good at math and science," but enrolled as an undecided major.

"I like cars and things that move, so I chose mechanical engineering," she said.

She graduated from Cherokee High School in 2005 and currently is employed as a field engineer with Schlumber, a Denver, Colo.-based oil field services company.

Ms. Miller said she hopes people tune into the show to see what Georgia Tech students can do.

Vito said the initiative not only gives people a window into what students are coming up with at Georgia Tech, but also gives students a "better understanding of what has to be in place for an idea to become a marketable innovation."

"We would like to see these students as graduates continuing to nurture their creativity and become Georgia's next generation of innovators," he added.