UCONN TODAY — An idea for a new way to conserve water had been floating around in Robert Endrizzi’s mind for years, even before he started law school. So when supervisors in a UConn Law clinic asked if he had an entry for the Hinkle Entrepreneurship Competition, he didn’t have to think for long. “I said, you know, I actually have this idea … “ he recalls. This month, Endrizzi ’17 (ENG) was named winner of the competition, which comes with a $7,000 award and support from the law school’s Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic to help develop his concept. He envisions a device that will make it easier to turn the water in a shower off and back on rapidly, so that water isn’t wasted when it’s not needed. The trick, he says, will be to make it affordable and easy to retrofit to an existing shower. “You don’t want to have to call a plumber or electrician and drill holes through tubs and such,” he says. Endrizzi, who is known to his friends as Bobby, is a third-year student in the Evening Division who grew up in Old Saybrook. He graduated from the School of Engineering in 2017 and works full time as an electrical engineer in the cockpit design and architecture team of Lockheed Martin in Stratford. His decision to attend law school grew out of a longstanding interest in technology, a belief that protecting intellectual property is critical to the current economy, and the encouragement of his aunt, who is a lawyer, he says.