On Friday, April 30, the annual Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition took place virtually; this is the second consecutive year in which the event was not held in person due to the pandemic. Respectively, the first, second, and third place winners were Hip Tip, TuLip, and Livelog. The first place team was awarded $10,000, the second $5,000, and the third $2,500.
This year’s competition consisted of three rounds. The first was a quarter-final run by each academic department at Stevens—professors picked which teams would move on. Then came the semi-final, in which 45 teams competed by uploading 3-minute pitches in the form of YouTube videos to be evaluated by judges. Based on these pitches, 12 teams were then chosen to be finalists and compete for three winning positions for a chance to win monetary prizes to fund the official startup of their projects. All prize money was provided by the Cy and Jan Ansary Foundation.
This year’s moderator was Aaron Price, CEO of TechUnited: NJ, who has also moderated the virtual and in-person competition for many years. Similar to past years, some of the judges for the competition were Stevens alumni, including Stephen C. Crouch ‘10, Brian Donohue ‘11, and Rita N. Soni ‘92. Other judges included Winslow Lorenzo Sargeant from S&T LLC, Mónica Valenzuela from the Technology and Life Science Investments department of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, as well as others.
Beginning with the third place winner, President Nariman Farvardin announced each winning team after a (virtual) table drum roll.
Scoring third place was Livelog, created by students Izy Engel, Regan Tarasewicz, and Hayley Tovey, which received a $2,500 prize. Livelog is a virtual concussion assistant tool that examines the eyes of athletes who suffer from a concussion. Noted by the team, early intervention is needed for 1 in 10 concussed patients who suffer from vision dysfunction after injuries. As the user completes a series of “follow-the-dot exercises,” Livelog tracks the eyes of the user and catches any abnormal eye movements to then send to the personal portal of the user’s athletic trainer.
The mission of Livelog hits close to home with Engel, who personally suffered from “having a concussion with an extended recovery timeline” and drew their inspiration for Livelog after “seeing firsthand the gaps in current concussion care.” They expressed, “This project helped me figure out what I think I want to do for the rest of my life — concussion patients are so under-researched and under-served and this prize money will help change that a little bit.” Tarasewicz spoke on behalf of the team’s work process, explaining that “Despite the online platform, we were able to conduct productive meetings. We adapted really well to the climate and adjusted the meeting structure as needed, especially the last semester, having more frequent meetings as needed to make sure we were staying on top of the work we needed to do.” Finally, Tovey stated that her initial reaction to winning third place was “Shock because there were so many talented teams in the finals,” and she feels “super honored to have placed third.”
Scoring second place and $5,000 was TuLip, created by students Bora Bibe, Cyrus Merchant, Hannah Percely, and Concetta Spector. TuLip is a system that provides mothers with breastfeeding assistance, which will help “over one-third of new mothers…one month postpartum” who struggle with the task. TuLip includes a “baby head model and nipple shield,” which has an “adjustable jaw… [and] pliable lips,” and utilizes “tissue representative materials” to give the user a realistic breastfeeding experience. Mothers who continually breastfeed can save “$1,000… on baby formula,” and help prevent premature deaths and mastitis, which will save the “US economy $3.7 billion in healthcare costs,” noted in their pitch.
Bibe had trouble breastfeeding her son, Ollie, for three months after he was born; the idea for TuLip was developed as she reflected on her struggles and wished to help future mothers. She stated in a virtual interview, “Ollie is, probably for me personally, my biggest inspiration. I definitely would not have come this far, I definitely would not be graduating, and I wouldn’t be the hard worker that I am if not for my son. So, I owe him a lot.” Percely highlighted the team’s perseverance by stating, “We really grinded on this project. We went through different iterations of different pieces […] If you want to know something about this group, it’s that if we put our heads together, we got it.” Merchant pointed out, “We are not a multidisciplinary team […] so you think that our skill set would be pretty condensed, but it really surprised me how broad just this one major is and the people we have here […] this is honestly a more diverse team than you get when you have different majors.” Spector reminisced, “Everyone was always respectful and kind to each other throughout the entire project…I never dreaded going to senior design, it was always going to be a good time.” The team expressed that because of the success they’ve had, they believe that “BMEs cut above.”
Scoring first place was Hip Tip, created by Faizah Chowdhury and Jake Fiore, which received a $10,000. Hip Tip is the team’s proposed solution to the recurring costs for hip replacement recipients who need to undergo revision procedures following a failed initial implementation, which is about 15% of patients within 20 years, noted in their pitch. By combining “an intraoperative scanner and analysis software,” Hip Tip creates and analyzes “a 3D model of the top of the femur,” allowing surgeons to determine the best implant size for their patient and prevent “premature implant failure.”
Fiore fondly expressed, “The whole journey to the competition was great. Being the only Biomedical Engineering team of two meant that we had a lot more work to do, but my partner Faizah Chowdhury and I worked very well together.” He also outlined the uniqueness of their work, “Our Hip Tip project combined modifying a dental scanner that creates a 3D model of the top of the femur during surgery and creating an algorithm that analyzes the 3D model to give femoral offset (a measurement necessary to choose implant size) […] There is no other intraoperative scanner on the market, making this technique very unique.” He then highlighted his team’s response to winning first place by explaining, “We were so excited, surprised, and grateful when we heard the news that we won! It was so amazing we could not believe it […] We look forward to hopefully go forward with our project and partnership with 3Disc Americas.” He additionally described his future plans, stating “My personal plans for the future are to go to medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon. Hopefully, one day I will be using this device and technique in the operating room!!!”
Continuing their work during a worldwide pandemic, senior design students have competed in yet another annual pitch competition. Within all three winning teams consisting mostly of students studying biomedical engineering, healthcare was placed at the forefront, similar to last year’s pitch competition where LiftAssist came in first. Whether this is a trend will be seen at next year’s competition.
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