Contact: Stephanie Zombek | szombek@calpoly.edu; 714-401-2371

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Three student startup teams split $30,000 at the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) annual Innovation Quest competition where  students  pitched inspired business ideas to a panel of judges to fund their startups.

“Innovation Quest draws such a diverse range of students from all corners of campus,” said Sophie Hosbein, CIE’s manager of student innovation programs “This year, we had entrepreneurial students from all six Cal Poly colleges working on ideas ranging from novel medical devices to guilt-free desserts. “After working with each team one-on-one, it was impressive to see how far they had come from their first pitch to the final presentation.”

Since the first high-stakes Innovation Quest, or IQ, was held in 2004, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been awarded to student startups that have blossomed into thriving businesses. The top three presentations and proposals in the annual competition receive cash prizes: third pick gets $5,000; a $10,000 prize for second; and $15,000 for first.

PNOIA, a suffix from the Ancient Greek verb pnein, meaning “to breathe,” received the top prize at the event, which took place April 25 on campus, with awards presented later at Rod and Hammer Rock near the airport.

“Building PNOIA from day one has been a labor of love, and having the CIE believe in our vision is incredibly motivating,” said Jack Mahoney of Santa Barbara, California. “This opens real doors for us to get our technology into the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that need it.”

PNOIA is a low-profile nasal pillow CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, interface designed specifically for premature infants (before 37 weeks) that unlike a ventilator improves therapeutic reliability, reduces clinical complications and simplifies care in the NICU. The startup creators include: mechanical engineering student Mahoney; biomedical engineering majors Josiah Waltner of Bass Lake, California, and Madeline de la Concha of Lompoc, California; mechanical engineering fifth-year Aidan Geurts of Seattle; and business administration senior Jordan Garver of Clovis, California. 

The Rich and Jackie Boberg Innovation Award, of $10,000, went to Fere, a specialized macOS desktop application designed to visualize, monitor and manage network connections and running processes. It operates by analyzing active network activity, providing a live, graphical representation of ports, network connections and services that gives developers a real-time visual map. The app was created by a trio of computer science freshmen: Rahul Thennarasu and Snehil Kakani of San Jose, California, and Siddharth Balaji of Sunnyvale, California.

“Placing second at iQ means a lot to us. Fere started as something we built to solve our own problems as developers, and now we feel it could be something real,” Kakani said. “In the future, we want to build with the community, not just for it, and this win gives us the opportunity to do that.”

Anthropology junior Benjamin Cooper and computer science senior Nipun Batra from UC Santa Cruz, both of Arcadia, California, received the Bakir Begovic Innovation Award, of $5,000, for their startup Roguewave, a surf company that created what they call The Surfers’ Headphones, with an IPX8 high-level water resistance designation.

“It feels infinitely rewarding to win third place at iQ,” Cooper said. “We are so grateful to be acknowledged for all the time and effort both Nipun and I have put into this business — there were so many impressive startups and being among so many like-minded people was amazing.” 

Eleven finalists from more than 60 applicants pitched their innovative ideas in Cal Poly’s Nash Family Entrepreneurship Lab. In addition to prize recipients, eight finalists were chosen.

iQ was founded 21 years ago by Cal Poly electrical engineering graduates and business leaders Carson Chen, Boberg and Pickering. Since its launch in 2004, participants have received more than $400,000 that has helped launch several successful businesses, such as iFixIt, Grinds Coffee Pouches, Mantis Composites, Guardian Bikes, Liftgator and Alydia Health.

“It was amazing to see how far along the finalist teams were,” said Thomas Katona, CIE academic director and professor of innovation and entrepreneurship. “I don’t know that we’ve ever had so many teams that were already testing their products and services in the market, and the maturity in prototype development from those not in the market really speaks to students putting in many hours of hands-on Learn by Doing work.

“It's exciting to watch the students applying what they learn in the classroom toward their own passion projects and the depth in learning they go through in their self-directed entrepreneurial endeavors.”

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunities to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit https://cie.calpoly.edu/.

Top Photo: Developers of PNOIA, from a suffix of the Ancient Greek verb pnein (meaning “to breathe”), received the $15,000 top prize at the the 21st Innovation Quest held to April 25 at Cal Poly. Awards were presented later off campus. Pictured, from left, are Peter Falzon, Karen Tillman, Jack Mahoney, Aidan Geurts, Josiah Waltner and Thomas Katona.

Photos courtesy of the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship