The Technology Entrepreneur Center in The Grainger College of Engineering is pleased to announce the top six teams advancing to the Finals Event of the campuswide Cozad New Venture Challenge. The experiential program fosters entrepreneurial thinking and has supported the launch of sustainable business ventures, awarding over $3.4 million in funding and prizes since 2000.
At the Cozad New Venture Challenge Finals Event on April 17, six teams will pitch their startup ideas to a panel of judges, competing for top prizes. All participating teams, including those from Demo Day, will be eligible to win from a pool of funding and prizes exceeding $500,000.
This year’s program began in February in collaboration with Gies College of Business and Carle Illinois College of Medicine, drawing over 300 teams (700 plus students) from across campus. Participants engaged in a series of workshops focused on customer discovery, value proposition, financial planning and presentation skills. About 200 teams participated in Demo Day held on April 2 at the Illinois Conference Center, where they pitched to approximately 245 judges including local community leaders, alumni, investors, faculty and ecosystem partners.
The Cozad New Venture Challenge 2025 Finalists are:
Earlynosis, led by bioengineering graduate student Mohammadreza Ghaderinia, has created an AI-powered wearable biosensor for real-time sepsis detection. The device analyzes biomarkers and vital signs to provide early alerts. The AI-powered wearable biosensor is aiming to offer rapid, precise and personalized sepsis monitoring for early intervention, fewer ICU admissions and lower costs particularly for rural and underserved healthcare settings. Globally, sepsis kills over 11 million people yearly and 80% of deaths is preventable with fast action.
kWh is creating a dynamic energy marketplace in India that enhances grid stability while empowering all participants to optimize their energy use, maximize benefits and monetize energy assets. Led by industrial and enterprise systems engineering student, Arham Shah, kWh has developed a B2B SaaS platform helping Indian electricity utilities prevent blackouts by integrating smart devices—batteries, thermostats and EV chargers—into the grid. Their platform optimizes energy trading, increasing grid sustainability and capacity by 20%, providing a greener alternative to gas peaking plants.
Nora AI is developing an AI interviewer that conducts human-like interviews at scale. Led by autonomy and robotics graduate engineering student Brijesh Muthumanickam, Nora AI enables companies to interview all applicants rather than reject 95% without conversation, reducing a recruiter time to just minutes of review per candidate. This solution aims to increase recruiter efficiency 12-fold and accelerate hiring 15 times, addressing the challenge of rising application volumes while recruiting team sizes remain constant.
Sprout, led by the Carle Illinois College of Medicine student, Kellie Cao, is developing an innovative stent for the pulmonary valve (located specifically between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery) that will expand at age-appropriate increments for children with congenital heart defects, reducing the need for additional surgical re-interventions by 75%. Sprout is creating a balloon-expandable RV-PA (Right Ventricle to Pulmonary Artery) conduit designed to replace right ventricular outflow tracts for congenital heart disease patients.
Tandemn is developing a solution that connects underutilized Graphics Processing Units (GPUs, a specialized electronic circuit designed for parallel processing) across institutions, converting them into powerful distributed clusters that deliver scalable, secure and cost-effective AI workloads. This approach allows organizations to leverage existing hardware rather than relying on expensive cloud solutions. Led by the electrical and computer engineering student, Mankeerat Sidhu, Tandemn is addressing the "GPU-as-a-Service" market that is expected to reach $50 billion by 2032.
Voca Health, led by the Carle Illinois College of Medicine student, Shreya Rangarajan, enables ENT specialists and speech-language pathologists to monitor adult voice disorder management with real-time analytics and remote feedback. Their AI-driven platform provides non-invasive monitoring, personalized feedback and remote oversight for patients aged 18-60, improving engagement and clinical outcomes. With voice disorders affecting 29.9 million Americans yearly and 44-65% of patients struggling with therapy adherence, Voca Health addresses a significant market need in the $280M-$400M US voice therapy space.
Editor’s note:
If you’re interested in seeing the top teams pitch, join us on April 17 at 1:30 pm (CDT) in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications Auditorium. Due to limited seating, RSVP is requested for attendance.