I can't see myself.

Where?

Where am I?

Oh, Marica Mae Jemison, the creator of this gorgeous sculpture.

Hi.

I'm Faith Salie.

This.

This is amazing.

Oh.

Thank you.

Yeah.

We wanted to make a structure on campus for Georgia Tech women to understand their past and hopefully see themselves in this structure in the future.

It's beautiful, but I can't see myself.

Oh, my gosh, am I invisible?

Am I a vampire?

They they.

Know you're not invisible and you're not a vampire.

At least I don't think you are.

I mean, I know I didn't go to Georgia Tech, but I went to Harvard, which is kind of the Georgia Tech of the north.

I've won multiple Emmys.

Yeah.

I wrote a book.

Approval Junkie.

I love that book.

I love that book.

Okay, so surely that will get Georgia Tech seal of approval.

Faith, you have been hosting the Georgia Tech Adventure Prize for over a decade, and you clearly care about students.

This project is for any woman who's made an impact on campus.

I'm sure we can work some magic.

Really?

Yeah.

You don't root for UGA, do you?

Who GA go jackets.

Oh, I can see myself.

Oh, this is so cool.

You should also know, though, that I did interview Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I've been beamed up on Star Trek.

Okay, I think we're.

I think we're good.

Okay.

Yeah, I made out with Matt Damon in college.

Wait, what?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Seriously?

Twice.

Oh my God.

Okay.

So listen.

Okay.

Live from the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

It's the 2025 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize watch as Georgia Tech students transform tomorrow competing for $35,000 in prizes and patents.

To the Inventure Prize.

Now, please welcome your host from CBS Sunday Morning and NPR, Emmy winner and self-proclaimed super nerd Faith Salie.

Thank you.

Buzz.

Hello.

Hello.

Thank you so much for being here for the 17th Annual Georgia Tech Inventure Prize.

So listen to start things off, I want to try something a little different this year.

Instead of telling you about the show, I'm going to sing about it.

Thank you.

Oh.

Oh.

Hey, everybody.

That's our director, Charlie.

Hi, Charlie.

Hey, we don't have you singing in tonight's script.

Yeah, I know, I'm calling an audible.

That's a sports term.

You don't have to do that.

Right.

Oh, I know.

That's what makes me so nice.

Ready, Cheryl?

It's time for InVenture.

The Georgia Tech InVenture.

Get ready to make some noise, because these ain't no toys.

Amazing tech unfurled.

Genius clearly on display.

Students found a way they can really change the world.

Here at InVenture, the Georgia Tech InVenture.

So many astute cohorts doing mental sports.

It's astounding what they know.

So let's start transforming.

Tomorrow.

Thank you.

You're so nice.

Look, we have some phenomenal teams for you to meet tonight.

But first, let's say hello to my magical co-host, Ashley Mengwasser.

Thank you.

Faith.

Wicked opening.

By the way, as you can tell from these shoulder pads.

Audience, I mean, business.

Tonight we have some serious prizes for our winners.

This year's first place team will be awarded $20,000 and will receive automatic acceptance into Georgia Tech's prestigious CREATE-X's Startup Launch program.

Tonight's second place team will win ten G's.

That's what I call them in the streets.

But first in second place.

Prizes also include up to 20,000 each to assist with a patent filing.

Those two prizes will be decided by our panel of expert judges.

However, our competitors will also be vying to win tonight's People's Choice Award.

That's where we need you.

This is a $5,000 prize voted on by you, our audience, both here at the Furst Center and watching at home.

And it will be announced live at the end of our program.

Voting won't open until all of the teams have presented.

At that point, you'll be able to vote either by texting your team's keyword to 415-965-7445, or you can vote online at gpb.org.

Slash vote, but only one vote per device will count.

And don't worry if you didn't memorize all that stuff.

I'll keep reminding you of these details throughout our show.

Now let's head back to Faith so we can meet our judges.

Thank you Ashley.

Thank you so much.

We are honored to be joined by a panel of three esteemed judges.

Our first judge is the founder and CEO of Portal Innovations.

He has founded and built several life sciences companies, and throughout his career has raised more than more than $135 million to support university technology commercialization and venture startup activities.

And his son is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

We are pleased to be joined by John Flavin.

Hi, John, welcome.

Our next judge is a partner at Atlanta Ventures, where she empowers entrepreneurs to learn, build and grow.

She has worked in tech for more than ten years and is also a seven time Ironman Triathlon finisher.

Please welcome Catherine O'Day.

And we are so lucky to have our third judge with us again.

He is the City of Atlanta's Senior Technology Advisor appointed by the mayor.

He's also a Georgia Tech grad, and he is our first Inventure Prize three peat judge, please help me.

Welcome back Donald Beamer.

Thank you all for being with us tonight.

And now that we've met our judges, our first team is on guard to be tonight's winner.

It's team Allez Go.

Hi, I'm Jason.

Hey, I'm Adam, and we're Allez Go.

Jason and I have both been inventors for over ten years.

But whenever we've tried to share this passion with our friends and family, they found it really difficult to watch the sport.

And a big problem with that is that the blade movements are so fast in fencing that it's really hard to see what's going on during the fencing bout.

There's a reason why fencing is so hard to follow in the Olympics.

The fencing blade is the second fastest object only after the bullet.

In triathlons.

Adam and I were super excited about the project and we started working on it last summer.

And with the innovative space here at Georgia Tech and the progress we've done so far, we thought the InVenture Prize would naturally be a good fit for us.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was how to capture the blades.

Normal cameras and iPhones are just not quick enough to capture the super fast blade actions, so.

We had to look beyond the visible spectrum.

Allez Go is going to win the Inventure prize because the fencing market has never been bigger.

And our technology is poised to take advantage of that growing market.

Ready to lunge and parry their way to the top?

It's team Allez Go.

We are Allez Go and we are transforming the sport of fencing.

Me and Jason have both been fencers for over ten years now, and we've competed at the national level.

In fact, I actually met Jason at a Georgia Tech fencing practice, and since then we've been super involved and we're now weapon captains here at the Georgia Tech fencing team.

But one thing we found whenever we've tried to share our passion with our friends and family is that the sport is incredibly difficult to understand.

The fencing blade is actually the second fastest object in the Olympics, only following the bullet.

That in complex right of way rules make the sport difficult to understand.

So we looked at what other sports did to solve this problem.

In golf, you have a fast ball that travels out of the line of sight at incredible speeds.

In golf, they use shot tracer, which are these red animations added onto the ball, which made it easier for people to understand what was happening.

Shot tracer today generates over $8 million in revenue, but more importantly, it turned golf into one of the top ten most televised sports in the U.S.

So that's when we had the idea for Allez Go.

We combined our expertise in fencing with our knowledge of computer science to create these beautiful animations added onto the blade.

And here's our demo of our product.

How our technology works is we use an infrared camera combined with these small retroreflective pieces of tape on the blade, which make it easier for the camera to see the blade.

Then we created an algorithm to be able to analyze these points and create these beautiful animations.

The fencing market is currently sitting at $1.2 billion, and it has never been bigger.

With this product, we're targeting two main groups fencing federations and tournament organizers.

For them, we hope to increase the level of interest in the events that they host, both for people watching from home but also for fencers like us who now get to share these amazing videos with friends and family.

Our current business model is to rent out cameras like the one shown here, which would include the infrared equipment and software necessary to produce these graphics.

We've already signed a $20,000 contract for this technology to be used in a fencing entertainment series.

We've also had the Italian Fencing Federation, as well as some of the biggest players in the industry, such as Leon Paul.

Reach out to us and they're super interested and invested in what we have here.

With this progress, we're super excited for what the future of fencing is going to look like.

The 2028 Olympics are right around the corner, and we have the perfect opportunity to transform how we watch fencing.

This sport has been a huge part of our lives for the last ten years, and we're thrilled to be able to share it with you here today.

So, judges, join us in making fencing a entertainment phenomenon.

Those are some serious light saber vibes, I love it.

Great job starting us off tonight, team Allez Go.

And now.

Ready, set.

Let's go to our judges.

Donny, do you want to take the first question?

Sure, sure.

So great pitch.

And it's a really fun problem to solve.

How do you make a sport grow?

And so in recent years, we've seen two very different sports grow quickly.

Pickleball came out of nowhere.

And then soccer, even though it's the biggest sport in the world, the U.S. Is finally catching on.

So I feel like it wasn't about understanding the sport.

It was just, I don't know, very different approaches.

So what are you using that will be similar to those sports in helping fencing grow.

So actually the sport we've been looking at is F1 because it's grown hugely in the U.S.

Recently.

What's F1.

Formula one, the race circuit.

So and what they've done is they've added a lot of new TV graphics to their live streams to make it easier to understand the sport, because fencing and F1 are similar in that they're both inherently tool.

You got like sword fighting and racing cars, but like they're both also very hard sports to understand.

So that's why we've been drawing parallels with F1.

I love it.

So after you guys take over the fencing market, what's next?

Can this technology be applied to other markets or industries?

Of course.

Yeah.

So as like the movie producer contract indicates, our technology has the potential to be applied in several other industries, such as gaming or movies.

What?

Initially, we're trying to focus on fencing because that's our expertise.

We want to get it right for fencing, and then naturally, other opportunities will follow.

Yeah, I thought it was just me watching the Olympics, just not following fast enough, the sports and the ability to kind of see the victory happen, kind of done in the shadows, it seemed.

So it's really exciting to see what you're working on.

What do you think are some of the bigger factors in building a team?

Have you thought about some of the initial team members that you need to bring on board to help us begin to kind of get started and then scale your model?

Yeah.

So one of the big challenges we've had so far is technology.

Our entire product centers around being able to create compelling and engaging graphics.

So as our team grows and expands, we're looking to add more people with technical abilities as well as visual design and other capabilities.

So barriers to the sport.

Because if you want more people to engage and not just watch but participate, how does that stack up against alternative sports that people would participate in?

Yeah.

So our idea is not to sort of try to compete with other sports and take people away from those sports.

It's more like creating these, like compelling visuals, basically making fencing super easy to understand so that new people who maybe have never even considered fencing look at this sport and they say, wow, this is cool.

I want to do this.

You guys already have paying customers, which is amazing.

How was that sales process and how do you expect to get future sales?

Yeah, so we've been in the technology fencing space for a long time.

And this first testimony was actually a referral from one of our contacts in the industry.

Yeah.

So and then for future customers, we already have contacts.

So we've had like the vice president of the Italian Fencing Federation reach out to us.

We have contacts with the USA fencing as well.

So we're going to be working one on one directly with them in order to promote this technology.

Are you able to create kind of a moat or a barrier to entry using some of the proprietary algorithms that you put together and just the technology platform itself, you know, in the competitive environment that we live in, I'm sure there will be a lot of fast followers that will want to try to duplicate or usurp your technology.

Have you thought about your ability to protect your technology?

Of course.

We initially we believed that our knowledge of fencing is what's been the moat for now.

But as with InVenture Prize and CREATE-X and all these programs, we've realized that we need some legal protection as well.

And we're currently looking into creating a patent for this technology to be able to protect yourself both now and in the future.

We got about 30s left.

So why did you both start fencing?

I started I watched Pirates of the Caribbean.

And and when I was in like second grade and then I was like, this is amazing.

I want to be like Jack Sparrow.

For me, it was Star Wars, another movie.

And so that's where we got the lightsaber like inspiration from.

And I've been fencing since like fifth grade, since forever.

Anything else?

No, that might be the entry point.

Wednesday.

Got my kids excited about fencing.

Let's go pull up to the practice Thursdays, 8-10 Well done.

Team.

Allez Go.

Congratulations.

And now our lovely co-host Ashley is with someone who is ready to tell us why they are never on the fence when it comes to Allez Go.

Faith, I usually avoid people who wield sharp objects, but in her defense, Sophia Hawkins is team captain of the Yellow Jacket Fencing Club.

Sophia, from your vantage point, why does the sport of fencing need Allez Go?

So I've been fencing since high school and ever since I started there really hasn't been like much innovation in terms of visuals for fencing.

And I think with Allez Go for the Olympics or just live streams of tournaments, it'll make it way easier for people to follow along and have fun with the sport and see what's going on with the blade.

So it can become the every person's sport.

Yeah, I hope so.

Thank you Sophia.

Audience.

Don't you dare foil this team's plan to win the People's Choice Award.

They can only advance if you text keyword fence to 415-965-7445 when voting opens later.

Not yet.

Back to you Faith.

Thank you Ashley.

Our second team is here and ready to present their opening arguments as to why they should win tonight's prize.

Hi, I'm Merritt.

I'm Aashni, I'm.

Royce, and I'm Matt and we're NextGenFile in Georgia.

There are 34,000 different lawyers, and with there being 159 different counties and each county having a different e-filing system, lawyers have to file their leaves of absences manually into each one of their cases.

If a lawyer fails to correctly file their leave of absence for any one of their cases, they risk being called into court when they're gone.

And facing serious professional repercussions.

My parents are both lawyers, and I saw them encounter this problem all the time.

So we came together as a team of computer science and industrial engineering majors to tackle it once and for all.

After doing customer discovery and interviewing over 100 different lawyers, we began beta testing and we launched two months ago.

Winning the 2025 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize would allow us to get our product out to the rest of the lawyers in Georgia who are waiting to use it.

You can.

Here with a smile to tell you why their idea is so worthwhile.

It's team NextGenFile.

Hey judges, we are NextGenFile and we're excited to share with you our product that has been revolutionizing the legal tech space, one e-filing at a time.

For most professionals, taking time off work is as simple as sending your boss a quick message.

But for lawyers in Georgia, it is an administrative nightmare failing to file for a leave of absence, or also known as an Loa, could mean being summoned to court during your time off, leading to case delays, malpractice risks and frustrated clients.

But the worst part in each of Georgia's 159 counties, there's a different e-filing system forcing these attorneys to manually file loa's into every single case.

These lawyers are spending 40 hours per year filing loa's.

That's a whole workweek.

So we interviewed over 100 attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals, and we heard the same frustration.

There needs to be a better solution.

That's why we created NextGenFile, a web based platform that automates Leave of Absence filings with just a few clicks.

Our system integrates Peach Court and Odyssey, the state's two largest e-filing systems, to retrieve their case data and submit their leaves automatically.

Attorneys simply need to add their leave dates and NextGenFile handles the rest, reducing their filing time down to mere seconds.

NextGenFile main feature, as you can see here, is its centralized dashboard, where attorneys can file their leaves, view their leave filing status, and see the leaves on a calendar all in the same place.

And this works.

During the first day of our beta phase, we made $200 and filed 20 cases.

But now we filed over 800 cases, saving attorneys over $25,000 in billable hours.

And although we're currently focused on the Georgia market, we have our eyes set on expansion to the over 27 other states that have similar e-filing environments.

This opens the door to an over $160 million market nationwide.

Now that we're nearing the end of our beta phase, we're refining our product and we're gearing up for our official launch, winning the Inventure Prize would help fund our team for our mass marketing campaign, and would help us reinforce our customer service and our developmental teams.

We're also in talks with local bar associations to help market our product, and we're even backed by the State Bar CTO to help push our product across Georgia and beyond.

Now, we heard that there's 50,000 people out there watching today.

So for any lawyers, save yourself some time.

Go to nextgenfile.com right now and sign up.

NextGenFile isn't just a tool, it is the future of legal efficiency.

Well done.

Thank you.

Great work.

So though lawyers may need a leave of absence, our judges are fully present and ready to conduct their own cross-examination.

Kathryn you want to start?

I do, y'all, that was wonderful.

I am so excited about this.

So if I'm a lawyer, how much do I pay to use your product or how does the sales process work?

Yeah, so lawyers can easily go to our website.

They put in their email and their credentials for Peach Court and Tyler.

Then the subscription we've determined is $300.

We've determined that through a lot of customer discovery.

That's the price lawyers are willing to pay.

It costs us around $20 a customer a year to to work.

So we feel that profit is good enough for us to help kind of maintain our product, you know, minimum full time salaries and things like that.

And all they have to do is input their credit card information securely through stripe, and then they're able to use our service.

Awesome.

That's a really cool platform.

One question I had just as a follow up to Kathryn is, as you move through the sales process, is there an opportunity to kind of aggregate toward larger law firms, or is your primary aim toward the individual attorney?

Yeah.

So right now we're mainly focused on those smaller law firms of ten members or less, because they don't really have paralegal support to help them with this.

Larger law firms is something we've looked at.

But after doing a lot of those interviews, we truly identified our market in this specific low filing area.

Is those smaller law firms.

Excellent.

Now, it sounds like this is only relevant to trial lawyers, litigators.

And so out of the entire population of lawyers in the U.S., how big is that?

And then how many of them are trial lawyers?

Yeah.

So not 100% sure about trial lawyers specifically, but we found that it's about 90-90 4%.

Are those members from smaller firms that most likely do not have paralegal assistance?

Or if they do have paralegal assistance, they're pretty bogged down.

I love that you guys are starting very focused and on a specific problem.

Talk to me after you guys have have conquered this market, what do you do next in your product?

Do you have the next iteration or vision?

Sure.

So right now our product is focused on notice of leave of absences.

But after talking to other lawyers, they mentioned other notices like conflict letters.

For example, when lawyers are in two cases at the same time, and there's so many different types of filings that lawyers do, and since our product has already finished authentication, like our product is fully finished, it's very simple for us to take these additional filings and add it to our system.

So that's actually like additional features that we're adding for different lawyers.

As you scale successfully here in Georgia and look beyond the borders, what do you see as some of the barriers to entry or the challenges that will be in front of you as you try to scale the model beyond Georgia?

I think one of the bigger barriers to entry is the fact that right now in the state of Georgia, we are working as an integration with the two filing systems.

So we rely on a partnership with those filing systems in order to be able to pull the case data from them and go successfully file in.

We've been pretty successful in Georgia, and we're very confident that one of the systems, Tyler, technologies that we integrate with in Georgia, is actually found in a lot of states.

And so we're very confident we'll be able to integrate with them.

And any of the other providers in that kind of state.

And do you think you need to kind of develop specific teams within those markets that have that local knowledge, or is it somewhat a playbook that you could kind of replicate in these other markets?

So we're hoping that it's going to be a playbook that we can replicate.

But that is definitely something that we've looked into.

And we do think that every state is going to be a certain amount different.

And I think that's why I was mentioning building out our customer service team for each individual state.

I think that would be a very good idea.

Great.

We got a little less than a minute left.

Okay.

Well, I'm curious, how do lawyers find you?

Do they, in terms of your go to market strategy, do you have to cold call ad campaigns?

What's working?

So right now we've been cold calling.

We've been in our customer discovery phase.

We reached out to over 100 lawyers, and we sent them the announcement that, you know, we're in our beta phase.

We'd love if you guys would help us test out.

We have lawyers actively using our system right now.

In fact, you'll hear from one of them later.

But they've been helping us kind of refine our product, and they've been great at referring it to their friends.

Our plan within the next three months is to partner with three local major bar associations to kind of get the word out there and just cold call to try to get 500 plus customers in the next three months.

Thank you so.

Much, NextGenFile.

I dare say you have raised the bar.

And thank you, judges.

And now we head back to Ashley, who is with someone who has absolutely no objections to next to team NextGenFile.

It is a mouthful.

Faith Jim Blum.

Right here beside me is partner at Blum and Campbell.

I'm not going to lie, standing this close to a real estate litigation attorney feels a bit like getting deposed.

Hey, Jim, in the world of billable hours, how is this invention a true time saver for attorneys like you?

Sure.

So, as the team mentioned, lawyers can't just take off and go out of town anytime they want.

They have to file a leave of absence in every case that they've got.

And the problem is Georgia has 159 counties.

And in each of those counties use one of two different e-filing systems.

So when I want to go out of town to a conference, to a charitable event or anything like that, I've got to make sure I file using the correct filing system in the correct county, and in the correct case.

It's a logistical nightmare for me.

But enter NextGenFile and what that system does, it automatically extracts the cases that I'm involved with.

And it it asks me.

All I got to do is, is enter my vacation days, my days out of town, simple click of the mouse, and then I click file and automatically it's disseminated across the state.

So what used to take me 2-3 hours every time to go out of town?

Now it takes less than 5 minutes.

Can't beat 5 minutes.

Thank you Jim for presenting your case, sir.

I might be leading the witnesses here, but I want them to vote for NextGenFile.

So to do that, you're going to text key word file when voting opens.

Faith.

Thank you.

Ashley, before tonight's finalists made it to this stage, they had a long road to travel.

And we've put together a video to show you everything that led them to this moment.

Going all the way back to last September.

Let's check out their journey now with the road to the Inventure Prize.

Long before organizers and judges narrowed it down to tonight's six finalists, more than 60 student teams entered this year's competition.

The most entrants ever.

Welcome to Roll call.

We're team table.

Team Lola, watch team six Sigma.

And their journeys actually began last September with the annual kickoff event.

Welcome to the 2025 Inventure Prize.

Where students network, brainstorm and gain valuable insights from last year's winners.

When you're presenting, get them asking questions.

And once you get somebody asking questions, they'll get excited.

At Georgia Tech's December Capstone Design Expo, a few standout teams were awarded golden tickets.

There you go to the Adventure Prize.

Sending them straight to the semifinals.

While winter weather delayed the preliminary round.

Gold Jackets.

Ultimately, nothing could deter the talented teams from trying to impress the judges.

We designed a device that can detect air leaks in the lungs.

The Metro X Goggle Fit system.

I invented, Hestia, provides emotional comfort and physical pain relief.

Those who were invited to continue.

Congratulations perfected their pitches at a workshop.

How many of you have ever used a dating app before?

We have a working prototype today.

While getting invaluable feedback from InVenture Prize mentors.

In a short amount of time, it's a lot of information to process.

It's always best to talk about where you're at now and your next steps..

In the semifinals, students were once again on their own as they faced the toughest questions yet.

What do they currently do?

You're the experts, you tell us.

So instead of walking you through, should we show you?

Yes.

You're right.

I mean, that's super interesting.

I love what you're doing.

Thank you.

Out of 27 semifinalists, only six moved on.

Which brings us to tonight, where our six finalists compete on live television.

To answer the most important question of all.

Who will win the 2025 Georgia Tech Inventure Prize?

Our next team is ready to show you the sunny side of artificial intelligence.

I'm Elliot Roe and I'm Team Verse, and we're helping instructors use A.I.

For good.

Early studies have shown that ChatGPT usage in the workplace, if you're not careful, actually decreases critical thinking.

This is scary for instructors that want to teach their students how to think, but issuing a ban on A.I.

In the classroom is not the answer.

Instead, what you're doing is you're issuing a gag order.

Students are going to use A.I.

No matter what, but they're just not going to be able to talk about it.

That's why I'm building Verse to help both students understand the material better, but also instructors understand their students.

I can tell you why Verse is going to win the Inventure prize, but I think I'd rather let Sonny do that.

Sonny, why do you think we're going to win the Inventure prize?

Simple.

We're going to win because we give instructors the power of A.I.

Team Verse is on stage and ready to show you that they understood the assignment.

A.I.

Is kind of taking over education right now, but not really in a good way for students.

You now can complete assignments and polish them in just a couple of minutes with ChatGPT.

And while this is amazing, it's it makes it easier to check out courses for instructors on the other side.

It is now harder than ever to trust your students.

Work.

Is your student's essay a true representation of what they understand, or is it just chatgpt's?

But if you take this problem into online learning, it only gets worse.

Students are less, are left with less face to face time with their professor, and less support from their peers, meaning that they're isolated and it makes the danger of overrelying on A.I.

Even more.

But this doesn't feel right.

I shouldn't just be this wrecking ball that comes in and blows up online learning.

As someone who's taught for the past six years and been an educational researcher here at Georgia Tech for the past two, I think we can use A.I.

To help both students and teachers, and that's why I'm building Verse to help.

Teachers will assess and understand their students online.

To help me introduce this to you, let me introduce you all to Sonny.

Hey, Sonny, do you think you can help me pitch for the Inventure prize?

Sure.

So tell me a little bit about your product.

What does it do?

Well, I'm building Verse.

Basically, we let instructors turn their course material into real time, interactive conversation with an A.I.

That assesses their understanding of that material.

And news flash that A.I.

Is actually, well, you, Sonny.

Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

But what teachers actually use this?

Well, yeah.

We started building Verse two months ago and over this time we've secured three pilot classes at three different universities for this semester Park University, Tufts University and Georgia Tech, where the teacher actually just asked to use Verse again in their summer class.

We've changed their reflection assignment from something that students just text and type on their on their screen, and they actually get to sit down and have a conversation.

Well, with Sonny, it's so cool to hear.

Okay, interesting.

But what sets you apart from all the other people that make A.I.

Products?

Well, that's where my background as an educational researcher comes in.

I'm partnered with Doctor Ethan Danahy at Tufts University and are actively doing research with Verse in the classroom because we don't just want to build something amazing, we want to prove it too.

And along the way, we want to make online learning better for both students and teachers.

So Sonny, how is that for a pitch?

Blum fist bump.

Good luck with the judges.

Thanks, Sonny.

Great job, Elliot and Sonny, you clearly did your homework.

All right, let's see what our judges think.

John, do you want to take the first question?

Fist bump on that one?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Very, very exciting.

And I think your insights, based on your educational background, are uniquely positioned to be very successful with this particular platform and technology.

One question I had for you is, as you think about your target buyer, clearly, you know, this is meant, as you said, for both the teacher and the student.

But someone will have to write the check.

Are you marketing this directly to teachers or the institutions behind them?

Tell us a little bit about your sales strategy.

Yeah, so that's a great question because you've identified the three key stakeholders, right.

Students, teachers and then administration, which actually do write the check.

And something that I didn't get into here is our strategy is to help.

Online courses will retain their students.

And for administrators.

That's actually great because more bums on seats means more money.

So giving away that teachers can support students in a completely different way that wasn't possible before.

That's where we think we can really make our sales pitch to admin.

For the teachers that have hesitations, what is their number one concern and how do you overcome that concern?

That is a great question.

So the biggest piece of feedback that we've gotten when we've showed this to teachers is time, right?

They have so little of it.

And but that's why we've actually built in a little bit of a evaluation feature into it.

So conversations are unique, right?

They're long and windy and they're not like an essay where you can go, oh, this is the thesis.

Like I can grade this.

So we've actually had an A.I.

That comes in and organizes a conversation into the important bits.

So teachers just go through and check, check, check.

We make grading easier for them and actually take time off their plate.

Johnny, do you have a question?

Yeah.

So my wife, she's a professor at another Atlanta area university.

And one of the things she talks about is that student teacher interaction.

And so would students be open to this, or would they feel cheated out of the time that they so desire with their professor?

Yeah.

So that's really why we're targeting online.

Because while this could be deployed everywhere and eventually we want it to, we think online is where we can help the most.

These are large class sizes where they typically wouldn't get that face to face time anyways.

So using Sonny and using Verse is a way that we can do extra rather than replacing or taking away from that time.

What do you think the total addressable market would be, especially for your, you know, initial target market that you're going after?

Is it universities first, it sounds like that's where you're aiming to begin with, but I would imagine this could be applied, you know, up and down the the curriculum pathway.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what you think the potential is for the total addressable market?

Yeah.

So right now we're targeting the online accredited like higher degree space, which is sitting around 75 billion right now.

But this can be expanded to e-learning pretty easily.

And by 2030 that's projected to hit around 1 trillion market.

So we are super excited about this.

And really it is a completely new way you can interact with learners.

It is amazing.

And that's why we think we're going to have a success.

What has Verse taught you?

Well, so actually I do like a weekly reflection with Sonny that helps me kind of work through my challenges for the week and just like, dump all of my thoughts because I love to talk.

So it's taught me to kind of slow down and really take a breath.

Silly question.

Was Sonny's comments from earlier were they rehearsed or was that generative?

And she just made that up on the spot?

So this was scripted, but it is a live A.I.

That's going back and forth and doing decisions.

But if audience members actually want to try to talk to Sonny live, there's going to be a QR code in my audience interview where you can actually try and talk to Sonny.

Oh, exciting special treat.

We got about 30s.

As you think about building out your team, I mean, clearly, you know, you're the technical founder of this organization that really has the vision for where this technology could be applied.

Have you thought about how you will build out your team so that you're able to kind of grow and build your enterprise, to be able to scale to the full potential?

Yeah, that's a great question.

And the biggest thing we're looking for is higher education sales knowledge, higher education.

To cut you off there.

I'm sorry, I know Sonny doesn't take it personally because they're not a person.

Thank you.

Judges.

Now great job.

Now let's head over to our well versed co-host, Ashley.

Faith.

For we fans of the Socratic method, Verse is poetry to our ears.

Georgia Tech's assistant director of learning and technology, Doctor Lauren Barbo agrees.

Lauren, from a pedagogical teaching and learning perspective, how do you think Verse is an a plus assessment tool?

Well.

Actually, I've seen a lot of edtech solutions that are looking for a problem to solve.

Verse did their research.

They went out and they talked to faculty like me, and they found out what the problems are in education.

And then they developed a platform that can solve that.

Obviously, one of the biggest problems we're facing right now is A.I.

A.I.

Has made it impossible or very difficult for us to assess student learning and thinking through writing.

What Verse has done is made thinking visible through A.I.

That is so cool.

What a versatile instructor you are.

Lauren.

Thank you.

Give team Verse extra credit by texting keyword Verse.

When people's choice voting opens later.

Back to you Faith.

Thanks, Ashley.

Up next, we have a team whose entry for winning this year's Inventure prize is nothing short of electric.

Hi, I'm Calla Scotch.

I'm Atharva Lele., and I'm Anuj Pandey.

And we are Convexity Electronics.

The world of electronics runs on printed circuit boards or PCBs.

It's these little green boards that are found in phones, computers, planes, satellites, anything with electronics.

Even the cameras are filming us right now.

The problem with current PCB manufacturing is that it's a 20 step assembly line, based on 70-year-old technology.

This causes slow lead times and limited design freedom for customers.

All three of us have faced issues with inefficient PCB manufacturing in our studies and our projects.

After a few months of tinkering and development, we finally had a board in our hands that we had manufactured in 15 minutes.

And that's when we knew we had something real, something big.

We're 1.5 years into developing this technology, and we already have some incredible results.

Just imagine how far we'll go with InVenture Prize.

Ready to manufacture their case for winning this year's Inventure prize, it's Team Convexity Electronics.

A little over a year ago, I was on a phone call with Matt.

He's a product manager at a drone company up in New York.

Now, Matt mostly works with these little green printed circuit boards, PCBs.

You've seen them everywhere.

They're the brains that power your phones, computers, cars, just about everything.

Now, Matt was stressed out because his PCB manufacturer in Asia had a broken assembly line, delaying his shipment by two weeks.

That delay cost Matt's company $3 million, and on top of that, 10% of those PCBs that did show up were defective.

So I'm sitting here on the phone thinking, why does the factory have to be that big that far away?

Why can't it be shrink down to the size of a box and sell Matt his PCBs from right next door?

And that was the moment Convexity was born.

We reimagined that big manufacturing process instead of a long and complex assembly line of just cutting away raw materials, we 3-D print them, but we didn't.

This isn't your everyday 3-D printer.

We built a first of its kind industrial 3-D printer that makes PCBs at the push of a button.

First, it uses custom materials to print the board into any shape or size.

Then it does something that no other system can do.

Using our patent pending technology.

It prints pure copper directly onto the board.

This ensures that our boards can be made to the same standard as traditional manufacturing, and after a quick wash, you have a circuit board.

Imagine five, ten, 100 Convexity printers in a big room right next to Matt's facility.

Convexity will own them, operate them, and handle logistics.

Customers like Matt care a lot about how fast they get their boards and how precise we can make them.

So with our system, we can make PCBs 96 times faster and eight times more precise than traditional manufacturing.

Like Matt experienced first hand a single failure in an assembly line in a traditional factory stops production entirely.

In contrast, if one of our printers goes down, all the other printers in the room can pick up the slack.

This is a game changer, with insights from over 500 plus engineers and executives, we built a strong industry network and a team of advisors to guide us.

Using these connections.

We will seek out contracts with aerospace companies like Matt's, setting up and operating our printers to meet their specific needs.

We've already gotten the ball rolling.

We're currently making PCBs for a smart glasses startup on campus.

At $5 a board.

The cost for us is $0.04.

We've also signed a contract with the Yellow Jacket space program to produce PCBs for their rockets.

And we're just getting started.

Convexity is here to change the way we make PCBs so that Matt never has to wait weeks for defective boards ever again.

We will.

We will 3-D print them on site, on demand, on time.

Thank you.

Well done.

All right.

Now let's circuit board on over to our judges to see what questions they may have.

Kathryn do you want to start, y'all?

This is incredible.

So first question why has no one done this before?

It seems this is just such a value add.

To be honest, we printed electronics has been around for a long time, but they don't.

They don't see the whole picture.

Traditionally they use these things called conductive inks instead of pure copper.

It's an expensive material that isn't scalable to mass manufacturing.

It's great for prototyping and small one off boards, but if you want to make something big, you can't.

You can't use that.

And that's what we are bringing to the table.

Is that what we call electrochemical sintering?

It's the backbone of our technology.

It makes our boards just as conductive as traditional manufacturing, so that we can meet those high volume standards.

That's awesome.

I'm going to go one more time again.

So you guys mentioned aerospace.

Is that the first market and why?

If so, why do you guys like that market to start?

I can answer that question.

So aerospace.

Has a lot of constraints regarding how we can develop the PCBs.

First of them being that they need it quick, especially with their short deadlines.

They need it quick and they need to test it.

Additionally, it needs to be designed to a shape that needs to fit the rocket, for example.

So me being part of these rocket clubs, I have experienced these problems firsthand.

And that's why we know that that market will be the first one to enter.

Well, hold on, hold on.

I feel like there's a lot of risk in sending things up into space or the air.

So the durability of these 3-D printed boards, how do they compare to those of, yeah.

So if we're looking at just general quality of the board, there's three main factors conductivity, durability like you mentioned and reliability.

Firstly conductivity the most important.

That's what matters most to our customers as we print copper directly onto the board.

We're just as conductive as any traditional fab.

Secondly, durability like you mentioned, we've currently initially identified benchmarks showing that we do meet the quality standards of traditional PCB fr4 boards.

However, we still need to do some more tests to see into that to make sure that our boards meet the exact specifications that our manufacturers need.

But what we do have is the fact that our material is extremely customizable.

So because our material is customizable, we can change the formulation to meet exactly any type of g forces that you need in rockets, any type of flexibility you need into anything.

If you look at us making PCBs for smart glasses startup, they need flexible boards and that's what we're doing.

And lastly is reliability.

We currently have signed an Loi with the Yellow Jacket space program to test our boards and send us data on if these boards are working in the long term.

And that's really going to help us change and refine our formula.

Yeah, this would have been awesome.

We used to make drink machines like much lower risk if it broke, but we would.

Say drinking machines.

Yeah, yeah okay.

We don't want to talk about it here.

I think it's not an age appropriate audience, but.

Let's talk about it at the after party.

Yeah, but either way and yeah, during Lunar New Year, that shutdown would crush us because we need boards quickly.

So this is an awesome, awesome hack for that.

But how did you get those precision gains that you mentioned that eight x more more precise.

I can so traditional manufacturing standard is really really small.

It's 200 microns small.

We operate with a we operate with technology that gets us down to 25 microns.

We use lasers.

That process gets us down 20-5 microns eight times as small.

Now there are traditional factories that can do 25 microns, but not at the cost or the scale that we can.

I love what you're doing with the precision on the spot, just in time approach to what you're offering.

And that's a very cool modified 3-D printer there.

One thing that I would be curious to learn about is what do you think the capital needs are going to be for the company, as you need to presumably have a lot of these 3-D printers that you can have at your disposal to be able to generate the sales to cover those costs.

I mean, I love the cost of goods sold and the margins you're able to create, you know, once you're at scale.

But how are you going to get there with the equipment?

We've got about 30s.

Real quick.

Let's compare that to traditional manufacturing.

Those factories are $300 million, and they take so much money and two, two years to set up for us, the operating costs of this thing is an airline electricity and ventilation.

You can print that printer costs $500 to make as a prototype.

Cut that down.

We could maybe get it to 300.

You build ten printers, 500 printers in a large factory warehouse.

That's not even going to compare to traditional manufacturing costs.

Oh my gosh, you stuck the landing time wise.

Amazing.

Thank you so much.

And it is time to check back in with Ashley, who is joined by someone ready to tell us why team Convexity Electronics has the capacity for greatness.

Brilliant.

Faith I have no idea what that means.

Before I met materials science professor Doctor Blair Brettman, Convexity was a complexity.

Luckily, the team opened up their circuit for me.

Blair researches 3-D printing of high solids materials.

Blair, what have you observed hosting this team in your lab?

I find their work really exciting.

3-D printed circuit boards are really the future of electronics.

There's definitely technical challenges involved, but there's a whole lot of market potential out there, especially if they can bring companies to be able to manufacture where they operate.

So a lot of excitement around that space.

And then it also may improve the cost and decrease the cost.

So 3-D printing is known to be slow, but the innovations by this team have really sped it up and are bringing kind of bringing more to their business case.

Hey, the future looks bright.

Thanks for that added dimension.

Blair Tech's PCB to vote for team Convexity Electronics when voting opens.

For all my spring breakers out there, PCB is short for printed circuit board, not Panama City Beach.

In this instance, we need a vacation Faith.

With more than 60 teams competing in this year's Inventure prize, not everyone could make it to the finals, but just because those teams aren't here tonight, that doesn't mean we won't see these innovators and inventions in the future.

That's why we've highlighted a few of this past year's talented teams and creations in a fun little segment we call maybe Next year.

Captain's log, stardate 2025.

A team of engineers from Georgia Tech has created a device so revolutionary it will change mankind forever.

You can get closer.

We're a team.

The team that turns.

Better engineers.

Tap labs.

I'm your number one favorite social app.

VB.

Is this overengineered?

Can I start over?

We're making a meditation device.

You're sitting on this potential goldmine.

Hell, yeah.

Nosotros somos bio Brice y vamos a InVenture Prize porque todos necesitamos respirar bien.

Have you been able to quantify how big that is?

We're a team.

Let's get physical.

And we invented crank that, crank that, crank that.

So what is this thing that you're holding in your hand right there?

We are.

Chef's kiss.

And we invented an automated toothpick flag manufacturing system.

Hey, we're team.

Control freaks, and we've invented an automated flag assembling machine.

The only flag we won't wave is the white flag.

It's very entertaining.

We are team.

Do due diligence.

Hi there.

We're team.

We care.

And we invented.

The people.

We're number one.

So are we.

But in number two.

I have a soft spot in my heart for niche technologies.

Yeah, buddy.

This is very exciting.

It's fantastic.

Live long and.

Prosper.

Mm.

That brings back some memories.

As I was once beamed up in an episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

That's true, that's real.

That trading card is worth hundreds of cents.

People.

And coincidentally, our next team is here to show you why their idea will both live long and prosper.

I give you team DivineDrive.

Hi, I'm Ty Thompson.

I'm Sydney Brown, and.

We're team DivineDrive.

And we're here to redefine performance, nutrition, high performance professionals like student athletes, blue collar workers, first responders.

These people are pushing their minds and their bodies to their very limits.

And unfortunately, due to the nature of their profession, it leaves little room for error like dehydration, low energy, or slow recovery.

And I've experienced this pain firsthand being a student athlete here at Georgia Tech, having intense practices, two a day workouts, and late night film sessions, I needed this great product too.

But when the market failed to deliver, we simply created it.

We had our breakthrough moment when Ty brought the idea of the product to me and I started doing market research, and we realized that all the components that we wanted in our drink was not something that was really being done on the market.

DivineDrive is going to win Inventure prize this year because.

We're not just improving the game, but we're here to change.

It.

Here and ready to bring the energy.

It's team DivineDrive now.

Good evening judges.

We know you've heard a lot of pitches tonight, so rather than pitch to you Sydney, I want to tell you a story.

That story starts with exhaustion, dehydration, muscle fatigue.

We all know the feeling.

And as a football player here at Georgia Tech, I experienced these problems daily.

Handsome guy.

Huh?

So these problems led to a love of energy and hydration drinks that can empower me through my packed schedule.

However, due to the nature of the NCAA, I had to be very careful with the ingredients that I put in my body.

A slip up in this area could mean an eligibility for an entire season, so my typical morning routine consisted of carefully cycling through strictly caffeine, which could increase my strength and alertness without risking my season.

An overabundance of electrolytes to help counteract the dehydrating effects of caffeine while also preventing injury and cramps, and muscle supplements for recovery and growth.

Every single morning, the same routine until one morning, everything changed.

You see, I was running late to a very important practice and had no time for this meticulous routine.

So in a split second decision, I did something reckless.

I just mixed it and it tasted as horrible.

And as chunky as this looks.

But the thing is, it did the trick.

I was energized and sustained throughout the rest of my practices and classes.

It was in that moment that the idea of DivineDrive was born.

And DivineDrive has found a novel way to combine and formulate energy, hydration and recovery to create the first all in one performance drink.

Now I know what you're probably thinking, so let's talk about what makes DivineDrive different than most of our competitors on the market, even the big ones.

So most sports drinks, they offer limited hydration, but they fail to provide that boost of energy that's needed for intense performance.

And on the flip side, most energy drinks give you this boost, but they fail to mention the dehydrating effects of it.

And that's not even to mention the immense sweat loss that occurs during intense performance.

So DivineDrive accounts for both energy and hydration.

By pairing 200 milligrams of caffeine with over 1,000 milligrams of electrolytes.

And just to put that in perspective for you, that's about the same amount of energy as two cups of coffee and is seven times more hydrating than the leading sports drink.

So let that sink in.

But it doesn't stop there.

Athletes like Ty value their recovery to support their muscular growth and repair, so DivineDrive has 3 grams of protein and this is not that chunky, heavy texture that I showed you earlier, but DivineDrive manufacturing process ensures that protein is blended with caffeine and electrolytes in a smooth, refreshing, and tasteful way.

Awesome.

And our pre-launch stage.

We've done over $500 in revenue and gained over 100 plus people on our waitlist.

With the full plan of launching this summer.

Our go to market strategy was initially targeting NCAA athletes, but has now fully expanded into athlete adjacent territories like first responders, blue collar workers and even hardworking Georgia Tech students.

So whether you're cramming for a midterm, training for an intense workout, or judging six pitches in one night, DivineDrive is for you.

Thank you.

Great job, team DivineDrive you got you got a loud fan base there.

That's a real InVenture thirst quencher.

Donnie, why don't you go first?

Well, we got to try it if we can.

Not the chunky one though, but, we have something that we can test.

So this is the lemon lime flavor lock.

You go.

Straight for lemon lime, huh?

Yeah.

A lot going into it.

What, y'all are leaving me with the chunky?

Oh, sorry.

Sorry.

It's okay.

The caffeine.

Is in this little shot.

How many?

Well, it's 200 grams in a standard pack.

Okay.

So, yeah.

Not going to keep me up.

All night.

Oh, well, you're gonna feel it, but you'll be good.

Okay, John.

Really good.

John's waiting to taste it.

All right.

Okay.

Let me hear a one word review from each of you before you go into your questions.

Oh, man.

Electrifying.

Fresh.

Fresh.

Divine.

Divine.

Okay.

Come on.

Come on.

All right.

But seriously.

Seriously, though.

So I was a student athlete here at Georgia Tech, and I used to suffer with these same problems and challenges.

But one what I'm wondering is, I don't know if you still use metrics, but at least Powerade, like, why wouldn't they just come in and give you the same offering?

Because you made it seem like it's a pretty simple mix of items to put together.

That's an excellent question.

Do you want to take that with the formulation side?

Yeah.

So I'll start with the formulation.

So what really sets us apart from your typical sports drink is that we're not just bringing in that hydration component.

Right.

But as Ty kind of showed and demonstrated here is we're also bringing in the energy component that sustained energy with caffeine.

And then we're also bringing in that recovery aspect with protein and made up of different supplements like creatine and collagen and branched chain amino acids.

So it's more than you're getting in your typical Powerade and Ty if you want to continue on that side.

Yeah, I think you I think you hit it.

Did that answer?

Yes, I guess why don't why don't they do that though.

Why don't they give.

That's a that's an excellent question.

And I've been asked that question a lot during our year of working on this product.

And the biggest thing I've seen is that, you know, I think they have all the right chemists, all the right engineers, all of that.

But me being an athlete, being in the trenches with the two a day workouts, with the intense practices and the late night film sessions and being in the locker room.

Some of my boys are in the car right now cheering us on.

They knew.

I saw and I experienced what was lacking in the market, the disillusionment in the market.

I think when it comes to them, maybe not.

So maybe they're chemists and scientists not being so hands on.

They aren't necessarily knowledgeable of the problem.

I want to hear from the Iron Man woman.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I it tastes delicious.

And I would definitely have this on a marathon training day.

This is it's amazing.

So the product great.

Thank you.

Let's talk about branding because consumer products brand is at least half the battle maybe more.

How are you guys thinking about brand and your go to market strategy around the brand.

That's an excellent question.

So we want to talk because the nature of our product is we feel it's so novel and so different.

We know that the value prop that comes with it, we want to highlight that.

Right.

So through our perceived value premium pricing.

Right.

Helping people understand what the price point, as well as reading the ingredients that you're not just getting your standard electrolyte or energy drink, you're getting a lot more.

We want to reflect that in our name.

That's why we have the King and the DivineDrive.

That's why we want to reflect it in our in our pricing.

Did I miss something?

Yeah.

And I'll just touch on marketing a little bit.

Right.

So our strategy for that awesome.

Our strategy for that is really with social media marketing.

So in our pre-launch stage, we've been doing a lot of that.

And we also want to go into affiliate marketing with athletes in different communities that we are marketing towards.

And then also just making sure that we're highlighting those underserved communities that aren't really having a product made specifically for them.

Do you have a quick question, John?

I believe you're going to succeed.

I mean, it's a great product.

The question I have is, as you kind of get out there in the summertime, you're going to have to make more.

That's one thing.

But the second is you're going to have to kind of get it out there and sell more of it.

Do you think about distribution partners?

That's a great question.

So right now, like Sydney said, we're doing direct to consumer sales through our website.

We've considered an Amazon.

We considered things like that.

Right now.

We want to see how far we can go just by ourselves.

Amazon does take a big cut.

No, no hate on Amazon, but.

Yeah.

That's helpful.

Yeah.

And that's time they got to hydrate.

You have to hydrate.

Thank you very much.

And now we're going to head to Ashley, who is standing by with someone who believes that team DivineDrive is unstoppable.

Cheers, Aidan Faith.

This may not look like your typical pre-game, but this interview is sure to whet your whistle.

I've recruited Aidan Burr, GT football's redshirt sophomore place kicker.

Aidan, what makes this a desirable product for players?

I mean, winners?

Well, first of all.

I just think DivineDrive is legit.

I mean, it's got the energy.

The hydration.

And the recovery.

All in one.

And like, personally.

My favorite flavor is this lemon lime.

And a bunch of our teammates really enjoy it.

They can't get enough of it.

And I think if you want to be the best at anything you do, you should give it a shot.

And if I'm kicking six yard field goals next year, just know DivineDrive is in my system.

Well, we know, we know now.

Wow.

You know, thank you Aidan, I am sold.

Well, we'll all be double this in no time.

Good game to vote for team DivineDrive.

Text keyword drive to 415-965-7445.

When I kick things off.

Faith back to you.

We have made it to our final team of the night, so let's glide on over to team Stride Labs.

Hi, my name is.

Aadhav Sundar and I'm team Stride Labs.

Every year over 17 million Americans experience some form of foot issue.

And this can be because of exercise, accidents or simply just getting older.

And they're all prescribed the exact same thing.

Custom orthotics insoles which is basically just a custom fit medical brace for your foot.

The problem is, the way they make these insoles right now is really slow and outdated.

I first encountered this problem about two years ago, when I was able to shadow a podiatrist, and shortly after that I joined an entrepreneurship program here at Georgia Tech and decided to create something to help solve this problem.

Since then, we've built a first of its kind patent pending platform that's live right now.

Stride Labs is going to win the 2025 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize because we're revolutionizing the entire medical brace industry.

We're going to save companies millions of dollars while helping millions of people.

And now it's time to hear how we can all take a step in the right direction.

Team Stride Labs, take it away.

Let's talk about foot pain.

Four out of five adults will experience foot pain at some point in their lives.

Let's be honest, some of us are already feeling it.

One of the common treatments are custom orthotics insoles.

These are custom fit medical grade insoles that go inside your shoe and they can help treat conditions like plantar fasciitis, diabetes, and flat feet.

In high school, I was named a Regeneron STS scholar for my published research in 3-D printing, and that led to an internship opportunity at a major podiatry center.

There, I got to see a lot of the problems with orthotics firsthand.

Patients were waiting weeks for insoles that didn't even fit, and orthotics, who incredibly skilled conditions were frustrated with complex design software.

Making orthotics involves three main steps scan design, print.

First, you go to the doctor's office where you take a 3-D scan of your foot.

Then that scan is sent to a fabrication center where a specialized CAD engineer will spend up to 4 hours manually designing your perfect insole.

After that, that insole is then 3-D printed and sent back to the doctor's office where you get it.

That middle design step is a major bottleneck.

Not only is it slow taking up to 4 hours per patient, but it also requires a highly specialized set of skills that are difficult to find in today's job market.

And it makes it hard for labs to scale.

That's why we built Stride Labs.

Last month, we launched Ortho Stride.

Our patent pending A.I.

Platform that eliminates that 3-D design step altogether.

Instead of spending hours on complex CAD software, Orthotists can simply upload a scan and in a matter of seconds, our A.I.

Will generate a precise 3-D print ready install, taking them straight from scan to print.

With ortho Stride labs, Can Labs can save millions of dollars, saving thousands of engineering hours and helping make insoles faster than ever.

And we didn't do this alone.

Over the past two years, we've been working directly with some of the biggest orthotics clinics in the world.

We've secured thousands of real world foot scans to supplement our data set, while working directly with leadership and engineering teams.

And the results?

Well, today we have five letters of intent, multiple acquisition offers, and are beginning discussions with enterprise clients on integrating our software into their workflows.

Oh, and by the way, for all the audiences watching on TV, you can actually go for a limited time.

Go over to our website at ortho Stride webapp, and you can actually go and design insoles for free.

So Stride Labs isn't just improving orthotics.

We're actually leading the industry's digital transformation.

Who's ready to Stride into the future?

Yeah.

Well, listen, I love a comfortable, supportive sole, both in my soul and deep in my soul.

So let's see what questions the judges may have.

John, why don't you start?

Very cool.

One of the things that just struck me as a, you know, opening question for you given this exciting development that you've got that allows you to kind of go in and be much quicker.

What is your pricing strategy as you enter the market?

You're going to these podiatrists and orthotic centers.

What do you think your pricing opportunity will be, given that it may be cheaper cost of goods right out of the gates?

Yeah.

We're looking into a hybrid SaaS model, and that would include a one time fee for a pilot.

On top of that, we'll do a flat fee per month.

On top of that, it will be a pay per install use as well.

So it'd be three different fees you pay.

What dollar range?

We haven't fully decided that yet, but some of our competitors in Europe, they are doing a orthotics design service where you can actually just send scans to a actual designer, and they'll design it and send it back in two days.

They're charging 77.5 euros per insole.

In our case, we can probably beat that.

We're aiming for somewhere $2-5 per insole.

That's awesome.

And obviously you have a great product.

What is what do you need next to scale and continue to grow?

Yeah, our biggest challenge has always been medical data and getting access to the correct medical data that is perfectly labeled.

For example, there's a lot of key things you need to add to orthotics, for example, metatarsal pads and modifications.

We want to have that medical data to help support our A.I.

Models and secure more and more types of orthotics that we can make.

Are there any regulatory hurdles that you need to be thinking about with regards to any making any claims perhaps?

Yeah.

So with custom orthotics there are FDA is actually pretty lax.

This is more of a low hanging fruit of the orthotics and prosthetics industry.

But as we plan to expand into other devices like foot, ankle, orthoses and other things, we're going to have to start dealing with more regulations.

Now, the price I pay for orthotics, like 400 bucks for a pair, the three steps you mentioned which one of those steps is the most of that cost?

Yeah.

And that would probably be the printing.

The actual materials cost is likely the highest in our case.

We aren't necessarily trying to lower the cost.

That's not our main goal here.

We're actually trying to make a better insoles and we're trying to make them faster.

Got it.

You mentioned an opportunity a global opportunity here.

As you grow and scale here in the U.S., do you see special challenges or barriers to entry in other markets like Europe or Asia?

Yeah, definitely.

So the whole method of making orthotics in Europe is very different from what they do in the United States.

And we're starting to see many challenges with that as well.

Additionally, there's additional challenges in just exploring other countries as well.

It's very different models, very different types of business.

So yeah.

Can you get Donnie a discount on his orthotics?

We could totally look into that.

That's absurd.

Right.

That's why I haven't had a good pair in a long time.

But you mentioned two paths.

Acquisition offers and then also integrations.

And so is there one that you're leaning toward between those two?

We want to start developing this software out and making it better than ever.

So we're probably leaning toward getting our enterprise clients involved.

What does success look like in the first year after you win the Inventure prize?

What's success look like?

Yeah, of course we want to have labs using our software to make insoles every day.

And on top of that, we want to start expanding into making better insoles with more different types of modifications, expanding our A.I.

Models to cover all types of different diseases, and then starting expanding into other different medical braces as well.

If a lab has pushback on they have objections.

What is the most common objection that they have?

Yeah, the main main exception is usually like the use of A.I.

A lot of Orthotists will like to design insoles on their own, and we found that with more of the larger clients, more enterprise grade clients, they have higher volumes.

And they see the more the benefit in having something that automates higher volume.

Manufacturing got about 30s.

When you think about kind of the total market opportunity in the U.S., can you kind of ballpark that for me, what with with massive success and being able to penetrate and take market share from standard orthotics and the approaches that you use today?

What do you think the total addressable market would look like?

Yeah, the Tam for custom orthotics is around $6 billion, and it's been growing consistently in the past few years.

3-D printing has really started to change this industry.

There used to be like pretty much exclusively manual making of these orthotics, like people used to use plaster and molds and things like that.

And we're starting to see this huge change in the industry.

We're trying to go into digital manufacturing software, 3-D printing and using real machines.

And that is your time.

Thanks.

Out of all right.

Judges, we have now heard from all of the competitors.

So it is time for you to deliberate.

Off you go.

Good luck.

And while our judges step away to make their decision, let's check in with Ashley.

Who is with someone who knows why teams Stride Labs is starting out on the right foot.

Ash.

Here I stand Faith head over heels for John Fog certified Pedorthist a man who believes in modifying footwear to improve conditions of the feet.

These 8.5.

Thank you John, I really want to ask why feet are so ticklish, but I'm here as a professional, so we'll keep it clean.

Why do we want Stride Labs to really hit their stride in the orthotics space?

So bipedal motion is really hard on the feet and at the end of the day, they're exhausted.

They're tired.

As we age, you may lose your balance.

Young children learning to walk may learn bad sort of compensation.

So the idea of putting a foot orthotic into play is really important, but we need one that doesn't just mask the problem, it actually goes to the core of the problem and resolves it.

And that's what the the Stride Labs are doing is they're really getting enough data to do it.

All right.

If you're into feet, I mean into Stride Labs, you can text the keyword Stride for a sure footed people's choice victory.

If you're thinking about not voting, that would be callous.

Don't do it.

And with that, we have concluded all of our team presentations and interviews.

So it is time for the people to pick their favorite people's choice.

Voting is now open to vote.

Text your favorite teams keyword to 415-965-7445, or you can vote at gpb.org slash vote.

Don't forget, only one vote per device will count.

And watch out for that pesky autocorrect.

You have to spell your team's keyword correctly for your vote to count.

Let's go over those keywords just one more time.

If you're all about team Allez Go for the People's Choice Award, use fence.

If you want to file a yes for team NextGenFile, use file.

If you use assigned team Verse as your winner, the keyword is Verse.

If you're feeling electric for team Convexity Electronics.

Text P-c-b.

If team DivineDrive gives you energy, text the word drive.

And finally, if you're stepping up for team Stride Labs, use the word Stride again, that number to text is 415-965-7445.

You will receive a confirmation text right after you vote.

But like I said, that vote will only count one time per device.

Speaking of those devices, if you're on your computer right now, you can also vote by visiting gpb.org.

Slash vote.

Our People's Choice voting will only be open for a very small window.

So get those keywords sent and we will announce our winners shortly.

And with that, I'll hand things back to you.

Faith.

Thank you.

Ashley.

As our judges are busy deliberating, we want to shine a spotlight on the K-12 InVenture Prize.

Georgia Tech's hugely successful sister program in K-12 schools across the state.

Each year, it gives students the opportunity to create and innovate, and over the past 11 years, this program has worked with more than 60,000 students, sending several students to national competitions.

To tell you more about this wonderful world of student innovation, I'm going to hand things back to Ashley.

Thanks, Faith.

You know, I decided it was time to individually profile these dazzling young entrepreneurs.

So in partnership with GPB education, the social media Furst Tiny Mic video series was born.

You'll see why we called it that.

Check it out.

My invention is.

A toothpaste tube that can turn into a fairy pouch.

People are losing teeth.

Hopefully only young people are losing teeth.

If older people are losing teeth.

Go see your dentist immediately.

Yes, people need a way to not spend so much toothpaste.

The nozzle is way too big.

You could just write a little something maybe to Ashley sick.

Mike.

I.

Invented this thing called flapper, which is basically a bioplastic from an invasive plant species called kudzu.

I'm fermenting it and using the lactic acid from it to create a biodegradable plastic.

We invented the pesky polymer, and it's a glove, which is meant to help catch bugs without harming them.

Like, hey, we shouldn't be killing these bugs.

It's not cool.

Home.

Tell us what bat is.

Best for bus driver assistant.

I'm helping bus drivers so they can concentrate while they're driving.

I think it will make them have more peace in their head.

We all need more peace in our head.

The K-12 InVenture Prize taught me to have empathy and never give up.

Tiny Mic was great for the series, but for the Georgia Tech show, we got to stick with the big Mike.

You know, Julia Varnado here teaches K-12 InVenture Prize at Soap Creek Elementary.

She brought teacher friends Heather Bell and Austin Russell over here to show that this program is many educators strong.

Julia, you teach and develop young inventors on top of your existing workload.

As an educator.

Why do you do this?

Well, I think we all agree that teaching invention strengthens students critical thinking skills and enables them to solve real world problems, and that is so inspiring for all of us.

So that keeps you going.

And what would you say to the teacher out there watching this who is intrigued by the K through 12 InVenture Prize but maybe they're thinking, oh, I'm just not I'm not that creative.

I'm not as creative as all that.

How would you respond to that?

Julia?

Go for it.

Just go for it.

The K-12 InVenture Prize offers tons of resources, free curriculum and teacher trainings for teachers.

No creativity required.

And if there's anything I noticed from working with you and your students, it's that you bounce a lot of ideas off of them.

They can be the origin point for that creativity.

Absolutely.

All right.

You're awesome Julia.

And your height teachers here to Heather Austin.

Thank you.

To learn more visit K-12.

InVenture Gatech.edu.

Now let's head back to Faith, who looks like she also made some new friends.

Faith I did thank you Ashley.

I am here with Kate Williams and Chad Sleeper, resident experts on Georgia Tech's new quality Enhancement Plan.

Or Shep, what is the Shep you ask?

So do I, Kate and Chad, thank you so much for joining us.

Please tell us more.

So.

Shep, quality.

Enhancement plan is something we're required to do for our accreditation every ten years.

But it's much more than that.

We're able to really enhance our students experience by picking a project that we think will make a real difference at Georgia Tech.

And this time around, our project is called Leaders in Progress and Service.

And why is it important to Georgia Tech to focus on leaders in progress, in service?

Yeah, well, when we look at these students tonight, right, they have done projects that really connect technology with the human condition, and we know they're going to go out and become great leaders.

So we are looking to prepare them to be reflective leaders, to inspire them to find their own story and to tell it, and also to connect their learning both in and out of the classroom.

And how does the Shep tie into innovation.

At Georgia Tech?

Innovation doesn't just happen in the lab, but it happens in the classroom and in our curriculum.

So this is a curricular innovation that will help our students to find those complex problems that really inspire them.

And that's really at the heart of innovation.

The curricular innovation that we're planning will allow students to earn a graduation distinction when they take a course that we're embedding into the curriculum.

And when they do things like the Inventure Prize or many of the other experiential learning that our students are already doing outside of the classroom.

Thank you so much again, Kate and Chad.

And a quick reminder for our audience.

You only have a few more minutes to cast your vote for the People's Choice Award.

We are now only moments away from finding out this year's Inventure Prize winner, so let's check in backstage with Ashley, who is standing by with the finalists.

How's it going back there, ash?

You know, Faith, I can't get your earlier Oscar worthy performance out of my head.

Something has changed within me.

I want to ask these finalists a question that helps reveal their true power.

Walk with me, teams.

You're all defying gravity on your own journey.

What challenge have you overcome while walking your own Georgia Tech yellow brick road?

We're both adventurers and students, and we never thought we'd be running a business, so our biggest challenge has been all the business and legal stuff that comes with that.

And we've been super lucky to have all these amazing resources at Georgia Tech to help us navigate that.

You guys keep going.

Okay, NextGenFile.

Our biggest challenge was definitely getting that communication down with all the clerks, lawyers, attorneys and judges in the state of Georgia and just navigating that legal landscape as a whole.

What about you, Verse Elliot?

What'd you overcome?

Love the heart eyes.

By the way.

An education trust is everything.

And that's what we've been focusing on the most, is building trust with the educators that we work with.

Calla how about Convexity?

What did you all overcome to get here?

Building something like this on a student budget.

We've proven that you can.

You don't need a budget of $1 million and an army of engineers to change the world.

All you need is curiosity and grit and your imagination.

All right, on to DivineDrive Ty.

What did your own hype help you guys overcome.?

The adversity came from the preconceived notions that people would have about us, telling us to stay in our lanes.

For me to just stay an athlete, for her to just stay in prosthetics.

So really going over the haters and pursuing what we wanted.

To keep on going.

And for you, Adam Stride Labs.

Building a company is hard.

It's all about getting to the right places, meeting the right people.

So we couldn't have done it without the people that supported us.

All right, I admire your bravery and faith.

This is positively thrilling thing.

Do we know who won?

Well, the judges are back, which means the results are in.

But before we announce the winners, let's check in with our judges to hear how they came to their decision.

How difficult was this decision?

So we started with paper, rock, scissors.

And then.

And then we found the sabers in the back.

Oh.

All right.

Nice.

And so she may not look like it, but she is a great fencer.

And so you prevailed.

Did you have did any of you have to convince the others.

Was it unanimous?

We were unanimous on some and some.

There was some very healthy debate.

It did not get too heated.

We're all still friends and we eventually came to consensus.

All right.

A lot to work with here.

Thank you so much for sharing and for your care in the deliberations.

All right.

It is finally time to learn who this year's Inventure Prize winners are.

Now, People's Choice voting is officially closed, so let's hear it for all of our incredible finalists as we bring them back to the stage.

And judges.

If you'd also like to join me, come on down.

Tommy.

And we would also like to welcome the participants.

We would also like to welcome participants from our K-12 Inventure Prize to help present this year's trophies.

Thank you for joining us.

Please welcome Bobby, Laura and Kabir.

All right.

First things first.

The People's Choice award.

Is that what you have, Bobby?

Okay.

People's Choice award, worth $5,000.

May I have the envelope?

Thank you so much.

And the winner of the 2025 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize People's Choice Award is DivineDrive.

Hand that back.

To you.

Congratulations, team DivineDrive.

All right.

Our second place winner.

Second place with a cash prize of $10,000 plus assistance in patent filing is.

Thank you very much, team NextGenFile.

Congratulations.

Team NextGenFile.

Here you go.

Now, I'm going to hand that back to you.

All right.

So.

Well real quick, what are your next steps?

Oh, like launching a marketing campaign.

Yeah.

We're excited to get out there.

That's it.

Right after this.

Congratulations.

All right.

And now it is.

Will you hold this for me, Bobby?

Thank you.

It is finally time.

Are you ready for first place?

I am so excited.

Thank you.

Kabir, to announce the recipient of acceptance into Georgia Tech's CREATE-X's Startup Launch program.

A check for $20,000 and your winner of the 2025 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize is.

Team Convexity.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

All right.

Whom do you want to thank?

I would like to thank my team.

Members and everyone.

Who.

Came here to support us.

Thank you so much.

We love you.

We cherish you.

My parents are my best.

Friends.

My family watching at home.

Thank you so much.

And how does it feel to win the Inventure Prize after all your hard work?

It feels great.

Electrifying.

Got to take the next step.

What are the next steps?

Build more printers, build a factory, make PCBs.

And if you have any advice for anybody in this audience or watching this at home who has some kind of dream or vision, what would you tell them?

It doesn't take a budget of $1 million.

You can have an idea, an imagination, the courage.

Just do it.

It doesn't take any amount of money or any number of people.

It just takes you and yourself.

Thank you so much.

Just start talk to people.

All right?

And with that, we are at the end of another Georgia Tech Inventure Prize.

We saw six impressive displays of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Congratulations to all of the teams, both on our stage tonight and in previous rounds for their amazing achievements.

And let's hear it one more time for our People's Choice winner, team DivineDrive.

Our second place winner NextGenFile and our first place winner Convexity Electronics.

And thank.

You to.

My co-host Ashley Mengwasser and to our judges Catherine, Donnie and John.

Thanks y'all and the folks behind the scenes at Georgia Tech who created this wonderful show.

Lastly, thanks to you, our audience, for celebrating and supporting all of our finalists.

And please join us for the ACC Inventure Prize broadcasting and streaming live from the University of Notre Dame.

Wednesday, April 2 at 7:00 P.M.. As we end the night, never ever forget necessity may be the mother of invention, but Georgia Tech is your daddy.

Good night and see you next year.

For.

Funding for this program was made possible in part by the Georgia Tech Office of Technology Licensing and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mateo faces silent battles with epilepsy.

His mom always worrying, always watching.

At Georgia Tech, these students are engineering hope for kids like Mateo, a discrete epilepsy monitoring device called NeuroChamp Medical innovations born from passion, student leaders leveraging technology to make the world better.

Go, Mateo.

Go!