Purdue Students Earn Cash Prizes for Innovative Solutions to Global Challenges

Teams of Purdue University students won a combined $5,500 in prizes during the finals of the Moonshot Pitch Challenge, a semiannual, ideation-focused competition organized by the Purdue Innovates Incubator.

“Purdue University students think critically about worldwide challenges and take the next giant leaps to address them,” said Doug Applegate, Incubator associate director. “The Moonshot Pitch Challenge recognizes audacious solutions and the people ideating them.”

Active Purdue undergraduate and graduate students across all colleges were eligible to compete. Fifty-four teams submitted a video to explain the problem they were addressing and propose the solution. Solutions were grouped in one of three categories:

• Earth: Ideas primarily focused on addressing socioeconomic needs and challenges.
• Moonshot: Ideas primarily focused on solving a seemingly impossible problem.
• Orbit: Ideas primarily focused on launching a company.

Fifteen finalists had two minutes to pitch their solutions to judges March 6 at the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. Submissions for the fall 2024 Moonshot Pitch Challenge will begin in August.

Winning teams

First-place teams in each category received $1,500 apiece. Teams that won the Best Pitch and Crowd Favorite awards received $500 each. The winners were:

Earth category and Best Pitch Award: Money Monkey, a gamified financial literacy application designed for young learners aged 8-18. Its engaging application offers a captivating journey through the world of finance, equipping younger generations with essential skills and knowledge to manage money wisely. Team members: Shri Atluri and Kestan Kamei, College of Science.

“Moonshot has provided us with an incredible platform to showcase our idea,” Atluri said. “With the money we are grateful to have received, we are looking forward to developing our idea into a viable product to benefit children around the world.”

Moonshot category: Kesslernet, a fully autonomous, coordinated, satellite-servicing constellation in low Earth orbit. It maintains safe and sustainable satellite operations while preventing the Kessler syndrome, a scenario in which there are so many satellites and other objects that they collide, which generates space debris that leads to more collisions. Team members are Aditya Arjun Anibha, Atharva Awasthi and Srinath Dantu, College of Engineering.

“Moonshot is an excellent experience that gives students an opportunity to rapidly develop a radical world-changing idea and master the art of the pitch,” Anibha said. “The prize money will give Kesslernet the impetus and credibility to turn into a real company with the potential to protect and revolutionize the space industry. Our next milestones are to complete our business model, develop and patent our software algorithm prototype, and acquire our first customer and further investments.”

Orbit category: OpenSpaces, a platform that connects people in need of affordable, available and convenient storage space with people who own an excess amount of space. This generates revenue off commissions from the renter and rentee. Team members include Nihal Gunukula and Vinay Gupta, College of Science.

“The Moonshot Pitch Challenge from Purdue Innovates Incubator is an incredible opportunity that not only refined our entrepreneurial skills but also provided a platform to promote OpenSpaces,” Gupta said. “With the given funding, we look to improve our current technological infrastructure, reach out for potential partnerships and add final touches to our product as we prepare for our beta launch here at Purdue University in the upcoming months, where Boilermakers will be able to use their spare space as a shared solution to storage.”

Crowd favorite: BoilerBookings.com, which solves the travel problem for out-of-state students starting at Purdue. There are too many flight and shuttle combinations for travel during breaks. Its algorithm computes them to minimize cost, duration and airport waiting time. Team members are Rithwik Erabelly, College of Engineering, and Pradyun Kamaraju and Arnav Kulkarni, College of Science.

Jason Alexander Fotso-Puepi, a student in Purdue’s College of Science and Graduate School, delivers his two-minute pitch about Spray during the Moonshot Pitch Challenge. (Purdue Research Foundation photo/Brad Oppenheim) Download image

“In addition to the free food, the Moonshot Pitch Challenge was great because it allowed us to hear some invaluable feedback from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs with real experience,” Kamaraju said. “Our developers have been working really hard, so we plan on splitting this money amongst them. We’re going to keep refining the product we already have, while simultaneously thinking of ways to bring it to a new level and revolutionize the way college travel works.”

Honor roll of finalists

The other teams in the finals were:

• Astro-Oasis: Aarin Dutta, Bradley Heim, Ella Maldonado and Elliott Soderberg, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.
• Atopia: Juniper Rodriguez, College of Liberal Arts, and Jacky Zhang, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.
• DocAid: Siddharth Bhasker, College of Science and Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.
• HERO: Adam Gillette, College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School, and Alexander Searles, Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
• IndivHear: Sarthak Mangla, College of Science.
• Kanga Kare: Sarah Busch and Eileen Wolff, College of Liberal Arts.
• Mindful: William Huth, Drew Janszen and Emily Mack, College of Liberal Arts.
• Precise Slice: Marielle Berin, College of Engineering; and Thomas Fang and Grace Goudreau, Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
• Sonder: William Kauffman, John Stanwick and Alexander Zimbalist, College of Engineering; and Hamza Shaikh, College of Science.
• Spoke & Wing Fuel Regulator: Tristen Brideweser, College of Science; Knic Royer, Purdue Polytechnic Institute; and Will Shumway, College of Liberal Arts.
• Spray: Jason Alexander Fotso-Puepi, College of Science and Graduate School.