University of Texas at Dallas students and alumni presented their startup ideas and competed for $330,000, a record amount of prize money, April 14 at the Draper Pitch Competition.
Nine student and alumni teams made the finals across three tracks — undergraduate, graduate student and alumni. First-place winners received $50,000, followed by $30,000 for second place and $20,000 for third. Three additional teams each received $10,000 in special awards to recognize the quality of their ideas, the clarity of their vision and their entrepreneurial potential. An additional $20,000 of the prize pool was set aside to go toward scholarships for entrepreneurship students.
UT Dallas President Prabhas V. Moghe
UT Dallas President Prabhas V. Moghe spoke at the competition about entrepreneurship’s central role in the University’s strategic vision.
“The dream is to take this kind of a pitch competition and multiply it by 10,” said Moghe, the Eugene McDermott Distinguished University Chair of Leadership. “In order to multiply it by 10, we need 10 times the number of students coming in from all over Texas and all over the U.S. and abroad to UT Dallas. So UT Dallas will be known as a place that attracts the most innovative and disruptive-thinking students.”
That vision was reflected in the range of winning ideas.
In the undergraduate track, Fardeen Ahmed, a computer information systems and technology sophomore in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, won the top prize for SalesPilot, artificial intelligence software that analyzes dealership sales calls and provides real-time coaching to help salespeople improve conversations, book more appointments and increase revenue.
Ahmed plans to use the winnings to expand marketing efforts.
“We’re going to go very aggressively on Meta and our outbound calls, maybe hire some extra salespeople,” he said. “We’ll get a really good outbound effort, and just make sure our ratios are good. That way, with the money that we’re putting in, we’re getting better returns.”
The graduate student track winner tackled mapping radioactive contamination.
Andres Aguirre, a materials science and engineering doctoral student in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, presented RadMap Robotics, autonomous drones and ground vehicles that create 3D radiation maps of critical infrastructure.
“We’re going to put our winnings into the projects,” he said. “We want to develop this company because we believe in the solution. And this funding is just going to help us get through quicker.”
Subah Zaeem (left), head of global community and partnerships at Draper University Ventures, and Carol Marcus‑Rehtmeyer, executive director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas
Alumni track winner MusiQ Bio is developing a noninvasive approach that uses engineered microbubbles to bypass the blood-brain barrier to deliver drugs into the brain.
“We plan to use the winnings for some preliminary studies, de-risk the platform a little bit more and then use the new data package to raise even more money,” said Dr. Sina Khorsandi BS’18, who is a postdoctoral researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center. “Our hope is that this will get us closer to clinical trials.”
Formerly known as the Big Idea Competition, the event was renamed after the Draper Foundation, a private charitable foundation that supports entrepreneurial education.
Subah Zaeem, head of global community and partnerships at Draper University Ventures and one of the competition’s judges, said the quality of the business ideas stood out.
“We were not expecting them to be this good,” she said. “They were supersharp. They delivered.”
Carol Marcus‑Rehtmeyer, executive director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas, said the competition reflects the rapid growth and maturation of the University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“This program has grown dramatically in both scale and impact, and that’s intentional,” she said. “Through the institute and our year‑round programming, UT Dallas is extraordinarily supportive of our students and alumni, providing mentorship, rigorous feedback, resources and a community that stays with founders well beyond a single competition. Our goal is not just to help them pitch, but to help them build enduring ventures.”
Chris Bhatti MA’06, associate vice president for development and alumni relations, said the expanded funding made possible by the Draper Foundation has changed what is possible for student founders and has built a broader entrepreneurial community around the competition.
Dr. Hasan Pirkul (left), Caruth Chair and dean of the Naveen Jindal School of Management, and Dr. Sulman Ahmed BA’01, founder, chairman and CEO of DECA Dental Group
“That allowed our students to be elevated, which we saw tonight,” he said.
Keynote speaker Dr. Sulman Ahmed BA’01, founder, chairman and CEO of DECA Dental Group, said the path to building a successful venture is rarely straightforward.
“Life never goes as planned; embrace when those bad things happen or things don’t go as planned,” he said.
Ahmed advised students pursuing entrepreneurship to be patient and focus on perseverance.
“If you can hang around long enough, you’ll win at the end of the day,” he said.
The other judges were Suzy Batiz, CEO and founder of Poo-Pourri and Supernatural; George Brody, chairman of Turbostart and a member of the Jindal School’s Advisory Council; and James Dowd MBA’01, partner at Waxahachie Village Equity Partners and an adjunct clinical professor in the Jindal School.
Draper Pitch Competition Winners
Undergraduate Track
1st – SalesPilot
2nd – Medceptor
3rd – PoolControl.ai
Graduate Student Track
1st – RadMap Robotics
2nd – Helio-Ops
3rd – NanoPaws Therapeutics
Alumni Track
1st – MusiQ Bio
2nd – Will-Call
3rd – GoiCure + GoiRetreat
Special Awards
UniLink
ECG Biometrics
Eldering