Pitch competitions spotlight FIU's entrepreneurial talent

From artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to creative marketplaces and maternal health technology, Florida International University students are turning ideas into ventures backed by funding, mentorship and national pathways to scale.

This semester, three major pitch competitions hosted by FIU Business — the ATOM x AIS Technology Innovation Challenge, the Blackstone LaunchPad “From Idea to Impact” competition and the campus round of the Hult Prize Foundation — brought together students from across disciplines to develop solutions to real-world challenges.

Together, the events demonstrate FIU’s growing commitment to entrepreneurship as a university wide priority that creates opportunities for engineers, technologists and creatives alike.

(L to R) Elizabeth Lanza, Isaac Ruiz, Adilet Sultanbek and Altair Ibysh of Mentra AI

AI and cybersecurity solutions

The ATOM x AIS Technology Innovation 2026 Challenge, organized by the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, recorded its highest participation to date.

Students developed solutions in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics and presented them to a panel of alumni and industry judges.

The top award went to Mentra AI, a platform designed to reduce the risk of sensitive corporate data being exposed through public AI tools.

The system restricts access based on permissions and grounds responses in internal company data.

“The most valuable lesson we learned here was teamwork,” said Isaac Ruiz, a member of the winning team.

Following the competition, the team was invited to present at the AGILE International Conference in March.

Elizabeth Lanza, another team member, said the experience extended beyond the classroom.

“That wouldn’t have been an opportunity we could have had if we weren’t doing this together and putting all this time and effort into it,” she said.

Jon Sastre, an FIU alumnus and senior partner sales manager at Amazon Web Services who served as a judge, said direct feedback from professionals can help students understand how ideas translate into practice.

First place winners, Shawn Vithayathil and Isabella Mina

Marketplace concepts and funding

At the Blackstone LaunchPad “From Idea to Impact” competition, open to undergraduate and graduate students university wide, participants refined startup concepts through structured mentoring before competing for $12,000 in prize funding.

First place and $5,000 went to Fotochi, a marketplace platform connecting photographers with clients.

“I started my own entertainment company, and that’s where I found out there’s a problem finding photographers,” said Shawn Vithayathil, an International MBA student and Fotochi co-founder.

The team conducted market research and spoke directly with photographers to assess demand before pitching the idea publicly.

“We wanted to make sure we had a platform that could solve the problem for both sides,” said Isabella Mina.

Donald Roomes, professor of international business and a judge, said entrepreneurship plays a broader role in economic development.

“Entrepreneurship is really the catalyst to development in any society,” Roomes said.

(L to R) Abiel Vasallo Veliz, Amanda Sanchez and Jenny Pei of Polar Doc

Global health innovation

Engineering students Jenny Pei, Amanda Sanchez and Abiel Vasallo Veliz won FIU’s Hult Prize campus competition with Polar Doc, a startup addressing spontaneous preterm birth.

“This is the world’s largest pitch competition where students from universities around the world develop entrepreneurial solutions to social challenges,” organizers said during the event.

Polar Doc’s product, PRIM, Portable Preterm Imaging, is a handheld, speculum-free device that uses polarization optics to analyze cervical collagen alignment and assess preterm birth risk.

“Preterm birth is the number one cause of infant death worldwide,” Pei said during the pitch.

The team will advance to national summits for a chance to compete for $1 million in seed funding.

David Gitman, CEO of Monarch Air and a judge and mentor, said competitions give students experience presenting ideas under structured criteria.

“The most important thing in every business venture is a team,” Gitman said.