Four UMass Amherst Student Startups Share $65K in Annual Innovation Challenge Pitch Competition
More than 50 ventures representing 10 schools and colleges across the university entered this year’s competition, with 25 invited to pitch at a preliminary event on April 15 and four advancing to the final. The top pitches spanned public health, agriculture, digital marketing and clean energy.
Each finalist delivered a five-minute pitch followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session with a panel of judges made up of alumni and industry professionals.
The winners are:
$31,000, HertZ Innovation Inc. — Yuzhen Zhang ’25, College of Natural Sciences
HertZ Innovation strengthens public health by making advanced contamination detection accessible at the point of need. BactiSee is a rapid, reliable bacterial confirmation system designed to improve safety, reduce costs and support smarter decisions across industries.
$23,000, SwineShield — Ryan Ciulla ’27, College of Natural Sciences
SwineShield manufactures a patent-pending protective vest for newborn piglets that reduces crushing-related mortality by up to 40%, saving operators $15,000–$40,000 annually while also improving animal welfare.
$10,000, Vidovo — Elijah Khasabo ’26, Isenberg School of Management
Vidovo is a user-generated content marketplace and managed service that pairs brands with vetted creators to produce scroll-stopping, paid-ready video content at scale. It handles sourcing, briefing and production so brands get a steady stream of fresh ad creative without the overhead.
$1,000, Air-Gen — Alex Lombardi ’27, Riccio College of Engineering
Air-Gen generates continuous electricity from ambient humidity with no batteries, no sunlight and no moving parts. Its dual-mechanism hydrogel platform enables maintenance-free, energy-autonomous electronics for smart buildings and the internet of things.