Exercising grit, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit, a team of UF capstone senior design students advanced to the Sweet 16 of UF’s prestigious Big Idea Business Plan Competition. The team of Meredith Giangaspro, Aidan Henriksen, Yuliia Hrynchenko, John Mallari, Haydn Rhodes, and Jake Rosken is forming AIBL Tech, a company that integrates AI-driven real-time object recognition into prosthetic arms.
“Our technology uses real-time object recognition to anticipate what item the user is reaching for,” AIBL Tech’s CEO John Malari said. “The prosthetic hand then forms the correct grasp for the identified object, enabling the user to pick it up without need for manual control.”
The Big Idea Competition is hosted by UF’s Warrington College of Business each Spring. It awards over $50K in prizes to top teams with the winner receiving $25K, complimentary office space at the UF Gator Hatchery start-up incubator, and mentoring from UF’s entrepreneurship community. From a starting pool of over 100 competitors AIBL Tech was selected as a top 16 finalist to pitch their product to a panel of judges. Based on the pitches, four finalists are selected to compete for the top prizes.
“Integration of the Big Idea Competition with our mechanical engineering capstone class allowed us to leverage what we learned in classes to develop a product with huge positive impact for upper arm amputees,” Yuliia Hrynchenko, AIBL Tech’s COO said. “Using our skills and knowledge to create a commercial product that helps people live better is incredibly rewarding.”
AIBL Tech was incubated in the UF Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department’s capstone senior design program, taught by Senior Lecturer and Instructional Associate Professor Matthew J. Traum. The course is structured to train students in product development through real-world experiences. Capstone student teams usually develop products in collaboration with UF faculty or non-profit organizations. AIBL Tech’s members took a different route: developing their own product for entry into the UF Big Idea Competition with plans to spin off a medical wearables startup once members graduate.
“AIBL Tech’s success demonstrates the effectiveness of our pragmatic approach to capstone where students learn by doing,” Traum said. “We provide students the training and resources to pursue entrepreneurship as an alternative to conventional engineering career paths, and we’ve enjoyed exceptional success.”
AIBL Tech is the second company incubated by MAE capstone in two years to reach the Big Idea Sweet 16. In 2023, the student-founded biotechnology company RaveBio (https://ravebio.com/) reached the Sweet 16 and went on to finish the competition in 2nd place, receiving a $10K prize.
The 2024 Big Idea business plan pitches occur on April 25, 2024. AIBL Tech members expressed excitement and confidence for advancing into the top four to compete for the $25K prize.