We are so proud of all of the students that pitched last night! NRLC 2023 was fiercer than ever and their months of hard work shone through. We’d like to give a big congrats to last night’s winners!
1st Place – $50,000 and the Frank Liu Jr. Prize for Creative Innovations in Music, Fashion, & the Arts – $2500
Goldie: Viviane M. Nguyen MBA ‘23, Stephanie Zhou MBA ‘23, and Samantha Wong MS/MBA ‘22
A jeans fit finder for women that uses your true measurements to match you with the perfect jeans for your body type.
2nd Place – $25,000
Tierra Climate: Emma Konet MBA ’24, Jacob Mansfield BA ’16
Accelerate energy storage deployment by unlocking and monetizing grid decarbonization services.
3rd Place – $15,000
Separion: Yuren Feng PhD ‘24, Xiaochuan Huang PhD ‘23, Ze He PhD ‘23
An innovative and environmentally friendly extraction process that uses brines already produced by geothermal energy to supply lithium faster, purer, and greener.
Audience Choice Award – $1500
Sygne Solutions: Bo Wang PhD ‘23, Subash Kannan MBA ‘24, Dana Vazquez MBA ‘24, Kimberly Heck
Forever eliminating “forever” chemicals by eliminating PFAS in water through their patent-pending technology.
RISE@Rice: The Sen Social Pioneer Prize – $1000
The Parent Teacher Collaborative: Jessica Faith Carter MBA ‘24
A school and community based non-profit organization that aims to improve student outcomes by building strong collaborative partnerships between parents and teachers.
Frank Liu Jr. Prize for Creative Innovations in Music, Fashion, & the Arts – $2500
RiseWorks: Jucheng Shen BS ‘26, Lai Peng BS ‘24, Yuan Chen BS ‘25, Kaiyuan Wu BS ‘23
An AI-driven music therapy that uses personalized algorithms to identify each individual’s unique mental health needs and provide personalized music therapy sessions that can help with a variety of mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
Outstanding Undergraduate Award – $5000
Tidepay: Andrew Pitigoi BBA ‘26 and Devin Shah BBA ‘26 (UH)
An HR and payroll solution for shipping companies that streamlines the onboarding process and helps transfer wages to their globally positioned employees’ bank accounts.
