Past Y-Prize Winners

In past years, the Y-Prize Competition has served as a springboard for teams to pursue real-world achievement of their winning ideas. Check out past winners’ ideas and get inspired!

2023-2024 Winner: LilyLoop

Smart, safe periods with a biodegradable sensor tampons, wearable jewelry technology, and an app for timely tampon change reminders.

Team members: Kylie Chang (Wharton), Rima Chavali (Vagelos LSM), Neha Chelamkuri (Vagelos LSM)

2022-2023 Winner: Equimeter

Equimeter utilizes the PDE of Beer-Lambert’s Law as a physical constraint for current pulse oximeters in order to better address racial discrepancies.

Team members: Ujjayi Pamidigantam (Vagelos LSM), Parthiv Patel (Vagelos LSM), Advait Thaploo (Vagelos LSM)

2021-2022 Winner: Ossum Technologies

Ossum pitched a commercial application to remove obstacles to safe cerclage use in orthopedic fracture fixation with Penn’s steerable needle technology

Team members: Ananya Dewan (Vagelos LSM), Hoang Le (Vagelos LSM), Shiva Teerdhala (Vagelos LSM), Karan Shah (SEAS), Savan Patel (M&T)

2020-2021 Winner: LiberTech

LiberTech pitched their plan to filter alcohol from beer using a nanostructured membrane which preserves the flavor of beer.

Team members: Shangting (Lucy) Sun, Sharon Ying Man Chan, Zhouzheyuan (Fred) Lu, and Hechun (Iris) Cai.

2019-2020 Winner: Metal Harvesting Lights

We will leverage Penn’s Metal-Air Scavenger IP to create an affordable lighting solution for homes in off-grid communities across the world.

Team members: Leo Li, Yumin Gao, Mohammed Dhanjy, Ryan Goethals, Kateryna Kharenko, Darshan Bhosale

2018-2019 Winner: Nosoco Technologies

Each year, 13,000 patients die from catheter-associated infections due to severe complications including sepsis, organ failure, and nephritis. Nosoco Technologies proposes to re-invent the outdated catheter by incorporating micro-structured wrinkled instabilities created through Roll-to-Roll methodologies into the material to physically disrupt biofilm formation and prevent infection at the source.

Team members: Ishir Seth (Vagelos LSM), Tanvi Kapur (Wharton), Beatriz Go (Wharton), WenTao Zhang (Vagelos LSM)

2017-2018 Winner: Cellview Sciences

Chromosense, developed by Cellview Sciences, is a testing procedure for in vitro fertilization that screens early-stage human embryos for genetic abnormalities. In the United States, one in every ten couples experiences problems with infertility, and this figure has been steadily increasing. As such, the global assisted reproductive services market has grown to over $21 billion per year. Using carbon nanopipettes to inject molecular beacons into the nuclei of developing embryo cells before they are implanted in the mother’s uterus, Chromosense scans for chromosomal abnormalities in a way that is faster, safer, and more accurate than current solutions on the market.

Team members: Michael Lee (Wharton), Ellen Naruse (Wharton), Henry Zhou (School of Arts and Sciences)

Adarsh Battu2016-2017 Winner: VisiPlate

VisiPlate is a nano-scale defense against open angle glaucoma, a condition that can lead to blindness. Open angle glaucoma currently affects 2.8 million people in the U.S. and incurs societal costs of $1.5 billion per year. By 2020, 3.4 million people in the U.S. will suffer from this condition and seek intervention. VisiPlate is an implant that reduces intraocular pressure by draining aqueous fluid from the eye. Thinner, stronger, and more reliable than existing lines of defense, VisiPlate consists of a curved, ultrathin, nanoplate attached to a tube. VisiPlate prevents glaucoma-induced blindness in a long-term, cost-effective way.

Team members: Adarsh Battu (Wharton), Brandon Kao (SEAS), Rui Jing Jiang (Wharton) 

 

2015-2016 Winner: Fermento

Fermento, now Fermentec, applies Penn’s proprietary droplet-maker technology to speed up the production process used by the $520 billion global beer industry to make beer. Through microfluidic-based production, Fermentec can speed up fermentation by up to 9 times that of existing batch reactors while maintaining alcohol quality and composition at an industrial scale. Faster beer production can lead to substantial cost reductions, and supply and profit growth for large-scale beer manufacturers, as well as smaller microbreweries.

Team members: Alexander David, Shashwata Narain, Siddharth Shah

 

2014-2015 Winner: GTRACK Technologies

GTRACK Technologies uses unique material structures as tracers to detect and characterize fluid flow in oil reservoirs and fracking situations.

Team members; Ashwin Amurthur, Teddy Geunin

 

2013-2014 Winner: TRHex

TRHex, later renamed TOBI, is a teaching robot hexapod designed to give kids hands-on experience with physics and engineering concepts. 

 Team member: Emily Plumb with Gavin Kenneally and Izzy Park consulting

 

2012-2013 Winner: IDENTIFIED

IDENTIFIED proposed using quadrotor robots to remotely detect IEDs in war zones. 

 Team members: Kelsey Duncombe-Smith, Andy Wu, Dick Zhang