The 2025 Idea & Innovation Challenge Final Event

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:24:14 -0500

On Thursday, November 20th, the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (ABCEI) hosted the annual Idea & Innovation Challenge, which celebrates creativity, problem-solving, and student innovation. UMBC’s top student entrepreneurs took the stage in the University Center Ballroom to pitch their groundbreaking ideas to a panel of expert judges — and even the audience had a say, voting live for Best Presentation!

A huge thank you to our judges for lending their time and expertise. Your support helps empower the next generation of innovators. And a special thank you to our generous sponsors, Scott Weber and Nancy Burger, for making this event possible and supporting UMBC’s entrepreneurial community.

We are proud to announce this year’s winners:

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION TRACK

1st Place: ORBIT – Malak Abdeldayem, Samira Ali, Farell Kimble and Lehbah Amin

2nd Place: SWAGGIEZ GLASSES – Steven Nomenyo

3rd Place: A-EYE – Anjali Jha

4th Place: Budget2Broker – Saumya Brahmbhatt, Haley Patel and Atuh Fon

5th Place: LoopSpot – Sai Rapelli

SOCIAL IMPACT TRACK

1st Place: Bhavan – Esha Manoj

2nd Place: Project Forward Africa – Daniel Abumere

3rd Place: H2gO – Ephrata Mangesha and Lexie Merrifield

4th Place: Shamsa – Rania Abu-Nijaila and Julia Barr

5th Place: Uniconnect – Sina Razaghi

SPARK TRACK

1st Place: NETTY – Maria Hoffen and Valerie Zhou (ALSO BEST PRESENTATION)

2nd Place: SOCIALSCAPES – Brian Hughes

3rd Place: The Grove – Kamarya Buckley

4th Place: AuraSpace – Tamil Gurunathan

5th Place: HUMANSPACE – Sara Abbas and Oghenerona Akpeneye

Congratulations to all our participants! Thank you for bringing your passion, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit to this year’s challenge. We can’t wait to see what you do next!