Engineers take top spots at Aggie Pitch
With mentorship and guidance from the Meloy Program, Aggie engineering students showcased their entrepreneurial mindset and persuasive presentation skills.
Kshiti Kangovi (left) and Ananya Das (center) hold their trophy and ceremonial check alongside Blake Petty, executive director of Texas A&M University’s McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship.
Aggie PITCH 2025, hosted by the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, offered current Texas A&M University students a chance to win prizes for strong entrepreneurial projects.
Spread between full pitch and elevator pitch competitions, eight teams were awarded a total of $17,000 in cash prizes. These monetary awards, paired with invaluable networking opportunities, industry feedback and personal mentorship, help participants in the competition gain what they need to make their startup idea an effective, operational business.
Four teams with students from the College of Engineering took first and second place in both competitions.
Kshiti Kangovi and Ananya Das, senior multidisciplinary engineering technology students, secured first place in the full pitch competition as well as the People’s Choice award. Their winning AgTech startup, SomaTech, is focused on helping farmers continue their work during drought conditions. By using a moisture-retaining soil buffer and an AI soil monitoring system, SomaTech’s solution reduces water usage while increasing crop yield.
Both students give credit to the Meloy Program for helping them learn how startups operate.
“As engineers, we are limited to surface level business knowledge,” Kangovi said. “But the engineering entrepreneurship program at Texas A&M has helped us cultivate our knowledge in product development, customer segmentation, marketing, and even finances.”
In preparation for the competition, Meloy Program faculty members Jim Donell and Chris Curran worked alongside Kangovi and Das to help them perfect their presentation.
“Professors Donnell and Curran stayed with us in the Zachary Engineering Complex until 8 p.m. most days leading up to the competition,” Das said. “It was the result of months of effort from both our team and our mentors that allowed us to walk away with the first place award and the People’s Choice award.”
As engineers, we are limited to surface level business knowledge. But the engineering entrepreneurship program at Texas A&M has helped us cultivate our knowledge in product development, customer segmentation, marketing, and even finances.
Second place in the full pitch competition was won by IntuSense, a medical technology startup focused on developing an early detection system for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
“VAP is the most common hospital-acquired infection contracted by adults in the U.S., affecting over 300,000 people annually,” said Idris Hussein, an aerospace engineering Ph.D. student and IntuSense team member. “IntuSense is developing a sensing device that attaches to existing ventilator systems to detect the bacteria that cause VAP before symptoms appear. This will save patient lives and reduce the out-of-pocket costs to hospitals.”
Reflecting on their win, Hussein noted how the competition helped the team grow as entrepreneurs and communicators.
“This experience has given us confidence,” Hussein said. “We now feel ready to compete in other pitch competitions, not just for the recognition, but because we need the funding to turn IntuSense from an idea into something that can actually help patients and save lives.”
Sameeka Kalavgunta, a sophomore computer science student, took first place in the elevator pitch competition. Her startup Trravo is a community-based platform that connects students from middle school through college with safe, real-world opportunities in their own neighborhoods.
“I am truly proud of my first place win, not just because of the result, but because it reflects the passion and confidence I brought into sharing Trravo’s story,” Kalavgunta said. “It affirmed the value behind the platform and proved that how I share the story matters just as much as the idea itself.”
Kalavgunta highlighted how she felt supported by the entrepreneurial community at the College of Engineering.
“As a freshman, I wasn’t aware of the entrepreneurial opportunities on campus, but everything changed when I was introduced to the Meloy Program,” Kalavgunta said. “The level of opportunity and support has felt endless and pushed me to believe in what I was building. My peers, professors and mentors have created an environment where collaboration and growth are truly prioritized.”
Vishnu Vasudev, a junior biomedical engineering student, took home second place in the elevator pitch competition. Vasudev pitched Renalyze, a wearable device that enables continuous, at-home monitoring of kidney function for patients and at-risk individuals.
“Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 800 million people worldwide, yet most patients only realize they’re in danger when it’s too late,” Vasudev said. “In fact, eight in 10 people who have CKD don’t even know they have it. Renalyze empowers patients and clinicians alike by providing real-time insights, helping personalize treatment, reduce clinic visits and enable earlier detection of kidney decline.”
Renalyze has been in development since Vasudev was a freshman, and he hopes the new recognition will give the project the boost it needs to progress.
“Personally, this journey has been hard because I’ve been going at it without co-founders, so successes like this are especially important in keeping me going,” Vasudev said. “I definitely want to thank Fred Pifano of the Meloy Program, who showed up to this competition and made sure I knew he was rooting for me.”
