2013 Merage Business Plan Competition

2013 NVC

Grand Prize

Team	Prize	Project
Laser Associated Sciences Charlene Ong, Tyler Rice, Sean White (BME / Edwards Lifesciences), Bruce Yang (BME)	$15,000	Medical device company using laser technology for medical diagnostic instrumentation

Other recorded winners

Place	Team	Prize	Project
2nd (Campus Wide)	ValveStrong S. Hamed Alavi (BME / Edwards Lifesciences), Peggy Bui, Seema Ehsan (CHEMS / Edwards Lifesciences) Coach: Richard Henson	$7,500 (Campus Wide 2nd) + $6,000 TechPortal Orange Residency Award + $500 Best Concept Paper	Hybrid heart valve prostheses with self-regenerative capacity, lifelong durability, and enhanced biocompatibility
3rd (Campus Wide)	NoreGen Neychelle Fernandes (FTMBA), Ashley Fong (IGERT LifeChips fellow / Edwards Lifesciences), Laura Innes (IGERT LifeChips fellow), Robert Joachim (UCI Physics), Jonathan Lin (MD FTMBA), Matthew Schiel (BME), Zuzanna Siwy (Prof, team lead) Coach: Alvin Viray	$3,500 (Campus Wide 3rd) + $30,000 UCI School of Medicine Life Sciences Award	Medical diagnostic device to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood
Undergraduate Division winner	Nobles Medical Technology Shoumyo Dewan, Joseph Gomez (BME), Jin Kim, Kenny La, Stephen Lee, Timothy Macagba (BME), Suraj Sampath, Sohan Weeraratne (BME) Coach: Demetri Andrikos	$2,500	Artificial pumping heart system for surgeons to practice catheter surgeries
TechPortal Calit2 Residency Award	MEGAL!NE Kimberly Co, Jinelle D'souza, Matty Ochmanek, Sreevatsa Sreeraman (software engineering), Xinlu Tong (software engineering), Debbie Le Yu Coach: Tom Taulli	$2,750 in-kind (TechPortal Calit2 Residency Award)	Technology-based language learning software that imitates pronunciations and creates text streams while watching videos
UC Irvine Environment Institute Award	Bloom Diagnostics Amanda Gage, Kevin Leong, Ali Mansouri (CHEMS), Syed Naqvi, Betty Olson, Johnway Yih Coach: Earle Hager	$2,500 (UC Irvine Environment Institute Award)	Easy-to-use kit providing real-time identification of foam-causing bacteria species via molecular diagnostic techniques

Cash total. $15,000 (LAS) + $14,000 (ValveStrong: $7.5K + $6K + $500) + $33,500 (NoreGen: $3.5K + $30K SoM Life Sciences Award) + $2,500 (Nobles) + $2,500 (Bloom Diagnostics). Excludes $2,750 in-kind TechPortal Calit2 Residency Award to MEGAL!NE. Roster and prize details verified against Samueli engineering primary source 2026-05-12.

Primary source: Merage press release.

Post-competition outcomes

• Laser Associated Sciences Acquired Acquired by Medtronic in April 2020 for undisclosed terms (OC Business Journal reported the news on 2020-04-14; UCI Innovation announcement is dated 2020-04-29; exact deal-close date not pinned to a single day across ...
• ValveStrong Dormant Researched 2026-05-12. Gust profile lists ValveStrong as 'Full Product Ready' stage but 'Not Incorporated'; founded October 2012 in Irvine. Founder S. Hamed Alavi moved on to senior R&D roles at Edwards Lifesciences A...
• NoreGen No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Cancer diagnostic device for circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection. Team led by Prof. Zuzanna Siwy with IGERT LifeChips fellows Ashley Fong and Laura Innes plus four others. Underlying CTC micr...
• Nobles Medical Technology No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. UCI undergraduate team led by Shoumyo Dewan with seven other members proposed an artificial pumping heart system for surgeons to practice catheter surgeries; won $2,500. The name appears coincid...
• MEGAL!NE No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Technology-based language learning software (pronunciation imitation while watching videos online). Six-person team coached by Tom Taulli. Prize was a $2,750 in-kind TechPortal Calit2 Residency ...
• Bloom Diagnostics No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. UCI environmental student team developing molecular-diagnostic kits for real-time identification of foam-causing bacteria species (algae-bloom precursor detection). Won the $2,500 UC Irvine Envi...