2016 Merage Business Plan Competition

2016 NVC

Grand Prize

Team	Prize	Project
EmbryLux Tiffany Chien, Yingkai Su, Thai Nguyen, Shin Fukazawa, Daniel Tran	$20,000 ($10,000 Life Sciences/Clean Tech 1st + $10,000 UCI Intellectual Property 1st; dual award)	Device screening embryos pre-implantation for IVF

Other finalists

Track / Award	Team	Prize	Project
1st (IT/Web)	Dental Insights Michael Bennett, Andy Fields, Vang Kou Khang	$10,000	Software to increase accuracy and authenticity of submitted dental claims
1st (Consumer Products)	FunBand Rehema Feleke, Simon Loo, Cliff Wang	$10,000	Secure wristband using LoRa technology to help parents track children at venues
Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation Award	Negocios & Etc. Caroline Cypriano, Pravin Surana, Fabio Sato	$10,000	Online platform connecting business owners with affordable consultancies via a unique social network
School of Medicine Award	Sher Biomedical Rachel Gurlin, Avid Najdahmadi, Bhupinder Shergill, Jonathan Lakey, Elliot Botnivick	$10,000
2nd (UCI Intellectual Property)	Carbo Pooja Raja, Rickesh Patel, Xuemei Zhang, Ahmed Khorshid, Ting-Shuo Chou	$5,000	Novel therapeutic robot to supplement home, classroom and clinic therapy for autism spectrum disorder and ADHD
2nd (IT/Web)	Jam Emilio Miranda, Miguel Cabral, Jakob Jansson	$5,000	App that lets musicians easily connect, jam together and form groups remotely
2nd (Life Sciences/Clean Tech)	CeleriBio Sean Freeman, Nikki Koe, Louai Labanieh, Binh Le, Sadaf Mirnia	$5,000	Novel diagnostic device identifying extremely low concentrations of pathogens at early stages of infection
2nd (Consumer Products)	Curaflow Jeffrey Chum, Josh Drum, Michael Shenk, Matthew Vasquez, Sam Pasin	$5,000	Micro CPAP device for sleep apnea: motorless, tubeless, and maskless
Most Outstanding Undergraduate Plan	Bottle Rocket Arthur Avetisov, Brian Leung, Eric Tam, Lisa Tran, Tina Mai	$1,000	Mobile app and direct-to-consumer recycling service rewarding customers for recycling at home
Best Pivot Program Plan	Maslow Construction Robots Andy Truong	$1,500	Supplier of automated 3D-printing tools to real estate developers for low-cost emergency housing

Cash total. EmbryLux $20K (dual award) + Dental Insights $10K + FunBand $10K + Negocios & Etc. $10K + Sher Biomedical $10K + Carbo $5K + Jam $5K + CeleriBio $5K + Curaflow $5K + Bottle Rocket $1K + Maslow $1.5K = $82,500. UCI News reported 'more than $100,000 in cash and prizes' which appears to include legal services and workspace access not captured here. Track placements verified against UCI News primary source 2026-05-12 (previously unknown per BACKLOG Priority 4).

Primary source: Merage press release.

Post-competition outcomes

• EmbryLux No public outcome The 2016 UCI design site exists, plus a 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition appearance under 'Embryologic'. No Crunchbase or current company site. Underlying FLIM-phasor IVF research published in Scientific Reports (2...
• Dental Insights No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Software to increase the accuracy and authenticity of submitted dental claims (Michael Bennett, Andy Fields, Vang Kou Khang). Won $10,000. The team's UCI-affiliated startup has no traceable comm...
• FunBand Dormant Researched 2026-05-12. Co-founders Rehema Feleke (pediatric emergency medicine physician), Simon Loo, and Cliff Wang built a LoRa-technology child-tracking wristband for amusement parks and event venues. Accepted into...
• Negocios & Etc. No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Online platform connecting business owners with affordable consultancies via a unique social network. Won the $10,000 Blum Center Poverty Alleviation Award. Co-founder Pravin Surana returned the...
• Sher Biomedical No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Five-member UCI School-of-Medicine team (Rachel Gurlin, Avid Najdahmadi, Bhupinder Shergill, Jonathan Lakey, Elliot Botnivick); won $10,000 School of Medicine Award. No traceable commercial enti...
• Carbo Pivoted Researched 2026-05-12. Novel therapeutic robot for autism / ADHD therapy in home, classroom, and clinic settings. The work continued as Prof. Jeff Krichmar's research at UCI's Cognitive Anteater Robotics Laboratory; t...
• Jam No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. App for musicians to connect, jam together, and form groups remotely (Emilio Miranda, Miguel Cabral, Jakob Jansson); won $5,000. The 'Jam' name is heavily overloaded in the consumer-music-app sp...
• CeleriBio No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Rapid and quantitative diagnostic device for bloodstream infections and antibiotic resistance. Team member Louai Labanieh subsequently completed a PhD at Stanford in Bioengineering, became a Par...
• Curaflow No public outcome Researched 2026-05-12. Micro CPAP device for sleep apnea: motorless, tubeless, and maskless (Jeffrey Chum, Josh Drum, Michael Shenk, Matthew Vasquez, Sam Pasin). Also appeared as a semifinalist in the 2016 Beall Stude...
• Bottle Rocket Dormant Researched 2026-05-12. Mobile-app and direct-to-consumer recycling service rewarding users for at-home recycling. Founded in a UCI dorm room by political-science / economics major Arthur Avetisov and international-stu...
• Maslow Construction Robots Operating Researched 2026-05-12. Automated 3D-printing tools for real-estate developers, aimed at bringing emergency housing down to low-cost / fast-construction minimums. Headquartered in Irvine, CA; founded by Andy Truong (th...