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
- Dental Insights No public outcome
- FunBand Dormant
- Negocios & Etc. No public outcome
- Sher Biomedical No public outcome
- Carbo Pivoted
- Jam No public outcome
- CeleriBio No public outcome
- Curaflow No public outcome
- Bottle Rocket Dormant
- Maslow Construction Robots