NovaXS Biotech Takes Top Spot at Collider Cup IX

The UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) held Collider Cup IX, its innovation showcase featuring Fall 2021’s top student venture projects, on Dec 10, 2021 in-person in the Bechtel Engineering Center. Ten teams pitched their venture projects to an esteemed panel of investors to have the opportunity to receive feedback, connect with the Berkeley community, and win prizes, including the illustrious Collider Cup! 

1st place and People’s Choice – NovaXS Biotech

This semester, NovaXS Biotech, a smart medical device focused on advanced drug delivery for users’ long-term health, earned first place, as well as the People’s Choice award.

“Healthcare is an equal right for all. Our approach is to care, love, and listen to people in need,” says Alina Su, CEO of NovaXS Biotech and Berkeley Bioengineering major (‘22). “NovaXS aims to empower accessible healthcare that truly works for our beloved ones. We encourage more driven entrepreneurs to join our journey changing the world.”

Team: Alina Su

Course: Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (INDENG 192).

2nd place – Veriply

The number two project for Collider Cup IX was Veriply, a project from SCET’s Startup Acceleration course (INDENG 198) that uses fraud-detection software to help businesses find mistakes and fraud in invoices to help recover some of the $4.5B lost annually to fraud.

Team: Daniel Tsentsiper

Course: Startup Acceleration (INDENG 198)

3rd place – IDLE

Collider Cup IX also recognized the third place project as IDLE, an environmentally-focused venture project that aims to reduce the amount of jet fuel – and 20M tons of greenhouse gas emissions – that planes use while idling waiting for takeoff. 

Team: Pietro Achatz Antonelli, Diana Soots, William Alexander, Andre Molga, and Kashan Saeed

Course: Innovation-X: Future of Industry Startup Lab (INDENG 190E/290)

Most Innovative Technology – SeaWeNeedIt

Collider Cup IX also featured a new prize category, Most Innovative Technology. This year’s winner in that category was SeaWeNeedIt, a venture project showing the promise of seaweed as a more sustainable alternative to plastic-heavy artificial leather.

Team: Alejandra Vergara, Alexandre Bienvenue Andre Dorville, Andreas Kloefverskjoeld, Eid Al-Helal, and Maia Chrystel Blanca Bourgoin

Course: Deplastify the Planet (INDENG 190E/290)

Fall 2021 Teaching Awards

Each Collider Cup, SCET recognizes the outstanding teaching team that makes it possible to educate and support more than 1,000 students enrolled in SCET courses each semester.

Best Student Worker Award

The Fall 2021 Best Student Worker Award was given to Tiffany Chung for her work as a course coordinator to support SCET’s INDENG 185 Alternative Meat: Product Design & Customer Needfinding course.

“Thank you so much for this teaching award! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a course coordinator for Alt Meat and to learn alongside all the amazing students. I looked forward to every class we had, whether it be in-person or on Zoom, and connecting with everyone. Thank you to all the Alt Meat students and Anne for making my last semester so awesome!”

Best Instructor Award

The SCET Best Instructor Award is given to recognize excellence in the field, including curriculum development and pedagogical practices, ability to awaken student interest and/or arouse curiosity of subject matter, service to department/institution/community, contribution to diversity, mentorship. The Fall 2021 Best Instructor Award was given to Mark Searle, for teaching INDENG 198 Startup Acceleration.

Prizes and Support from Collider Cup Partners

Collider Cup IX was supported by SCET angel network partners, Erupture and Berkeley Angel Network, who provided judges and feedback to teams, and will continue to engage with Collider Cup IX teams to provide advice and potential investment. Winning teams of the Collider Cup were awarded the Erupture Prize consisting of – an invitation to Erupture Pitch Day to pitch to potential investors; potential investment opportunity; incubation and mentorship program at Erupture; $250K-worth of deals, discounts, and perks offered through Erupture; participation in the Angel Network Buildfirst program; $1000 Notion credit from Notion X Erupture; and a one-on-one meeting with Erupture Angels. From Collider Cup IX judge and angel investor Chris Gorog, the winning team will also be awarded a $200 gift certificate to be used at HEADLINE. Moreover, BAN will be awarding the top three teams with one-on-one coaching and mentorship opportunities from BAN angel investors along with an invitation to the ‘Silicon Valley in Your Pocket’ accelerator program.

Thanks to our judges for their time and attention, including Christie Wang, executive director at Valere Venture; Jeff Wallace, adjunct instructor at UC Berkeley, co-founder of Silicon Valley in Your Pocket, and co-founder & former President of Batchery; Chris Gorog (EECS ’00), CEO of HEADLINE; Danielle Jing, associate at Pear VC; Cathy Schwallie Farmer, co-founder of the Autism Angels Group; Jay Onda, head of strategic initiatives at the Extreme Tech Challenge; and Andrea Chang, general partner at NGC Ventures.