Students impress with their entrepreneurial ideas in 2025 Blaze Venture Challenge 

The 2025 Blaze Venture Challenge at UIC, held April 16, marked the third year of this dynamic competition, which serves as the capstone event of UIC Innovation’s entrepreneurial programs.

The annual pitch challenge showcases the innovative spirit of UIC students by providing a platform for individuals and teams to present their business ideas to a panel of judges from Chicago businesses and organizations, including Chicago Biomedical Consortium and Illinois Ventures, a University of Illinois-based venture firm. The event not only celebrates creativity and entrepreneurship but also offers participants valuable opportunities for mentorship, networking and real-world pitching experience.

Leading up to the finals of this year’s competition, students participated in workshops to generate ideas, research customer needs and hone their pitches. From an initial pool of 76 students representing 30 teams, nine finalists were selected to compete in the pitch challenge event, where they delivered compelling presentations to the panel of judges.

The competition awarded a total of $13,000 in prizes, sponsored by Comcast, with awards for first, second and third places, a crowd favorite and the Comcast Community Health Impact Award.

Akknowledge, a platform to connect students with study partners, won first place and $5,000. Read more about Akknowledge and the UIC students who developed it — Micheal Charles, Albert Huynh, Fawwaz Abayomi and Shpetim Useini.

Second place and $3,500 went to students Aden Joe and Nathan Thokkudubiyyapu for their idea, HireIQ, an AI-assisted service that aims to help users practice stronger virtual interviews.

Adero Knott won third place and $1,500 for her idea: Safair, a third-party resource to provide travel resources for travelers with disabilities.

Jenny Huang won the $2,000 Comcast Community Health Impact Award for her pitch for CurMed, which is the company name of the nano-PAZ product, a stable, injectable formula that allows for precise drug delivery and targeted treatment of a drug type called pazopanib. 

The Crowd Favorite, a $500 prize, went to students Yatharth Patel and Shivansh Amba for their pitch on KineticZero, a consultancy for startups, with an emphasis on tech development. 

— Elaine Harvey, Associate Director for Innovation