After some of the most intense competition in the program’s history, team Hearo won first place at the 18th annual InVenture Prize competition, which began with a record 72 teams and culminated in six finalists pitching live to a panel of judges and a packed audience.

Hearo’s invention reimagines the otoscope for parents, enabling caregivers to conduct an at-home ear exam and capture physician-usable images to help identify ear infections without a trip to the doctor’s office.

Drawing on their variety of skills and backgrounds, teammates Ander DeOnaindia (computer engineering), Vasileios Kouloumentas (biomedical engineering), Luis Lujan (biomedical engineering), Agustin Munyau (biomedical engineering), Marilyn Pelayo-Montufar (computer science), and Luke Towery (mechanical engineering) saw an opportunity to make a big change in healthcare.

“It’s so huge,” Towery said. “Winning this really shows what can happen when a team finds a problem in the world to solve and sticks together.”

First place comes with a $20,000 prize and a coveted spot in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch, a 12-week summer program in which participants work with experienced entrepreneurs and Tech alumni to launch their ideas into fully functioning startups.

“Next, we’ll take Hearo through CREATE-X and start getting it into parents’ hands,” said Pelayo-Montufar. “We know how hard it is to be stuck in waiting rooms and doctors’ offices, and so getting Hearo to other parents is extremely important to us.”

PedalSwap Takes Second Place With Modular Guitar Pedal 

PedalSwap finished second and earned a $10,000 prize for their configurable guitar pedal. Featuring swappable effect cartridges and controls, their invention makes it easier and more affordable for amateur musicians to customize their tone.

A team of musicians, Wylam DeSimone (electrical engineering), Zephyr Smith (music technology), and Tony Wu (electrical engineering), drew on their collective technical experience to find a way to help guitarists explore and experiment with their sound — without breaking the bank.

“We tried to tackle a fun problem, and something that we all care about,” DeSimone said. “Winning second place means we can get our patent as well as fund our invention.”

DoorTix Voted People’s Choice

The People’s Choice Award — selected through audience voting that opened a week before the finale and closed just before the competition’s end — went to team DoorTix, an automated ticket-purchasing platform for fair, predictable pricing.

DoorTix teammates Shinhai Chen (industrial engineering), Dhruv Narang (mechanical engineering), and Arayna Saxena (computer science) wanted to restore transparency, fairness, and trust to a ticketing market that currently disadvantages millions of fans.

“We’re literally built for the people,” Saxena said. “We want to make it easier for our customers to get cheap tickets, and winning People’s Choice hopefully means we can get them for you, too.”

Celebrating Student Innovation

Created in 2009, the InVenture Prize is a Shark Tank-style competition that fosters creativity, invention, and entrepreneurship by bringing together student innovators from all academic backgrounds. From healthcare to creative expression and consumer technology, this year's top teams demonstrated how student-driven inventions can meaningfully improve everyday life.

Learn more about all of the 2026 finalists on the InVenture Prize website, and if you missed the live show, click here to watch the recording. You can also tune in at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, and at 7:30 p.m. on Monday,  March 16, on Georgia Public Broadcasting.