While we celebrate every student who completes this intensive weekend experience by pitching with their teammates to the judges and audience, we also recognize those who rise to the top with their winning pitches. 

Fall 2026 Winners

53 students competed on 13 teams.

Third place – Community Corner

Alyssa Alexander ’29, Olivia Brightly ’29, and Lily Lockwood-Keil ’29, pictured with Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center, and judge Antionette Priscilla Carroll. They presented giving closets for elementary and middle school children aimed at reducing the stigma around using community resources and offering volunteer opportunities for the community.

Second place – GrinnSpace

Drilon Qerimi ’27, Sophia Torres da Cruz ’27, Jafar Jarrar ’27, Meilin Hoshino ’27, and Farhan Rahman ’27, pictured with Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center, and judge JC Lopez. They pitched a website to create accurate furniture layout plans for popular event spaces on the Grinnell College campus, addressing frustration felt by both space requesters and the staff who set up the spaces.

First place – Print Go

Champ-Pacifique  Mukiza ’29, Maun Ahmed ’29, Kobina Derby ’29, Raun Ahmed ’29, and Sora Mamo ’28, pictured with Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center, and judge Anne Harris. They came up with a website where Grinnell students can find the nearest campus printers and check paper/toner status of each, saving time and energy when searching for a working printer as the assignment deadline looms.

Fall 2025 Winners

45 students on 11 teams competed.

Third place – GrinnLo

Khanh Ngo, Hoang Nguyen, Vy Nguyen, Anh Pham, and Duc Tran, pictured with judge Evan Petig and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center. They pitched a  multilingual website helping families of international students feel connected to Grinnell.

Second place – Grin & Go

Syed Hassan, Daria Haynie, Boris Khesin, Raahim Sodha, and Virginia Oliver, pictured with judge Anne Harris and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center. They pitched refrigerated vending machines stocked with fresh, nutritious, meal-prepped food and strategically placed around campus for access at all hours.

First place – GrinFit

Rihaan Bhansali, Aaryan Lodaya, Dennis Mboya, Aritra Mookherjee, and Beatriz Polo Diz, pictured with judge Rachael Kinnick and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center. They pitched an app with features to make physical wellness accessible, enjoyable, and social for every Grinnell student.

 

Fall 2024 Winners

32 students on 7 teams competed.

For the Fams – First Place

Duc Nguyen ’26, Hana Imanishi ’25, Nam Do ’25, Pyait Myat ’25,  Huy Nguyen ’25, , pictured with judge Anne Harris.

This plan tackled issues of transportation, accommodation, and more that parents and families face during Commencement.

Hycelis – Second Place

Virginia Oliver ’28, Rabbani Batra ’28, Nabeel Mahmoud ’28, Arham Areeb ’28, and Grant Misinzo ’28, pictured with judge Jerry Seaman.

Team water hyacinth proposed a business to convert a fast-growing weed that clogs waterways into material to make other products.

Renfrow, Recycling, Recovery

August Ngo ’27, Candice Lu ’26, Phuong Tran ’26, and Mufrad Chowdhury ’27, Jinny Eo ’26.

Team Chai Tea Latte envisioned a series of public art challenges to use up recycled material.

Fall 2023 Winners

40 students on 10 teams competed.

iMEDiate – First Place

Khanh Do ’27, Trung Le ’25, Quynh Dao ’25, Phuong Tran ’26, and Huy Nguyen ’25, pictured with judge Anne Harris and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center.

Team Grinnovators pitched their idea for iMEDiate, a 24/7 medical box.

Dorm Deals – Second Place

Muhammad Khalid ’26, Sauryanshu Khanal ’25, and Devanshu Pandey ’26, pictured with judge Barb Baker and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center.

Team Thrifters came up with Dorm Deals, an online, reliable marketplace for students.

RecapEd – Third Place

Avaash Bhattarai ’26, Shrey Agrawal ’24, Meghna Adhikari ’24, and Vinicius Ono ’24, pictured with judge Bernadine Douglas and Jeff Blanchard, director of Wilson Center.

RecapEd envisioned a software solution that turns class recordings into bit-sized highlights.

Fall 2022 Winners

Spaced

David Dai ’23, Trung Le ’25, Vinicius Ono Sant’anna ’24, Enzo Pereira da Cunha ’26, and Diego Coelho Rodrigues ’25

Spaced was pitched as an app dedicated to ensuring students could work directly with Grinnell residents to store items at an affordable rate.

Open Town

Hong Doan ’24, Elias Lawler ’23, Sneha Lohani ’23, Nameera Muhammad Dawood ’23, and Ganga Prakash ’25

Open Town was pitched as a two-credit course on community engagement where Grinnell students work with faculty and local schools to develop lesson plans to be taught to Grinnell community schoolchildren.

Demolition

Evaan Ahmed ’23, Katherine Babb ’26, Paata Kaloiani ’25, and Timur Kasimov ’25

Demolition was pitched as a demolition room facility for Grinnell residents to take unused and recycled items and smash them.

Fall 2021 Winners

FoodSavr – First place, $2500

Shrey Agrawal ’24, Nameera Muhammad Dawood ’23, Michael Andrejewski ’23, Hwi Jim Jang ’23, James Lim ’22

FoodSavr is an application to resolve food waste at dining and provide students with a better system to interact with the dining hall.

Stock It! – Second Place, $1500

Kripa Bansal ’24, Vinicius Ono ’24, Jan Gloor ’24, Filip Matc ’24, Simon Taye ’24

Stock It! is a web platform that allows college students to easily understand the stock market.

Joy Curl – Third Place, $600

Aysha Simmonds ’23, Rexford Essilfie ’22, Areeha Ilyas ’25, Asya Shneerson ’22

Joy Curl is the future of hair care.

Fall 2020 – Pioneer Weekend Goes Virtual

Unknwn – First place, $2500

Agne Lukoseviciute ’21, Tran Le ’21, Saule Keliauskaite ’23, Arsema Berhane ’22, and Linh Tang ’22

Unknwn is a mobile application which would notify users when third-party apps are accessing location, camera, or other sensitive information without user consent.

Mate – Second place, $600

 Mai Phuong Vu ’21 and Carlton Segbefia ’21

Mate is an application that would help facilitate off-campus roommate relationships by organizing information and notifying house members about chores or utility costs.

Verify – Third place, $750

Ashton Aveling ’22, Wagih Henawi ‘22, Alec Maloney ’21, Soham Mukhopadhay ’20, and Aleph Abraham ’20

Verify is a browser plug-in intended to target potential fake news on social media and other websites by scanning the text on the page and fact checking it.

 

Fall 2019 Winners

VIDICERT – First place, $1500

Philip Kiely, David Orion Hafner, Abigail Munsen ’22, Clara Zioli da Igreja ’23

Mayu Rainshield – Second place, $700

 Gyan Prayaga ’21, Carlton Segbefia ’21, Cameron Leung ’22

MAYU Rainshield is a rain shield protection device designed for wheelchair users. The device automatically deploys a cover protecting the user from the elements, easily attaches to any wheelchair design, and is customizable with modular upgrades. MAYU Rainshield allows wheelchair users to go out and explore the world without fear.

HERO – Third place -, $300

Aleph Aseffa ’22, Soham Mukhopadhyay ’22, Alec Maloney ’21, Wagih Henawi ’22, Ashton Aveling ’22

HERO is a  mobile application used to empower users to make more sustainable purchases by tracking the user’s consumption and giving suggestions on how to be more environmentally friendly. The app would also act as a source of coupons and as a social media platform, where users could share their progress with friends on becoming more sustainable.

Fall 2017 Winners

DSRPTN

First place – $2000 and a Scholarship to Venture School

Yash Gupta ’20, Nicole Nie ’19, Papa Kojo Ampim-Darko ’19

DSRPTN is a web application that facilitates rapid application development by use of a WISIWIG/Drag and Drop HTML5 editor and a native app wrapping system. Users create rich, full featured HTML5 web apps and DSRPTN creates websites, native iOS and android applications, and desktop programs for PC, MAC, and Linux.

Doorway

Second Place – $1000

Gracee Wallach 20, Henry Bolster ’18, Emmet Sandberg ’18

Doorway  is a location-based canvassing app that simplifies and personalizes political activism. We empower normal people to get involved in making a difference and enable campaigns to intelligently interact with their supporters — all powered by data.

Roots

Third Place – $500

Julie Echikson ’20, Alden Wahsono ’20

Roots is a vegetable based nutritional snack bar, which has about 100 calories and 0g of sugar.

Spring 2017 Winners

Bail abolition network

First place – $2000 and a scHOLARSHIP TO VENTURE SCHOOL

Dylan Ambrosoli ’18, Nathan Calvin ’18, Nomalanga Shields ’18 and Myles Becker ’19
The Bail Abolition Network is a consultancy that helps communities create local nonprofit bail funds and advocates for bail policy reform.

We-Tinerary

Second Place – $1000

Yazan Kittaneh ’17, Yuxi Deng ’18 and Nripesh Pradhan ’18

We-tinerary is a website platform that help students organize their road trips by using our cutting-edge algorithm to find like-minded people to travel together. After the pals matching part, we have unique tool set to keep track of the progress of trip planning, which includes checklist, automatic recommendation, itinerary, voting system and so on.

Why Eye Care

Third Place – $500

Sage Kaplan-Goland ’20, Halle Remash ’20, Marli Remash ’20, Taryn Washburn ’20

Why Eye Care would be a manufacturer of the machines which perform cataracts surgery more cheaply than current manufacturers by using innovations in laser technology. The organization has long term goals of aiding humanitarian efforts to cure blindness by making the cataracts procedure more accessible and distributable.