Winning startups at Skandalaris Venture Competition include McKelvey Engineering students
Skandalaris Center awards $25,000 to advance startups to the next level
Four of the six winning startups in the Washington University Skandalaris Venture Competition (SVC), hosted by the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, included students from the McKelvey School of Engineering.
At the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards ceremony Nov. 19, the Locus Suit, NeuroFore, Pretus and UteroStim teams were among the winners.
- Locus Suit – Enhances spatial awareness through a wearable vest and vision module, enabling safer, more confident and independent navigation for the visually impaired and blind. Members: Gaurish Agrawal (EN ’28), Sonia Palamand (EN ’27), Jacqueline Chuang (EN ’27)
- NeuroFore – Uses machine learning to detect Parkinson’s disease in its earliest, non-motor stage. Members: Hamasa Ebadi (PhD ’28), Joe Hess (BU/EN ’27), Evan Tan (GB ’25)
- Pretus – An AI-powered platform that helps students prepare for investment banking interviews with a question bank, mock interviews and instant feedback. Members: Cosmo Guion (BU ’27), Lucas Vogel (EN ’27)
- UteroStim – A low-cost women’s health device to treat postpartum hemorrhage. Members: Adara Ezekwe (SI ’25), Meryl McKenna (EN ’25)
The universitywide competition aims to empower student-led startups to grow and make an impact in their respective industries. Chosen out of 16 finalists, the SVC winners were awarded a total of $25,000 across three funding levels.
UteroStim received up to $2,000 in Innovator funding, which supports startups that the Skandalaris Center believes are showing promise and potential, providing initial funding to explore their concepts further. Pretus and Locus Suit each received up to $5,000 in Disruptor Funding, which supports startups that are refining their product and enables them to advance towards market readiness. Neuro Fore received up to $10,000 in Catalyst Funding, which supports the launch of startups poised for growth and provides resources for the critical next steps in their development.
Applications for the next cycle of the Skandalaris Venture Competition will open in early January 2026. All current WashU students and WashU alumni within one year of graduation with an early-stage venture or idea are encouraged to apply.
Members from each of the four teams describe the impact of the funding below.
Gaurish Agrawal, Locus Suit
Locus Suit is a spatial technology startup that helps visually impaired individuals and first responders in low-visibility settings, move safely. Our upper-body suit uses tactile and auditory cues to let users sense obstacles and interact with their surroundings without relying on sight.
The idea came from our curiosity about mobility related injuries, combined with our leadership at the robotics team. A class focused on aging let me see the limitations of existing assistive tools, and conversations in the Clayton community spoke on the scale of the problem. SVC has already made us better entrepreneurs, and this win motivates us to keep growing and improving our solution.
Joe Hess, NeuroFore
NeuroFore is harnessing cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology that analyzes non-motor symptoms to identify the onset of Parkinson’s disease earlier than has ever been possible. It originated from our observation that emerging research showed Parkinson’s non-motor symptoms often appear years before diagnosis, yet no tools existed to leverage these early signs for timely detection. Since its inception, we’ve been lucky enough to pitch at top global student startup competitions, such as the Rice Business Plan Competition, Hult Prize and Bangkok Business Challenge.
I’ve long been passionate about using entrepreneurship to make a positive impact. When Hamasa Ebadi, our CEO, first shared her idea for NeuroFore, it struck me as the perfect opportunity to build something that can really make an impact on so many lives.
Lucas Vogel, Pretus
Investment banking recruiting is highly competitive, yet the best preparation resources are often limited to students in elite finance clubs or expensive prep programs. This creates an unequal playing field for motivated students at non-target schools or without insider access.
Pretus is an AI-powered platform built to make interview preparation accessible to everyone. The platform offers a question bank, AI mock interviews and study tools.
Created by students who went through the recruiting process themselves, Pretus directly addresses the challenges faced by candidates without traditional advantages. Our waitlist already includes students from more than 50 universities across 10 countries.
Adara Ezekwe, UteroStim
UteroStim is developing an electrical stimulation device designed to stop postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. The idea began in McKelvey’s Translational Neuroengineering course, where our team identified a critical gap in existing postpartum hemorrhage treatments, which are often painful, invasive or inaccessible. Learning how thousands of women die each year from postpartum hemorrhage made us rethink what treatment could look like. UteroStim controls bleeding at its source with a device that reaches the settings where it’s needed most. We are working to fill in this gap and save women’s lives.
