The Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship hosted its college-by-college pitch-off competition Tuesday for the seventh year, and over 110 students pitched during the five-day competition.

Students presented a 90-second pitch of a new business idea or concept, and winners were offered a portion of the $18,000 cash prize. 

The finalists that competed Tuesday completed two rounds of the pitch-off, the first being within their college.

There were 29 finalists, with two first place winners who were Hala Deng, a senior in biology, and Cam Reiman, a senior in animal ecology. These competitors were awarded $5,000. 

Two competitors placed second, Lincoln Stover, a freshman in agricultural business, and Ian Hutchison, a graduate student in business administration, and in third place, Megan Lenzi, a senior in apparel, merchandising and design, and Andrew Bergerson, a senior in kinesiology and health.

Five competitors were presented with honorable mention awards. Those five were Joyita Sarkar, a graduate student in apparel, events and hospitality management, Jacob Kautman, a senior in history, and Collin Gauck, a graduate student in management and entrepreneurship, Andrew Jesus, a senior in aerospace engineering, Jonathan Duron, a junior in software engineering, and Kadin Kruse, a senior in entrepreneurship.

One of the winners, Deng, pitched her idea of “MedTrans,” a medical translation software or device that decreases language barriers in hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, etc. 

Deng said that her own personal experience inspired her.  

“Growing up we could never properly communicate with our doctors. There was always some type of miscommunication, and then on top of that, I work in a pharmacy right now and all the time I see patients not taking their medications directly because of miscommunication again, so that really sparked all of this for me,” Deng said.

Deng said the plan is to put the money awarded in savings to put toward the business.

The second winner, Reiman, pitched her idea of “NutriCubes,” a form of lizard food.

Reiman said her idea was inspired by her lizard being a picky eater.

“I would make a salad and he’d pick out the blueberries and the sweet potatoes and wouldn’t touch his greens, and that put him at a pretty high susceptibility for some serious bone diseases. And I wanted to find a way to fix that,” Reiman said. 

Additionally, Reiman said she plans to use the money to finish renovating her business’s commercial space so they can open back up to the public.

For more information on entrepreneurial opportunities and competitions, visit the Pappajohn Center website, contact [email protected] or call 515-296-6532.