On December 4, five teams of university students pitched their innovative business and startup ideas at the 2025 Pitch Deck Competition. Held at the Lobo Rainforest Building, the event was co-hosted by UNM Rainforest Innovations (UNMRI) and the UNM Innovation Academy. The competition provides a platform for student entrepreneurs to present their early-stage companies and innovations while competing for a share of $20,000 in prize funding. Additionally, the UNM Accelerating Resilience Innovations in Drylands (ARID) Institute awarded a special $2,000 prize for a pitch demonstrating excellence in resilience-related innovations.
Opening remarks were delivered by Teresa Costantinidis, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration at the University of New Mexico, followed by Lisa Kuuttila, CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer of UNM Rainforest Innovations and Rob DelCampo, Ph.D., Executive Director of UNM Innovation Academy.
We would like to extend a special thank you to this year’s judging panel:
- Charles Call, Ph.D., CEO of GridFlow
- Nicole Johnny, Founder/CEO of 1st Sovereign Capital
- Erik Kulstad, MD, MS, Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern and Co-Founder of Attune Medical.
The winners of this year’s pitch deck competition included:
- First Place ($10,000 Prize) – Defeat Alzheimer’s – Somayeh Dadras, Biomedical Sciences, The University of New Mexico
Developing first-in-class small-molecule IL‐1β inhibitors to treat Alzheimer’s disease and rare autoinflammatory diseases through their company, Ardea Therapeutics.
- Second Place ($5,000 Prize) – Nebula-NLU – Christian Pettit, Computer Information Technology, Central New Mexico Community College
Using artificial intelligence to develop personalized narrative learning worlds that integrates grandparent wisdom, adapts vocabulary complexity, and provides measurable reading outcomes.
- Third Place ($2,500 Prize) – Sonus Separations – Ruben Trujillo, Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of New Mexico
Developing an innovative acoustic wave technology capable of predictably isolating and extracting particles for applications in water treatment to advanced biotech research involving cells and extracellular vesicles.
- Finalist ($1,250 Prize) – SaniBrau Labs – Russell K. Buehling, Electrical Engineering, New Mexico State University
Creating an all-in-one system for small to mid-sized brewery operations that provides automated cleaning, water reclamation, and CIP integration.
- Finalist ($1,250 Prize) – NanoFit – Jorge Canles, Project Management, The University of New Mexico
Developing smart apparel that integrates nano-coated sensor films within textile fibers for accurate, comfortable, and unobtrusive health-metric tracking.
- And the recipient of the UNM ARID Institute Special Award ($2,000 Prize) was Sonus Separations.
“Congratulations to this year’s finalists and thank you to everyone who contributed to and supported this year’s event,” said Lisa Kuutila, CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer of UNM Rainforest Innovations. “Each year we are impressed by the innovative ideas these university teams bring forward and we’re proud to support them on their entrepreneurial journeys.”
