University of Rhode Island students, faculty, alumni, and researchers shared their work at the Summer 2026 RISE-UP Ideation Studio Pitch Night on September 16 at Swan Hall Auditorium.
Following two intensive weeks of classes and a summer spent testing and refining their ideas, participants delivered five-minute pitches and answered live questions from judges. The presentations marked the completion of the program and an opportunity to put months of preparation into practice before an audience of supporters.
The top three awards were presented to:
1st place: Roy Monroy, SmartBandage — $1,500
Monroy assists in URI Professor Daniel Roxbury’s lab in chemical engineering. SmartBandage is a sensor-enabled wound dressing designed to monitor healing without invasive testing.
2nd place: Lucas Johnson, Sandwich Party Sunday — $750
Johnson is a URI undergraduate majoring in medicinal neuroscience and founder of Sandwich Party Sunday, a Providence nonprofit that provides meals and opportunities for unhoused neighbors to contribute as volunteers, building a sense of purpose and connection.
For Johnson, RISE-UP reinforced the personal commitment behind the mission while encouraging him to look more closely at the needs of the people he serves.
“Looking back to RISE-UP, the program truly made me realize that nothing else but your passion is worth creating a startup about. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you will never truly succeed,” Johnson said. “The program truly made me realize the importance of first understanding a problem before tailoring a solution to it.”
His work and the URI connections supporting its growth were recently featured in Rhody Today’s story on Sandwich Party Sunday.
3rd place: Riccardo Sirtori, NanoGlyph — $500
Sirtori is a postdoctoral fellow in URI Professor Claudia Fallini’s cell and molecular biology lab. NanoGlyph is a real-time biosensor platform designed to help researchers monitor experiments continuously at a lower cost.
Following Pitch Night, Sirtori also presented NanoGlyph at the URI Tech Showcase on September 22.
From left to right, URI RISE-UP Summer 2026 Ideation Studio winners Riccardo Sirtori, MBBS, PhD, Roy Monroy, and Lucas Johnson. (URI Photos/Hagar Yosfan)
Additional startups presented by the summer cohort included:
INK! (I Never Knew!), presented by Chelsea Tucker and Ellen Flannery-Schroeder. Tucker, a URI psychology alumna, and Flannery-Schroeder, a URI professor of psychology, developed a collaborative, screen-free card game to help children and caregivers communicate more openly and strengthen their relationships through play.
The program encouraged the team to build on their professional expertise by listening directly to families. Those conversations helped them consider how the game could fit into families’ everyday lives.
“Our biggest takeaway was the importance of testing our assumptions and being open to refining our ideas based on what we learn,” Tucker and Flannery-Schroeder shared in a joint reflection. “RISE UP showed us the value of combining our expertise with direct feedback from potential customers as we continue to shape INK!”
Costra, presented by Zachary StJean. StJean, a URI accounting student, developed an AI-powered inventory and waste management concept to help bars and restaurants reduce waste and improve ordering.
Customer discovery helped him identify a more specific market for Costra and reconsider the scope of his original concept.
“The program helped me narrow my idea from a broad restaurant inventory system into a focused solution for high-volume, alcohol-led venues,” St. Jean said. “I now have a much clearer understanding of the customers I want to serve and the problems that matter most to them.”
Mix n Match, presented by Gerald Garcia Urena. Garcia Urena, a URI undergraduate studying computer science, developed an iOS app designed to simplify personal style and wardrobe management by utilizing AI to help users curate and organize their clothing effectively.
Remnant, presented by Isaiah Mason. Mason, a URI undergraduate studying computer science, developed a reading app concept that brings together book tracking, ratings, recommendations, and reader notes.
Following their presentations, participants answered questions from judges Nancy Forster-Holt, URI College of Business Professor, Bob Chatham, Director of RightHill Ventures and Slater Technology Fund, and Charlie Neagoy, Chief Revenue Officer at Librestream, who evaluated the pitches and selected the three award recipients.
The exchanges gave teams an opportunity to draw on their summer preparation and explain the thinking behind their ventures.
From left to right, Bob Chatham, Charlie Neagoy, and Nancy Forster-Holt (URI Photos/Hagar Yosfan)
For the entire cohort, Pitch Night marked the culmination of months of work, supported by program mentors, instructors, and guest speakers. Each team had developed an idea through customer discovery and feedback, then shared that work with a public audience. The event brought the URI community together to recognize those efforts and celebrate the participants’ progress as they completed Ideation Studio.
Ideation Studio is part of URI Innovations’ RISE-UP program, which helps students, researchers, and community innovators explore pathways from idea to impact. With the summer program complete, RISE-UP looks forward to seeing how participants continue to develop their work.