Augusta University (AU) undergraduate and graduate students were joined by non-student entrepreneurs for the 2026 INNOVATE: Pitches with a Purpose Pitch Competition. This is the seventh year for the event, coordinated by AU, the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center (GCITC), along with partners Vinea Capital, Aurubis Richmond, LLC, and VA (Veterans Affairs) Health Administration.
The competition, created in 2019, is a 5-minute platform for teams to pitch their ideas to address challenges and improve our community. The goal is to address local challenges, support startups, and drive regional growth.
In addition to being a sponsor, Alan Soto, Founder and Managing Partner of Vinea Capital, served as a judge for the third time.
“I’m really excited about seeing the brand new ideas, and the field has gotten even larger this year,” he told ABD. “There are lots of problems here, and there are some brilliant students and community entrepreneurs with ideas to solve them and make life better and make Augusta better.”
Joining the judging team was Dave Hepner, Counselor for the Augusta Regional Office of the Georgia Tech APEX Accelerator. He said the Innovate competition is extremely important.
“Because the entrepreneurs need a place to expose their ideas and get recognition, as well as possible publicity and contracts,” he said. “Those people are the out-of-the-box thinkers, and so they need to match up with someone who has the business capabilities to make it happen. I can learn what they do, how they do it, and then I can match up with opportunities at the federal, state, and local government contractors.”
A new member of the judges’ panel was Troy Akers. He is Chief Medical Officer and Chief of the ER at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, but he is also an entrepreneur and CEO of Dink’d Pickleball.
“Being around these young entrepreneurs and community entrepreneurs is what drives me,” he said. “The goal now is to connect with these young entrepreneurs, because I really think that’s what the future is. With the changing of AI, etc., there are so many opportunities now, and so whatever I can do to pour into these young men and women, however I can.”
Judges watched pitches from 10 undergraduate student teams and 10 teams of graduate students. There were also five teams of entrepreneurs.
Lynsey Steinberg, Director of Innovation at GCITC, said Innovate continues to grow each year.
“Year after year, this gets bigger, it gets better, the quality gets better, and it’s all about if we drive community success, if we help our community, then it all is mutually beneficial,” she said, adding that last year’s event prompted the winner of the entrepreneur category to relocate from North Carolina to Augusta. Shaun Andrews is now Executive Director of Accelerate Augusta, the microenterprise center on Broad Street.
“That just shows you what kind of impact this type of work can do, the efforts, and if we all strive together and work together to solve problems in our local community,” she said.
This year’s winners are:
Augusta University USG Pitch Competition Nominated team:
- Titra Health
- Students: Ray Wade and Ibrahim Mohammad
- Mentor: David Pope
Undergraduate winners:
- First Place – HALO Heavenly Scents
- Emily Nicholson and Raina Bearden
- Mentor: Roger Duke
Graduate:
- First Place – Caesarean Section Model
- Student: Alena Pfeifer
- Mentor: Dr. Amanda Behr
Vinea Capital Community Entrepreneur
- First Place – ReflexaDX – Diego Antonio Fernandez Fuentes
