The STARTedUP Foundation announced the regional finalist teams for the 2026 STARTedUP Challenge, including 10 teams from Northwest Indiana.
The high school pitch competition, formerly known as Innovate WithIN, is in its ninth year of promoting young innovators.
The Northwest Indiana (Region 4) Competition, hosted by the Society of Innovators and Purdue University Northwest, will feature the student pitches April 23 at PNW's James B. Dworkin Student Services and Activities Complex in Westville.
This year's students will compete in seven regions for a chance at a $25,000 prize. One team from each region will be selected to move on to the state finals. Three wildcard teams also will be chosen. Each team advancing to state receives $1,000 for each member up to three students. The 10 teams also will participate in a six-week bootcamp. Finals will take place June 12.
Northwest Indiana finalists include:
- Course Caddy: Brandon Walker of Munster High School
- CryoCollar: Kane Tilley of Griffith Senior High School
- Berean Dynamics: Jonathan Lai of Valparaiso High School
- Filet Twist: Cameron Hutson of Hobart High School
- NAM: Aris Koehler, Mason Green & Noah Deeds of Mishawaka High School
- Ready Set Grow Enterprises, LLC: Ethan Hollins of Lake Central High School
- Spider-X: Tyler Triplett of Hanover Central High School
- SunCompute: Kelly Fields of Hanover Central High School
- WeSpeak: Juliet Lux of Lowell Senior High School
- pHemme: Amelie Adam, Karly Pala & Joslyn Burnett of Munster High School
Learn more about the Northwest Indiana finalists here. Some of the students in this year's challenge participated in STARTedUP's Innovation Accelerator. The next accelerator starts in August.
