UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State students’ entrepreneurial spirit shone brightly at the 2024 Ag Springboard student business pitch contest, which took place in early April in State College.
Sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Springboard is a key event for the college’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, which fosters an entrepreneurial mindset for student success across majors and career paths.
During Ag Springboard, student teams pitch new business or nonprofit ideas to improve food, agriculture, biorenewable materials, community development or sustainability. Each student team must have at least one member enrolled in the college. Since 2011, more than 500 students have competed in Ag Springboard with more than $100,000 in awards offered.
Taking home this year’s first-place award was the team that created CropNSoil, a platform to support international multicropping. Students Kanika Gupta and Kartikey Pandey, both computer science majors in the College of Engineering, and Samuel DeLozier, an agribusiness management major in the College of Agricultural Sciences, received $7,500 to further their project.
DeLozier explained that multicropping is an ancient technique that has been shown to increase yield, income and soil health. CropNSoil is an artificial-intelligence-based technology that produces multicropping patterns, market information and other unique features that help farms maximize growth. The team aims to help underrepresented farmers in India by working with agricultural cooperatives.
“It felt great hearing our name announced because of the work we put in,” DeLozier said. “I had the best teammates, and I am glad Professor Gagnon made this all possible.”
The second place team, which received a $2,500 award, pitched Himalayan ShePower, a paper product company that helps preserve endangered wildlife while bolstering community economic development in Nepal.
Its Penn State team members are Dibyajoti Burlakoti, who is pursuing a master’s degree in education, development and community engagement, and Sadie Sharma, a doctoral student studying forest resources.
“By empowering local women, referred to as ‘Himalayan Moms,’ our initiative plays a crucial role in conserving the vulnerable greater one-horned rhino, stimulating the local economy and mitigating human-wildlife conflicts,” Burlakoti said. “With the winnings from the Ag Springboard competition, we are poised to accelerate our research and development efforts, enhancing our prototype and increasing production capacity.”
Other projects that made the finals included Shamba Share, a platform for farmers in Kenya to loan agricultural equipment; Avicon, a device to mitigate crop loss due to wildlife intrusion; and Rooted, a tea company that seeks to provide premium tea products without microplastics.
The college’s Harbaugh Entrepreneur and Innovation Faculty Scholar, Mark Gagnon, noted that Ag Springboard provides students with experience creating and pitching business ventures.
“It’s an opportunity to enhance their resumes and gain valuable experience for future conversations with employers," he said. “They need to articulate their business concept effectively and garner support. This skill will prove advantageous whether they engage potential investors or present fresh ideas to their current employers.”
This year’s finalist judges were Dan Azzara, Alan R. Warehime Professor of Food and Agribusiness and the director of the college’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program; Deanna Spaniel, the 2016 winner of the Ag Springboard competition; and Hannah Hartness, dairy field representative for Land O’Lakes Inc.
Hunter Swisher, founder and chief executive officer of Phospholutions Inc., was the award ceremony’s keynote speaker. Swisher started the company, which develops solutions for managing global phosphorus use, as an undergraduate in the plant sciences program at Penn State. He received the 2024 Recent Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences and was named a 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 in the social impact category.
Dan and Wendy Azzara, Earl and Kay Harbaugh, and the College of Agricultural Sciences provided support for the Ag Springboard competition.