Building Tomorrow’s Innovators

The room hums with anticipation. A group of would-be founders shifts in their seats, scribbling last-minute notes and readying their pitch decks. The lights dim as the projector flashes “AgriVue” onto the whiteboard and the first team steps up to the front, ready to deliver the pitch they’ve spent weeks rehearsing. Their goal is simple but monumental: convince the “investors” before them that their startup has the potential to change the world.

Facing the audience, master’s students Vani Kanoria (DATS’25) and David Bakalov (BE’25), Agrivue’s CEO and CMO, respectively, speak with practiced confidence. Their biodegradable soil sensors, they explain, are ready to take on agribusiness stalwarts like John Deere. With this technology, farmers can get real-time data on soil moisture and temperature, improving yields and resource efficiency. Because the sensors eventually dissolve, farmers will need to replace them regularly, guaranteeing recurring revenue. Kanoria and Bakalov’s eyes scan the crowd. The stakes feel as real as in any Silicon Valley boardroom.

But this isn’t a pitch session on Sand Hill Road, and these aren’t seasoned entrepreneurs. It’s the ninth week of class for the inaugural cohort of the Sugi and Millie Widjaja Engineering Entrepreneurship Fellows Program, a select cohort of students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) learning what it takes to transform ideas into potential companies. Their startups may be fictional, at least for now, but the lessons are entirely real.

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