SoundSense, a team from Juan Diego Catholic High School developing a device that translates alarms into vibrations for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, won first place and the $10,000 grand prize at the 2025 Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (HSUEC) final event today.
“It means a lot,” said Lana Chan, founder of SoundSense and a student at Juan Diego Catholic High School, about winning the grand prize. “It means I can develop this product that will help so many hearing-impaired individuals.”
The top teams made it to the final round in this business-idea competition open to all high school students in the state of Utah. They competed for $30,000 in cash and scholarships. The competition is hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, a top-10 ranked, interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and sponsored by Tim Draper, a renowned venture capitalist.
The grand-prize winner, SoundSense, addresses the problem that deaf or hard-of-hearing people often don’t know when there is danger around them, possibly putting their life at risk. The team is developing a device that uses a sound sensor to detect when different alarms go off and translates the sound into different vibration sequences to alert the wearer to any dangers that may surround them. It will allow them to become more independent since they wouldn’t need anyone to help warn them.
“Many hearing-impaired individuals miss critical auditory notifications, and the SoundSense device will help them be aware of these things and let them be aware of the dangers and makes it safer for them,” Chan said.
Every team in the Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge identified a problem and proposed a creative solution. See the list below for details and a description of the top teams.
“The teams competing this year did an amazing job developing remarkable business ideas that could make a huge impact on the world,” said Grace Wunder, a student director for the Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. “We congratulate all the teams who entered the competition this year, and we encourage you to continue pursuing your ideas and dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.”
Other top winners this year included: Microplastics Purifier, of Hillcrest Fork High School, which placed second ($5,000); and Backpack Banner, of Highland High School and West High School, which placed third ($2,500).
Among other prizes, GreenDream, of Skyline High School, was awarded a $2,000 College of Science scholarship. In addition, the Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge awarded a Community Impact Award to Ryan Cook, of Park City High School, for work to inspire young entrepreneurs.
All top 20 teams in the competition were offered a spot in the Lassonde Founders program, which includes a $1,000 housing scholarship for students to live, create and launch together at Lassonde Studios.
The Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge is the youth version of the collegiate Tim Draper Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, which offers $75,000 in cash and prizes this year.
Learn more about the Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge at lassonde.utah.edu/hsuec.
Finalist teams
Team GreenDream
Team Microplastic Purifier
Team Backpack Banner
Ryan Cook (center)
HSUEC Winners for 2024-25
- Grand Prize, $10,000 (award sponsored by Tim Draper): SoundSense (Juan Diego Catholic High)
- Second Place, $5,000 (Tim Draper): Microplastic Purifier (Hillcrest High)
- Third Place, $2,500 (Tim Draper): Backpack Banner (Highland High and West High)
- Top Online Vote Award, $500 (Tim Draper): Microplastic Purifier (Hillcrest High)
- Finalist Awards (x20), $100 (Tim Draper): All finalists
- Lassonde Studios Founders Scholarships, $1,000 (Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute): All finalists
- College of Science Scholarships, $2,000 (College of Science, University of Utah): GreenDream (Skyline High)
- Community Impact Award, $2,500 (Entrepreneur Association): Ryan Cook (Park City)
Finalist Teams for 2024-25
Here are the finalist teams for the Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge for 2024-25 (in alphabetical order):
- AI Spy (Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s) – An app that educates vulnerable audiences on AI-generated images. The app has two modes: a learning and testing mode. The learning mode cycles through a set of AI-generated images and real images, with explanations of what signs are telltale factors of artificial intelligence. The learn mode quizzes users on a series of AI-generated and genuine images.
- Athlete In (Beehive Science & Technology Academy) – An app and website that helps athletes find teams, tournaments and pickup games. It also connects them with potential college recruiters and showcases their experience. This app would allow athletes to create profiles that include their gender, age, position, experience level, experiences they are open to and geographic area. In turn, teams, coaches and businesses would have their profiles and could search and provide open events, allowing mutual parties to connect.
- Backpack Banner (Highland High and West High) – A retractable flag to attach to kids backpacks to make them more visible to oncoming traffic.
- Buds & Blooms (American Fork High) – A floral company that provides arrangements and services using homegrown flowers. Buds & Blooms would also provide classes that teach how to grow flowers, and how to arrange them to spread good and natural beauty in the customers lives and communities. It would also provide information on how to incorporate the preservation of natural beauty through pressed florals.
- GetGigs (Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s) – A platform for teenagers to find quick and easy jobs around their area. Many teenagers with busy or time-consuming schedules are unable to make the time commitment for a job. However, they still want to find a way to make money. This platform fixes that problem by allowing teenagers to access gigs or chores that will earn them money within a 10-mile radius of their location.
- Glow With The Flow (Utah Connections Academy) – An early puberty education kit designed for girls aged 10-15, offering support for their period journey. The starter box includes essential hygiene products, educational books and exclusive access to a YouTube channel. Committed to safety and sustainability, the company uses products that are both environmentally friendly and safe for human use. In the future, the company aims to expand our offerings to address additional needs, such as effective skincare and birth control options.
- GreenDream (Skyline High) – GreenDream’s product, DreamGreen, is an innovative, smart-irrigation system that focuses on sustainability, accessibility and flexibility. It provides consumers a way to water their plants effortlessly and reliably by detecting soil moisture levels and irrigating appropriately until the levels meet a user-inputted threshold. Its customization in user-centered thresholds revolutionizes the smart irrigation system market by providing a high-quality, adjustable option at an affordable price.
- Gym Bros (Park City High) – A dynamic fitness app designed to connect men aged 18-80 who share similar gym aspirations, fostering motivation and accountability in their fitness journeys. By matching users based on their goals, interests and location, the app creates a supportive community where individuals can find workout partners, or “gym bros,” to help push each other towards their fitness objectives.
- Kotter Data (Richfield High) – A technology service for students to log into a website that allows them to upload their study materials like PDFs, images and text documents directly to the platform. An AI then processes this content to create custom study guides, flashcards, practice assignments/tests and more, all for $2.99 a month. There would be a free version of this where you would only get one study guide and 10 flash cards per month.
- LJ Custom Boards (American Fork High) – Custom, laser-engraved cutting boards, ornaments and coasters. The business takes orders for people to submit images to put onto a cutting board of their desired size, and then they engrave it onto high-quality wood. They also do these for the ornaments and coasters.
- LQ Junk Removal (Park City High) – A garbage collection service based in Park City, Utah. It specializes in removing junk from construction sites, homes and storage units. The business charges a flat fee of $125 per truck bed load and $400 for a trailer load. Their team is skilled and experienced, and they take pride in providing fast, efficient and honest service. They believe in open communication with clients, and they want customers to be satisfied with their work.
- Microplastic Purifier (Hillcrest High) – A microplastic purification system designed to eliminate harmful microplastics in water. Their product features reverse osmosis, semi-permeable membranes and organosilanes (compounds that chemically fix microplastics). Through a high-speed suction intake pump and solar energy, their product encompasses both scalability and adaptability. The organosilanes provide a non-toxic and efficient solution to reducing semi permeable membranes.
- Robotica Airways (Syracuse High School) – Designed to be the future of air travel. Using clean, sustainable fuel, this new aircraft is projected to dominate the skies as it can fly many times further than regular aircraft. Harnessing uranium from seawater, the engines will provide extended flight range with minimal environmental impact. With further research on the sun’s energy and learning from past experiments, the project could control or even stop radiation, making this new technology an efficient and effective travel method.
- Sava’s Home Bakery (Itineris Early College High) – A company that sells gluten-free baked goods.
- SoundSense (Juan Diego Catholic High) – Without someone to help them, deaf or hard-of-hearing people likely don’t know when there is some sort of danger around them, possibly putting their life at risk. This business is developing a device that uses a sound sensor to detect when different alarms go off and translates the sound into different vibration sequences to alert deaf or hard-of-hearing people to any dangers that may surround them. It would allow them to become more independent since they wouldn’t need anyone to help warn them.
- Sproutify (Skyline High) – Seeks to empower people to recognize their part in the fight for a cleaner world. Their products embed seeds into the paper materials of cardboard packaging and single-use paper products, providing an innovative solution to a century-old industry that plays a critical role in the most pressing climate issues, such as deforestation and land pollution. By taking advantage of the global dependence on single-use products, Sproutify renews the life cycle of paper to foster growth while reducing waste.
- Systemized Detailing (Northridge High) – A car cleaning business that employs high school students looking for difficult but high-paying work. They provide systemized cleaning of cars for cheap but do a good job.
- The Windshield Protector (Park City High) – A product similar to a screen protector but it’s a windshield protector.
- Toga (Park City High) – An online shopping app where people can purchase dresses for special events. It is formatted like Tinder, where you swipe right to add to your cart and swipe left to show the next dress. There are different categories to choose from, such as prom or homecoming dresses. You can also filter by color, fabric and style. People will list their dresses along with a picture, and the app will advertise it to consumers.
About the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute
The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is a nationally ranked hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Utah and an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business. The first programs were offered in 2001, through the vision and support of Pierre Lassonde, an alumnus of the Eccles School and successful mining entrepreneur. The institute now provides opportunities for thousands of students to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation. Programs include workshops, networking events, business-plan competitions, startup support, innovation programs, graduate and alumni programs, scholarships, community outreach and more. All programs are open to students from any academic major or background. The Lassonde Institute also manages Lassonde Studios, a five-story innovation space and housing facility for all students. Learn more at lassonde.utah.edu.
