Two Purdue Animal Sciences undergraduate students won the Moonshot category and Best Pitch Award in the semiannual Moonshot Pitch Challenge.
Kelly Siddeeq and Shikha Adhikari were awarded $2,000 for their MiceWay pitch. The product pitch the pair introduced was a mouse restraint device that helped with data reliability and animal welfare. They received $1,500 for placing first in the Moonshot category and $500 for having the best pitch.
The purpose of the Moonshot Pitch Challenge is to get students to take a real world problem and come up with a two-minute pitch for a solution. The three categories students can enter are Moonshot, Orbit and Earth. The Moonshot category challenges participants to look for solutions to problems that seem impossible to solve; meanwhile, the Orbit category focuses on ideas for launching a business. The Earth category involves finding solutions to socio-economic challenges.
Although the pitch is only two minutes long, Siddeeq and Adhikari spent many hours preparing for the challenge.
“When we submitted our audio presentation, it took about 2 hours to prepare,” Siddeeq said. “After being selected as a finalist for our category, we went to their 2-hour workshop to prepare for the finals in person. Shikha and I made sure to meet up many times before the event to rehearse our pitch and make sure we were ready with any questions the judges might ask us. Overall, even though the time from submitting to finals was short, we had to take a lot of time to prepare our pitch and presentation.”
Shikha Adhikari working on the team's mouse restraint product. In addition to the money, the team also received intangible rewards.
“Scientific presentation and verbal communication were key factors that we both were confident yet practiced throughout the challenge,” Adhikari said. “Although not a skill, learning how to balance each other and divide and conquer based on strengths and knowledge is something we had to do as well to bring a dynamic pitch. Another skill learned would be creating a time-limited two-minute speech.”
Siddeeq also mentioned how valuable this experience was for her.
“As someone who has never participated in anything like this, I got to learn how cool entrepreneurship really is when it comes to creating your own product,” Siddeeq said. “Shikha and I walked away with people interested in our product that want to help us reach the next level. I'm grateful for Shikha for giving me the opportunity to work with her on this, and I'm excited to see what happens next!”
Shikha Adhikari (left) and Kelly Siddeeq (right) working on their project. According to Adhikari, this challenge motivated her and built her confidence.
“After winning, I felt more confident and more energized to keep thinking big and really keep integrating innovation wherever I go,” Adhikari said. “I really hope to keep living like a lion: rest when needed, but when I am hungry, go big or go home. We were really elated since we just wanted to enjoy the experience but ended up winning best pitch overall and our own category: Moonshot.”
