Baskin Engineering students sweep SC Launchpad 2025 awards in technology and social impact categories

At the 2025 Santa Cruz (SC) Launchpad event, University of California, Santa Cruz students competed in an exciting business pitch competition for $27,000 in cash prizes. Notably, Baskin Engineering students contributed to four of the five winning teams.

SC Launchpad is an annual event hosted by Santa Cruz Works that is designed to foster entrepreneurship, showcase innovation, and connect talent with local businesses.

Leading up to the event, students collaborated in teams to gain hands-on experience developing their startup ideas. Then at SC Launchpad, the teams presented their ideas to a panel of judges featuring UC Santa Cruz alumni and mentors. 

Out of 12 participating teams, four received standout prizes, two of which were awarded in the categories of technology and social impact—areas where Baskin Engineering fosters innovative thinking through an environment of experiential learning and collaboration.

After the pitch competition, students networked with 25 participating industry partners and organizations in a large job fair, exploring more than 200 job openings across fields such as biotechnology, aerospace and aviation, and sustainability. 

Congratulations to the 2025 SC Launchpad award recipients, who are all UC Santa Cruz students unless noted otherwise:

Overall Winner ($5,000) 

Tesphase: an accessible smart home system that redirects excess solar energy to charge electric vehicles, reducing grid dependency and promoting sustainable energy use 

Akshat Sharma (B.S., Computer Science), Harsh Ranjan (B.S., Computer Engineering)

Technology ($5,000)

Leakguard: AI-powered software that predicts water leaks in plumbing systems early on, helping to prevent costly damage and conserve water 

Riksean Rosholt (B.S., Computer Science), Noah Baldonado (B.S., Computer Science; B.S., Mathematics)

Social Impact ($5,000)

Razemath: technology that aims to support learners from all backgrounds by making math education more accessible and adaptive, through an innovative platform that uses AI to deliver personalized math tutoring tailored to each student’s unique learning needs

Svante Aretun (B.S., Computer Science), Aviel Hernandez (B.S., Computer Science), Evan McCall (UC Santa Barbara, B.S., Data Science and Statistics), Nico Lehner (UC Santa Barbara, B.S., Economics)

Audience Choice ($1,000)

Wattnest: a smart hot water system that uses machine learning to predict energy use and shift heating to off-peak times, reducing energy bills without changing household routines

Ashley Kim (B.S. Computer Science), Iman Yael Schaefer (B.S., Computer Engineering), Camille Garipova (B.A., Business Management and Economics), Adrian Goleniewski (B.A., Psychology), Marcus Donchuanchon (B.S., Computer Science), Andrey Voronov (B.S., Computer Science), Aditya Kanteti (B.S., Computer Engineering)

SC Launchpad was hosted Santa Cruz Works in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz Career Success, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED), the Innovation and Business Engagement Hub, UC Santa Cruz QB3, as well as Cabrillo College, Santa Cruz Economic Development, Pleasure Pizza, and the Rotary Club of Santa Cruz Sunrise.