Student Startups Take Aim at Food Allergies, Art Access and Course Costs

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Dining out with food allergies can be risky, especially when ingredient labels are unclear or language barriers make it difficult to communicate. For people with severe allergies, even a small mistake can have serious consequences.

That problem inspired Allergen Passport, a device designed to detect allergens in food within minutes. The idea, pitched by senior Kalkidan Tefera and her team, took first place at this year's Spring Pitch George competition on March 21.

"The device can be used at restaurants and just anytime there's any doubt about the food that is being consumed," she said.

The competition is one of GW's premier entrepreneurial initiatives organized by the GW Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CFEE). Teams of students enrolled in School of Business entrepreneurial classes have a semester to develop an idea that is then presented in a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges from industry and business.

"Pitch George takes learning way beyond the criteria on the page-hours of preparation, teamwork, presentation skills, judge Q and A, networking and more," CFEE Managing Director Kathy Korman Frey said.

Top teams from Spring Pitch George often go on to participate in GW's New Venture Competition, one of the premier student entrepreneurship competitions in the nation.

When Tefera travels, she buys snacks from different countries, she said, adding that sometimes she doesn't know how they're made or whether there's cross-contamination, especially when they come from small markets or local businesses."

She had seen a device on TikTok that tested for gluten and wondered, "Why can't we just make a device that tests for all allergens?"

Allergen Passport would use a universal molecular sensor to detect a full spectrum of ingredients and cross-contamination in food in minutes, eliminating the anxiety for those with food allergies.

The device would come with a little pouch that carries a programmable cartridge and a packet of six testers that would sell for $15. When dining out, a consumer could swab foods, put them in the sensor and in a few minutes see if any contained allergens, she explained. "The project would not have been possible without the contribution of my teammates [students Amna Kahn, Siya Nayyar, Trinity Vo and Isabella McDonnell] who all have different backgrounds," she said. "Professor Frey's structure of this assignment was very straightforward. This was honestly the best group project I've worked on while I've attended GW."

View Point, a website providing access to original art for small businesses and venues for up-and-coming artists to showcase and sell their work, earned second place. Team leader Talal Tamimi said it was the authenticity the project tapped into that impressed the judges.

"Being able to put artwork out into the world, supporting artists but also small businesses, I think people really value that," he said.

The idea came to Tamimi, who is graduating this spring from GW Business' M.B.A. program, after a failed search for artwork to decorate the café or coffee shop, he wants to open. The art available was mostly generic prints or expensive rental art for corporations to hang in their offices.

He and teammates Sophia Noto, Sophia Corral and Mukul Seem came up with a plan that would entail renting artists' work and giving artists an outlet that could lead to a sale. Noto, a freelance artist, has found it challenging to find places to display her work.

"When artists use our View Point website, they get matched to coffee shops or cafés. The businesses get matched to artists," she said. Initially, artists would be found through community outreach at art programs, universities and colleges and through word of mouth.

Tamimi said View Point would earn revenue by charging businesses $150 a month to hang four pieces of artwork, which they could rotate out quarterly. There would also be a commission from artists when a work sold.

Tamimi and Noto said they started with an idea and were able to develop it with the help of a mentor and Jungho Suh, a GW Business teaching assistant professor of management whose classes produced two of the winning teams.

Coming in at third place was the Course Supply team, led by Dominick McGee, a senior business major with a concentration in entrepreneurship. He said in the past year, he spent as much as $400 for course material, which is par for the course nationally. But it doesn't take account of other essential materials.

"For basically any financial or calculus class, you need a TI 84+ calculator. Those go for over $100," McGee said. "A lab coat, goggles, all that other stuff that is required for your course that I will never use again. It was either give it away or sell it."

With Course Supply-a built for students, by students' online marketplace for buying and selling course materials-he would be able to get some of that money back. It would allow students to purchase textbooks and other materials at prices set by users at lower prices than online retailers such as eBay, Amazon and Depop. Course Supply would take a 5% commission, much lower than the 10 to 15% charged by other marketplaces.

Spring Pitch George has "only gotten better and bigger," McGee said.

"Your pitch really matters. That's what we're practicing here. That's the skill we're building."

McGee's team included Emma Murphy, Heaven Blanchard, Tyler Prunier and Joseph Hecht, all GW Business juniors.