The Bradley Mottier Innovation Competition in Systems Engineering
Turn Your Idea into Impact
Do you have a great idea for a business plan you’ve been waiting to develop? The Mottier Innovation Challenge is your opportunity to form a team, develop a plan and compete for up to $5,000 in prizes, along with the credibility to attract resources that can help bring your idea to life.
Hosted annually by the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, the challenge runs from September through December and brings together ISE students to spark creativity, foster teamwork and tackle real-world challenges. Teams are asked to analyze current practices, identify opportunities for innovation and present financially and socially sustainable solutions with the potential for meaningful impact.
More than a competition, the Mottier Innovation Challenge is an opportunity to turn entrepreneurial ideas into action and gain hands-on experience bringing them to life.
How to Participate
- Open to all Grainger Engineering students (undergrad + grad)
- Teams of 2–4 students, max
- At least 2 members (grad or undergrad) must be enrolled in the ISE department
- Max 3 graduate students per team
- Only 10 teams' applications accepted to participate per year
- Application – Projects will be reviewed/approved by committee before teams are allowed to compete
- Midterm Report – Teams are encouraged to submit a report at the Challenge's midterm, which will impact the total points awarded for projects
- Final Report – Teams will submit a final report ahead of their final presentation
- Final Presentation –Will will present their final report with an oral presentation that may be accompanied by posters, computer graphics and design models(s)**
Judging Focus and Scoring Critieria
Focus | Projects will be judged mainly on the practical viability of the idea, the soundness of the business plan and potential social impact
Scoring Criteria | Heilmeier’s Catechism
- What are you trying to do (plain language)?
- How is it done today, and what are the current limits?
- What’s new about your approach, and why will it work?
- Who cares? What difference will it make? Risks + payoffs?
- Cost, timeline, and checkpoints for success?
Team Awards
The selection committee will evaluate and select the top three teams and offer awards^ as follows:
-
First Place | $5,000
-
Second Place | $2,000
-
Third Place | $1,000
Challenge Timeline
| Date | Event |
| Sept 14th, 2025 | Application Deadline |
| Sept 18th, 2025 | Kick Off |
| Oct 19th, 2025 | Midterm Reports |
| Nov 30th, 2025 | Final Reports |
| Dec 5th, 2025 | Final Presentation |
| Dec 15th, 2025 | Winners Announced |
Past Mottier Challenge Winners
1st Place: Mobiboost (Joshua Anderson, Aakanksha Chaubey, Aicha Putri, & Advitya Singhal)
2nd Place: kWh Ledger (Yash Khandelwal, Arham Shah, & Parshwa Patel)
3rd Place: Aurastotle (Artha Tavshikar, Yaseen Tolba, & Caton Zhu)
1st Place: Team InternCruise (Yash Agarwal, Ashay Gandhi, & Manas Godha)
2nd Place: Team Sign Sight (Alisha Daga, Ashmit Dutta,& Shane Spatol)
3rd Place: Team Thermal Eye (Sean Atienza, Dylan Edwards, & Kevin Silbernagel)
1st Place: Team Byld (Jack Dayan, Karan Jain, & Kale Siddhante)
2nd Place: Team Rotofit (Eric Luo & Issa Fouani)
3rd Place: Team Perfit (Priya Shah, Serena Maloney, & Soham Kulkarni)
Honorable Mention: Team BikeSafe (Shrivar Kanudia, Kavin Jindel, Shravani Mhatre, & Advitya Singhal)
1st Place: Team Environ (Paige Fugger, Jeevisha Shukla, Raj Sankla, & Owen Thamban)
2nd Place: Team Bizi (Shaan Ahuja & Justin Holding)
3rd Place: Team Un-flip-erella (Priya Shah, Ashay Gandhi, & Arvin Sam)
1st Place: Ascent Integrated Tech (Paul Couston, Rishi Choudhary, Alex Gorsuch, & Harlee Sorkin)
2nd Place - IslandLink - Hyeong Chan Cho & Wenyuan (Olivia) Zhang
3rd Place: Illini Box (Justin Holding & Shaan Ahuja)
3rd Place: Farm4You (Michael Elzanati, Grayson Will, Sameep Vakharia, & Rohan Kamatar)
Honorable Mention: LeftSaver (Aman Shah, Rohit Menezes, Shivam Dayama, & Pranav Kashyap)
Participants: Team Plutus (Luc Dowell & Satvika Veeravalli); Team ThinkBot (Siwen Wang & Lucas Buccafusca); Team Pocono Partners (Connor Tenny, Kyle Morimoto, & Gautam Kalluri)
1st Place: SipSafe (Spencer Binning, Arsanious Boctor, Joseph Conte, & Matthew Meyer)
2nd Place: NASDAYA (Rishi Chouhdhary & Chaitanya Gulati)
3rd Place: Sonic's Speedway (Alex Darragh, Gabriel Delgado, & Chaitanya Maroju)
Honorable Mentions: The 1-Dish-Wash (Alex Koscica & Satori Ishihara); Vane (Josh Bussan & Ben Hoyer)
1st Place: Therapalz (Fiona Eileen Kalensky & Shaan Bhakta)
2nd Place: Click Heels (Ethan Hoggard, Jason Chang, & Hanna Chen)
3rd Place: Lend-a-Brella (Chaitanya Maroju & Siwen Wang)
Honorable Mention: Arctus (Chaitanya Gulati)
1st Place: DIBBS: Save Food, Do Good (Kathleen Hu, Shutian Xu, Sohinee Oswal, & Devaki Belwalkar)
2nd Place: IOT Dishwasher (Rachneet Kaur, Clara Schaye, & Daniel Yee)
3rd Place (tie): Soft pneumatic climbing/crawling robot (Gaurav Singh, SreeKalyan Patiballa, & Xiaotian Zhang
3rd Place (tie): Laybr (Rorey Seligmann, Max Kim, Russell Seligmann, & Brian Roper)
Honorable Mention: Light Fashion (Chris Heejun Park & Shilin Summer Xia)
*Team Recognition Policy | The Mottier Innovation Challenge recognizes and records team membership as it appears on the official roster submitted with the final project report. Awards, publicity, and departmental recognition are based solely on this roster. Once prizes have been distributed, recognition is final and will not be adjusted if teams change membership after the competition. Any further participation in external competitions, ventures, or opportunities that develop from a MIC project is considered independent of the Challenge and outside the responsibility of the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. Should teams participate in external competitions, ventures, or opportunities that develop from a MIC project, team members are encouraged to consider executing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with respect to compensation and ownership of any intellectual property that may be related to the MIC project; the Department will not advise or otherwise assist team members with respect to any MoUs.
**Participating teams will be reimbursed up to $500 for expenses, including of materials, equipment and other critical items needed to compete.
^Award Distribution | All prize money will be divided equally among team members. If a team member chooses to forfeit their share, that amount will be redistributed evenly among the remaining team members.
Contact us with questions!
JULIE MURPHY
Associate Director for Alumni, Corporate & Student Relations
1270-E Digital Computer Lab
1304 W. Springfield Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
jdg5@illinois.edu
(217) 244-0095