Pando Surgical, a team of four first-year USC Viterbi biomedical engineering students and external founder Noah Pearson won the live pitch round at the Startup Showcase. Seen here with USC Viterbi Vice Dean Ellis Meng (Photo Credit: Myron Murmanov)
Before anyone took the stage, the main competition had already been decided.
USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s top startup teams gathered April 27 at Ginsburg Hall for the inaugural USC Startup Showcase | MEPC & MFC $150K Awards Night, presented by USC Viterbi’s Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub (tiehub). It was an evening that brought together founders, investors and the campus community to celebrate innovation and announce the winners of two of the school’s flagship entrepreneurship programs.
In the weeks leading up to the event, finalist teams pitched their ventures as part of the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition (MEPC) and the Min Family Challenge (MFC). Judges had already selected the winners and this showcase served as the culminating moment where those results were announced.
The event was supported by tiehub, which helps students, faculty and alumni in building ventures through mentorship, programming and competitions, with many teams developing their work alongside their academic studies on a co-curricular basis.
MEPC: Bilisense Wins for Cutting Jaundice Testing from Hours to Minutes
The Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition, established through a gift from Fariborz Maseeh, is the largest non-dilutive entrepreneurship prize at USC, awarding $100,000 to the winning team and supporting students in turning technical ideas into real-world companies.
This year’s MEPC winner, Bilisense, has developed a point-of-care diagnostic device designed to measure bilirubin levels in newborns within minutes, replacing a multi-hour laboratory process and helping clinicians more quickly determine which infants require treatment for jaundice.
Victor Ong, the founder and CEO of Bilisense, who received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Viterbi and is currently a post-doc, said the idea began with a simple question: “Is there a better way to do this routine test that every single child gets?”
Currently, determining whether a newborn requires treatment often begins with visual assessment and clinical experience — what Ong described as, at best, “an educated guess by the doctor,” before being confirmed through lab-based, blood testing.
Bilisense’s device is designed to provide a rapid, point-of-care measurement of bilirubin levels at the bedside, eliminating the need to send samples to a centralized lab and enabling faster, more consistent clinical decisions.
Their approach targets a common but time-sensitive condition affecting newborns, where faster diagnosis can reduce stress for families and improve clinical outcomes. The team ultimately aims to expand the technology beyond bilirubin testing, with the goal of supporting a broader range of neonatal diagnostics at the point of care.
Bilisense, winner of the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition, with USC Viterbi Vice Dean Ellis Meng and Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. (Photo Credit: Myron Murmanov)
MFC: DermaVision Wins for Detecting Hidden Injuries Across All Skin Tones
The Min Family Challenge focuses on social entrepreneurship, supporting teams working to address real-world problems aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, awarding $50,000 to the winner.
This year’s first-place team, DermaVision Technologies, has developed a portable multispectral imaging device designed to detect and analyze bruising, including injuries that may not be visible to the human eye.
According to the company’s website: “Every year, there are over 10 million domestic violence (DV) victims in the U.S. alone. One of the most common injuries seen in DV cases are bruises: injuries caused by impacts that do not tear the skin but still break blood vessels within it.”
Alejandra Reyes, a member of the DermaVision team, said the technology addresses a gap in how physical evidence is captured. “We’re solving the problem of collecting physical evidence, especially for people with darker skin tones,” she said. “Current tools can miss injuries at a very high rate.”
In addition to detecting injuries across a range of skin tones, the device is designed to help determine when an injury occurred, allowing clinicians and investigators to establish timelines and corroborate accounts. The technology is intended to improve how injuries are documented in both medical and forensic settings, particularly for survivors of domestic violence.
Christine Ly, a co-founder of DermaVision and a USC Viterbi Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, said building a company alongside academic work, often on a co-curricular basis, requires a strong foundation of trust within the team, adding, “when you want something badly enough, you’ll make it happen.”
DermaVision Technologies team with USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos after winning the Min Family Challenge (Photo Credit: Myron Murmanov)
From Showcase to Live Pitches
Inside Ginsburg Hall, finalist teams presented their work at tables, speaking with attendees and demonstrating their ideas throughout the evening. Audience voting determined which teams would move on to present live.
Three teams were selected to take the stage, Precision Bio, Pando Surgical, and Dermavision, offering a closer look at their ventures through live, three-minute pitches delivered on the spot and followed by questions from a panel of judges and investors.
Precision Bio is developing a real-time dosing tool for warfarin, a widely used but complex blood thinner. Pando Surgical, a venture comprising four first-year USC biomedical engineering students and external founder Noah Pearson, presented a laparoscopic surgical tool, bringing a physical prototype to the stage and earning top honors in the live pitch round, along with a $500 prize. Dermavision closed out the presentations with its multispectral imaging device designed to detect and analyze bruising, including injuries not visible to the human eye.
Ralph Lin, managing director of tiehub, said one of the most rewarding aspects of the program is working closely with students as they develop their ideas into ventures. “One of my favorite parts of this job is being surrounded by and working with these really talented students who want to go out and build companies and change the world,” he said.
Lin noted that the program reaches a broad cross-section of the university, with roughly 2,000 students participating in tiehub programming each year.
Professor Ellis Meng, USC Viterbi vice dean for technology innovation and entrepreneurship, said the showcase reflects the school’s focus on turning ideas into impact. “At Viterbi, we’re focused on translating ideas into impact, and this showcase highlights how students are doing exactly that,” she said.
Keynote Perspective
Brent Ahrens, a general partner at Canaan Partners who has led investments across life sciences, including biotech, medical devices and diagnostics, delivered the event’s keynote address.
He framed entrepreneurship as a process that begins with uncertainty. “Entrepreneurship is one of those few places where you start with uncertainty,” he said. What ultimately differentiates founders, he noted, is execution. “What’s scarce is execution under uncertainty.”
His remarks reflected the experience of many of the teams at the showcase, who are building ventures alongside academic work and pushing ideas forward despite uncertainty.
Published on May 11th, 2026
Last updated on May 19th, 2026