The 2025 Fly! Mocs Business Pitch Competition gave UTC students a chance to present startup ideas to industry judges, competing for $10,000 in prizes provided by the Spencer Patton Foundation. Rizwaan Abdulkadir’s classroom tech startup “Parleii” won first place and $5,000, with other top projects including a waterproof bag and a custom 3D duck generator.
Students working to turn capstone into cash flow
What started as an undergraduate capstone project has become an entrepreneurial adventure for two University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students. Rizwaan Abdulkadir and Grant Powell, both UTC computer engineering majors set to graduate in December, were part of a five-student team that designed a device to replace the logic board used in the “Digital Logic and Introduction to Computer Hardware” course.