HOUSTON, TX – The NSF I-Corps Southwest Hub is proud to announce that two of its participant teams achieved top-tier success at the 2026 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC), held April 9-11 at Rice University. Out of 42 elite collegiate startups from around the world, Imagine Devices (UT Austin) and DialySafe (Rice University) secured major investments and prizes for their transformative healthcare innovations.
Hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the RBPC is the world’s largest and richest student startup competition. Celebrating its 26th year, the event provides collegiate entrepreneurs with a high-stakes platform to pitch their ventures to hundreds of judges and investors, competing for more than $1 million in total prizes.
Imagine Devices, representing The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Engineering, secured Third Place overall. Advised by faculty member Chris Rylander, the team was awarded the $50,000 Investment Prize sponsored by Jon Finger, Finger Interests; David Anderson and the Anderson Family Fund; and Nancy Chang. In total, the team walked away with $111,000 in prizes.
Imagine Devices is revolutionizing neonatal care with the Trinity Tube, a multifunctional nasogastric feeding tube. Designed specifically for premature infants in the NICU, the device delivers nutrition while simultaneously monitoringairway pressure, core temperature, ECG, and heart rate. By consolidating multiple sensors into a single integrated solution, Trinity Tube reduces device burden on fragile skin and enables safer, more efficient care.
DialySafe, a team from Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering, earned Sixth Place and the $5,000 ExxonMobil Cash Prize. Advised by faculty member Dr. Matthew Wettergreen, the team secured a total of $15,500 in prizes.
DialySafe is an AI-powered remote patient monitoring platform tackling peritonitis; a severe infection affecting over a quarter of home dialysis patients. Current detection methods are often subjective and identified too late, leading to costly hospitalizations. DialySafe’s proprietary Magnetic Induction Spectroscopy (MIS) sensor clips onto standard tubing to detect biomarkers without fluid contact, allowing for earlier intervention and significant cost savings for clinics and patients alike.
The success of these two teams underscores the impact of the NSF I-Corps Southwest Hub’s mission to move deep-tech innovations from the lab to the marketplace. Through rigorous customer discovery and mentorship, Hub participants like Imagine Devices and DialySafe refine their business strategies to solve real-world problems in the life sciences and healthcare sectors.
“These results reflect the value of NSF I-Corps in action: accelerating the commercialization of university technologies by helping faculty, researchers, and graduate students validate market need,” said Brad Burke, Associate Vice President for Industry and New Ventures, and Executive Director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. “An increasing number of Rice Business Plan Competition teams have completed the program, and that preparation is evident in how clearly they articulate the problem they are solving and the economic viability of their innovation.”
“The SW I-Corps Hub is so proud of these teams for their performance on a highly competitive global stage,” added Aprille Busch, Director of the NSF I-Corps Southwest Hub. “Their success at RBPC demonstrates the continued impact the I-Corps program has on the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Southwest, leading to very promising and impactful global startups.”
For more information on the teams and their technologies, visit:
Imagine Devices: imaginedevices.us
DialySafe: linkedin.com/company/DialySafe
