Subject to budgetary approval, the Principal Student/Alumni Innovator of the Year is awarded a cash prize of $25,000.* The Startup of the Year is awarded a cash prize of $50,000.  

*Prize money paid to entity as an invoice to the university. An organization or entity – separate from the university, must be established at the time of award in order to be eligible for the award.  

Any member of the Triton community, namely current faculty, student, or recent Triton alum who meets the qualifications may apply. 

• A single applications will be considered for each entity or innovator – therefore multiple applications are not required.  

• All applications must include a letter of support from at least one mentor or program administrator, who may be a member of UC San Diego faculty or staff, or community member with direct experience working with knowledge of their innovation. We encourage you to consider a second letter of support from an influential community member or industry leader who can address innovation through direct experience innovation, spinout, or venture. 

• Past award recipients are not eligible for the award.  

• Past applicants who did not receive an award are eligible to apply again. 

• Applications do not need to exemplify all criteria. Applications can focus on one or more than one of the key selection criteria – however those with wholistic representation of criteria will be considered the strongest. 

The application period for the 2024-2025 Startup of the Year and Student/Alumni Innovator of the Year officially opens October 21! 

Please use the online application portal where applicants will submit the applicant's information and narrative and the Award Portal will route for internal review. Please contact us if you have any questions or problems with your submission at smoise@ucsd.edu. 

• Full Application period: Fall 2024 October 21– December 4 

• Finalists Announced January 2025 

• Award winners announced at the event on February 25, 2025
   

Phase 1: An internal review panel of campus innovation leadership will assess applications and cut incomplete and unsatisfactory submissions. Feedback will be provided for all complete and considered applications at the request of the committee.  

Phase 2: Representatives from the Chancellor’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (IEC) will review based on criteria available below. The IEC will then recommend award recipients to Chancellor Pradeep Khosla.

Review 2025 Startup of the Year Guidelines and Eligibility (PDF).

Review 2025 Student/Alumni Innovator of the Year Guidelines and Eligibility (PDF).

Q. Who is eligible for Startup of the Year?

A. Startups creating novel intellectual property (IP), preferably which UC San Diego licensed to their startup.

Q. Who is eligible for Student/Alumni Innovator of the Year? 
 
A. Matriculated or registered students at any college or department, including undergraduate and graduate students. Post Docs are not eligible. Alumni who’ve graduated within the last 5 years are also eligible (graduation years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024). Alumni who are also staff or faculty at the university will also be eligible and considered, however there may be unique considerations. 



Q. Can student startups apply?

A. Yes, those with recorded novel intellectual property are eligible. See guidelines and definitions section for more details.



Q. Can UC San Diego Health employees apply?

A. Yes, Startups lead by health faculty or staff are eligible to apply and those based on novel IP are eligible.



Q. Do applicants need to exemplify all criteria?

A. No, applications can focus on only one or more that the applicant has demonstrated.

Vektor Medical | Startup of the Year Winner

San Diego-based Vektor Medical is on a mission to revolutionize arrhythmia care for millions of individuals affected by atrial fibrillation (AF) and other arrhythmias. Through its AI-based, non-invasive arrhythmia analysis technology, vMap®, the company aims to improve cardiac ablation outcomes, optimize workflows, and increase procedural efficiency. 

• Founders: Dr. David Krummen, Dr. Gordon Ho, Dr. Andrew McCulloch, Dr. Christopher Villongco, and Mike Monko 

• In February 2024, Vektor Medical announced a $16 million Series A investment co-led by Solas BioVentures and TVM Capital Life Science 

• The American Medical Association (AMA) CPT Editorial Panel issued CPT code 0897T to report use of novel noninvasive arrhythmia analysis, vMap, as of July 1, 2024.

Fjord Phyto | Student/Alumni Innovator of the Year

Run on board tourism expedition vessels in Antarctica, Fjord Phyto contributes a new social innovation and educational process, joining tourism and science through the framework of citizen science. The focus is on monitoring single cell microalgae that make up the base of the food web known as phytoplankton and discovery of novel species. This platform provides an immersive learning environment, involving thousands of tourists,  contributing annually to the collection of data from one of the most data limited regions in the world during a five-month window each year. 

• Founders: Dr. Maria Vernet and Allison Cusick
• Recently Fjord Phyto received $20k funding from NASA SCoPE to build an engaging online training platform for all the individuals who facilitate FjordPhyto on the tour ships with travelers. 
• Fjord Phyto began the process of making all the data public -- (F.A.I.R.) on DRYAD and GBIF Vernet, Maria et al. (2024). The FjordPhyto citizen science project in the Antarctic Peninsula [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b909
• For more Fjord Phyto news, see their 2023-2024 Annual Update and watch the VikingTV special on their program.