WolfieTank Inspires Stony Brook Students to Innovate, Create, and Take Risks

For more than a decade, WolfieTank has celebrated innovation and bold thinking at Stony Brook University.

Modeled after the television show Shark Tank, the annual pitch competition invites students to present their entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of industry judges. Now in its 11th year, the event has grown into a showcase of creativity and collaboration across disciplines.

"It feels successful to me every year because we get to empower entrepreneurs and get them to really develop and showcase their work," said David Ecker, director of iCREATE and the founder of WolfieTank. "We need to have a way of showcasing their entrepreneurial ideas, and this is a way."

Held on November 5 at the Charles B. Wang Center, the 2025 competition brought together students from across the university - from medicine and engineering to business and the arts - to pitch projects that solve problems both locally and globally.

According to Ecker, diversity of thought is what makes Stony Brook the ideal home for a competition like this. "We have an ecosystem of students that we never expected, ideas coming from medicine, engineering and business, all seeing the same thing going on in the marketplace," he said. "We cultivate that through our classes, through our activities, and through what we're trying to live with here on Long Island and throughout the world."

This year's first-place winner, Kelly Kaon, is a second-year medical student and founder of Dermatological, a community-based organization that promotes skin health and dermatological education. "Dermatological at the forefront is a community-based organization where we truly listen to our members talk about their skin diseases and skin disorders," said Kaon, who won $2,500. "It's really a safe place for them to talk about it."

Kaon's organization, which began as a student project, has now expanded to 15 branches and reaches more than 30,000 people nationwide. She said the prize money will support the publication of a children's book focused on skin health education.

The second-place prize of $1,000 went to the EmoAI Translator team: Robbie Torres, Woochul Lin, Minjun Lee and Moonkyu Jun. They presented an AI-powered translation system designed for hospitals.

"According to the data, 25% of patient safety incidents are miscommunication," Torres said. "That's almost one in four people every single day that happens." The team's technology translates not just words, but emotion. "It automatically detects your tone," Torres explained. "Based on that, it demonstrates whether you're feeling anger, sadness or happiness."

Ecker said the competition's true reward lies in how it propels students forward. "Some have developed nonprofits, others started businesses. Without this, we can't catapult our excellent students' great ideas into something else."

Each year, Ecker said, he's reminded of why the event matters: "These competitions allow our students to talk to outside professionals who are doing this in the field. They're entrepreneurs. They've been in the trenches. Their feedback is invaluable."

The panel of judges included Derek Peterson, CEP and Founder of Soter Technologies; Michael Lane, chairman of Long Island Capital Alliance; Danielle Tedesco, Stony Brook alumna and director of strategy and innovation for HealthPlan Services; and Bob Williams, president of IVMatters, Inc.

The event is a collaboration between the College of Business, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Division of Information Technology, and the Office for Research and Innovation. Partners include Soter Technologies, Softheon, IVMatters, Carter, DeLuca & Farrell LLP, Marcum and the Long Island High Tech Incubator (LIHTI).

To students who present their ideas, whether they win or not, Ecker offers a simple message. "Anything is possible," he said. "Your ideas really have a place here. We cultivate ideas. We want to nurture them to be successful. Every idea is valuable, and if you keep working at it, you're going to take that and live a success."

That spirit, of risk taking, collaboration and imagination, is what continues to make WolfieTank a hallmark of Stony Brook's culture. As Ecker put it, "If you can do it here at college, you're going to be more successful in your career."

-Lily Miller