OralExam.ai takes top prize at Open Season pitch competition

A three-person team that included two Tulane faculty members took home first place and $3,000 at the Tulane Innovation Institute's latest Open Season pitch competition. The winning startup idea, OralExam.ai, aims to help professors assess students' comprehension by using artificial intelligence to offer oral exams.

The winning team included Darryl Glade, professor of practice in the Tulane Real Estate Development Program, and his co-founders, John Renne, director of Tulane's Real Estate Development Program in the Tulane University School of Architecture and Built Environment, and software consultant Kevin Truong.

Their idea was intended to support professors as artificial intelligence tools become part of the essay-writing process. If a professor wants to know whether a student understands an assignment, they can use OralExam.ai to ask the student to talk about the assignment. The platform is intended to give professors two results: an evaluation of a student's understanding and an authorship assessment. Instructors can use the results to support the grading process as OralExam.ai does not offer grades.

The team also won the People's Choice Award.

"Winning Open Season means a great deal to our team," Glade said. "I am grateful to the Tulane Innovation Institute for creating a stage where a young company can test its ideas in front of people who push you to sharpen them."

Open Season brought together Tulane students, Tulane Innovation Institute program participants, entrepreneurs from the greater New Orleans community and supporters.

"Open Season is one step in a founder's journey," said Kimberly Gramm, the David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer of the Tulane Innovation Institute. "When you have an idea for a business or innovation, you should present it for feedback and determine if there is a market need. What makes Open Season special is that founders can do that in front of a room of people who are mentoring, investing and cheering."

Additional Open Season winners included Usufruct, which was founded by Tulane A. B. Freeman School of Business alumnus and Tulane Office of Human Resources staff member Michael Ambrosia. Usufruct, which won second place and $1,500, publishes the Louisiana Civil Code and Louisiana Revised Statutes as searchable web resources for legal professionals and other users.

Loratone, led by Shivang Thakor and Akintunde Pounds, took third place and $750. The two are participants in the Tulane Innovation Institute's free Startup Team Mentoring program, which pairs startups with a team of mentors for yearlong mentoring. Loratone is a narrative-synced sensory regulation platform designed to make reading more accessible for neurodivergent learners.

Also among the event's 10 finalists was Marzonet Palmer, a cybersecurity and information technology major on the pre-med track in the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement. Palmer is a participant in Startup Team Mentoring and founded NeuraSynced, an AI-powered recovery monitoring platform for patients discharged after neurological surgery, traumatic brain injury or stroke.

The competition also brought together competitors from the Tulane Innovation Institute's Young Entrepreneurs Academy - which teaches high school students how to start and run their businesses - and Tulane undergraduates from the inaugural Startup Strategy Lab course. The course offers Tulane undergraduates the tools and connections to develop business ideas, network with entrepreneurial experts and receive mentorship.

For the first time, the Open Season pitch application was also open to the greater New Orleans community, bringing founders from outside Tulane into the competition.

Open Season judges included Robert Priddy, a Tulane alumnus who provided the lead gift for the establishment of the Tulane Innovation Institute and was its founding champion; Melissa Lavigne-Delville, Tulane A. B. Freeman School of Business alum and founder of Culture Co-op and a Green Wave Innovation Mentor; Jordan Raffray, an investment associate at Benson Capital; and Sonia Kamboj, Tulane School of Medicine alum and founder of Breathe Easy Allergy & Asthma.

Event attendance was open to anyone interested in learning more about innovation and entrepreneurship, and it included interactive experiences to explore the stages of building a startup.

Funding is only part of the support participants receive. The Tulane Innovation Institute aims to support all founders selected to present that evening, as well as the 37 additional applicants who submitted an Open Season idea, with resources that include mentorship and education.

"The Tulane Innovation Institute is here to support anyone interested in pursuing entrepreneurship. Even if you don't have an idea yet, we have programs that may help you find one," Gramm said.