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Garrett Arendt

Tepper School of Business; B.S. Business Administration, anticipated 2028

Garrett has always been an intensely curious person. The kind who looks at how things work and immediately asks, "Why is it done this way, and how can we do it better?" That mindset is what sparked his interest in entrepreneurship from a very young age.

Growing up surrounded by sports, his first real entrepreneurial deep-dive was building a performance supplement brand. The goal was to give NCAA athletes a product that delivered the powerful benefits of high-level enhancements, but safely and without risking their collegiate eligibility. More recently, a love for complex challenges pulled Garrett into the world of derivatives trading, which eventually led him to build a personal AI-driven derivative trading model.

Looking ahead, Garrett’s goal as an entrepreneur is to build and innovate within the industries he is most passionate about: finance, energy, and travel. To build a foundation for this, he has actively sought out hands-on experiences. This includes working in corporate finance within the European energy sector, diving into venture capital analysis with experts from J.P. Morgan, and handling credit analysis at one of the largest U.S. oil companies.

As an Innovation Scholar, Garrett is excited about all of the new opportunities he will have to learn about entrepreneurship in the AI age from both the founder and investor sides. With that, he also hopes to learn from and help his fellow Innovation Scholars to continue to build up the entrepreneur community at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿.

His long-term goals are to invest in and mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs. Garrett believes that helping others and passing down your knowledge to the next generation is the most meaningful legacy you can leave behind.

When he isn't building models or analyzing markets, Garrett is usually exploring the world. He absolutely loves to travel anywhere and everywhere, and will take every opportunity to go to a new destination. Back home, you can usually find him playing a round of golf, competing on the pickleball court, or just taking a drive down the beach with his friends.

Daniel Baytin

Tepper/Computational Biology

Daniel Baytin is a sophomore in the Tepper School of Business studying Business Administration with a concentration in Business and Artificial Intelligence. He has co-founded three ventures at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿: Locra, a live music data platform backed by the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund that surfaced over 100,000+ unindexed events globally; Thursday Thrift, a cross-platform thrift discovery engine; and UniThrift, a geospatial campus marketplace that was acquired last year. This summer, he'll join Google as a Finance Data & AI Analyst Intern in a pilot intelligence unit within FP&A. On campus, Daniel serves as Vice President of Process for Sigma Eta Pi and holds ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ breaststroke records as a member of Men's Varsity Swimming & Diving. He also has been playing drums since he was four, and enjoys creative writing.

Caden Chico

Tepper/SCS

Caden Chico is a serial entrepreneur, builder, VC scout, and community lead. He spent his summers in high school founding companies at Penn, Berkeley, and Georgetown. He later used his knowledge to start one of the largest high-school entrepreneurship clubs in the Bay Area, which has brought in Jared Friedman (YC Partner) as a guest.

At 17 he interned directly under the GP of a VC firm, leading a 700-person demo day, weekly accelerator cohort meetings, and getting real experience vetting great founders.

At ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, he founded Ship-Its, a weekly co-working session and entrepreneurship mixer that brings the best builders on campus into one place. In just two semesters it has grown into the largest founder community the school has ever seen with over 200 builders, 40% raising in the next 6 months. He spearheads more than 8 sponsored events a semester with the likes of Z-Fellows, Entrepreneurs First, Lovable, and more.

Through this, he acts as a bridge between student founders and VC firms looking to invest in the next generation of talent. He leads over 11 partnerships in the backend, connecting founders to accelerators, hacker houses, and investment opportunities. If you are raising a round, let him know.

His current project is Zaiphr--helping companies save money when deploying on-prem AI models through memory compression. Having previously built out an MVP with three other co-founders and pitched at one of ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿'s most prestigious Demo Days, the team is in the process of pivoting the idea and finding a new market niche.

He is studying AI and Business at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ and is interested in novel applications of AI to transform untouched verticals. He excels at developing value-focused product identities and executing growth through all channels, especially partnerships.

Aanya Chidananda

Tepper School of Business; School of Computer Science; B.S. in Business Administration and Human Computer Interaction minor, anticipated 2027

Aanya Chidananda is a Business Administration student at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, concentrating in Business Analytics with a minor in Human-Computer Interaction. Originally from Texas, she is interested in building human-centered, tech-driven solutions at the intersection of business, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Her interest in entrepreneurship began early through experiences that sparked her curiosity in building and problem-solving. She grew up watching Shark Tank and later started an entrepreneurship-focused volunteering initiative teaching kids how to dance. At ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, she is actively involved in the entrepreneurship community through the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association (UEA), where she currently serves as President and previously served as VP of Events. In this role, she connects with venture capitalists, founders, and CEOs while engaging with the broader startup ecosystem.

Aanya has experience across both startup and corporate environments. She previously worked par--time at an early-stage startup supporting client outreach and sales, and also completed a CRM internship at Sally Beauty during her freshman summer, where she built data-driven marketing campaigns to improve customer engagement.

She is especially interested in the intersection of healthcare and education, and is exploring how technology-driven solutions can improve access and awareness in underserved communities.

Outside of entrepreneurship, Aanya is involved in ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Saans A Cappella, the Orientation Counselor Team, Women in Business, Smart Women Securities, and the Charpie Leadership Program. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, exploring new restaurants, and trying new experiences with friends.

Ivan Cornejo

Tepper School of Business; Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, anticipated 2028

Ivan Cornejo is a rising junior at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ studying Business Analytics with an additional major in Statistics and Machine Learning. Originally from Argentina, he grew up in Florida and Connecticut and has long been drawn to entrepreneurship and building things that solve real problems.

His interest in startups started early. In high school, Ivan founded VALUE, a clothing brand that became popular in his hometown community and used its profits to support students in Argentina. That experience showed him what it means to build something from scratch with a purpose beyond himself. Since coming to ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, he has continued down that path through startups, leadership, and applied technology. His most formative experience so far has been serving as Founding COO of Acrely, an AI voice agent startup that went through Y Combinator, where he worked across product, operations, and decision-making in a fast-moving founder environment.

At Carnegie Mellon, Ivan has served as President of Stock Talks, Vice President of ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ AI, and a Teaching Assistant for Principles of Microeconomics. He is excited to join the Innovation Scholars program, be part of a community of serious builders, and continue growing into the kind of founder who can build something meaningful and lasting.

Trisha Jha

Tepper, Dietrich

Trisha Jha is a sophomore at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ studying Business Administration and Statistics & Data Science. She is the Co-Founder and COO of Basilisk Robotics, where she is developing autonomous systems for boat cleaning and inspection to reduce environmental damage from antifouling practices. Her work focuses on customer discovery, pilot development, and non-dilutive funding strategy, including participation in NSF I-Corps, NSF Next, and Draper Ventures University.

On campus, Trisha leads consulting initiatives through Moneythink, where she built and scaled a student consulting program from the ground up, training over 19 students and placing them on paid client engagements. She has helped secure over $11,500 in consulting contracts across strategy and data science, working with business owners ranging from multi-location restaurants to regional retail operators.

She also works at Chapter One, where she designs AI-driven operational systems, including CRM workflows and KPI dashboards used by over 100 small businesses to improve onboarding, retention, and revenue performance.

Trisha previously founded Teach Her Today, a nonprofit focused on increasing STEM and financial literacy for girls in developing regions, which has scaled internationally through local partnerships. Across her work, she is interested in the intersection of venture capital, deep tech, and building scalable systems that drive measurable impact.

As an Innovation Scholar, she is excited to continue building alongside founders and operators while deepening her understanding of how technical products move from early development to real-world deployment.

Abhay Kadambi

SCS

Abhay Kadambi is a Computer Science student at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ and an Innovation Scholar focused on building in healthcare. He is currently developing CareMap, a platform aimed at improving how health insurers understand and engage their members. His work spans app development, machine learning, and AR-based clinical tools, with a focus on healthcare.

Manya Khemka

Dietrich

Manya Khemka, an entrepreneur and social activist, is pursuing Information Systems at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ with an additional major in Artificial Intelligence.

Growing up in India, Manya founded and expanded Learnclusive, a nonprofit dedicated to make education more inclusive for underserved communities. In collaboration with government officials and nonprofits, she designed learning frameworks and vocational training programs tailored to diverse socio-economic groups. Her work helped uplift over 460 children and rural women and earned her the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Gold Award for Young People. She carried this passion for social impact to ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, where she was selected as a Collester Family Community Engagement Fellow.

Manya is also deeply involved in ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as she actively engages with the Swartz Center through programs like Customer Discovery Kickstart and UEA.x incubator. Currently, she is the co-founder of “On the GO!”, an all-in-one travel platform that simplifies group trip planning, where she spearheads product development and iteration. She also leads customer discovery at Flaflow, a ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿-originated startup building a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tool that helps small businesses become discoverable in AI-native search environments.

Given her drive to create scalable consumer-centric brands, Manya interned at Handpickd, a fresh-commerce startup, where she worked across product, marketing and data analytics. In this role, she designed a personalized recommendation system using association-rule mining, evaluated the ROI of AI-based payment integrations and led growth campaigns reaching over 5,000 users with strong conversion rates.

Outside of her work, Manya loves traveling, exploring new restaurants and observing emerging consumer trends, which often become her inspiration to create something new. From founding a nonprofit to scaling data-driven startups, Manya’s entrepreneurial journey has been defined by one constant: taking initiative and translating ideas into action. She is excited to continue this at scale along with the rest of the Innovation Scholar cohort.

Surabhi Komanduri

Tepper School of Business; School of Computer Science, B.S. Business Administration and Human Computer Interaction, anticipated 2028

Surabhi is studying Business Administration with an additional major in Human Computer Interaction. At Carnegie Mellon, Surabhi is involved with the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association (UEA), specifically serving on the Events Committee and leading the annual Startup Career Fair as well as planning events like VC Night. She is the Executive Director of Programs for Tartan Marketing Association (TMA) where she leads a team of event planners. Surabhi is also part of the Product Management Academy cohort within the Business Technology Group (BTG). She is a photographer for Carnegie Mellon Athletics and a Teaching Assistant for Business Leadership Endeavor (Business Administration class). She will also be a ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Orientation Counselor the summer of 2026.

Her entrepreneurial passion started early in high school when she operated and managed her school’s store and has continued to grow with her involvement at Swartz. She’s very passionate about fostering an interest in Entrepreneurship in the ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ community as seen through her work in UEA. She also did research in the summer of 2025 on the intersection of AI and Entrepreneurship with Dr. Motley (professor at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿). Surabhi was also a part of an intern cohort for a VC program in summer 2025. She’s currently working on an early-stage startup to leverage AI and make networking more efficient and intentional. Surabhi is very excited to join a community of likeminded individuals who are shaping the future of entrepreneurship both in the real world and at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿.

In her freetime, Surabhi enjoys scrapbooking where she can combine her passions for photography and crafting, listening to true crime podcasts, and spending quality time with family and friends. 

Pranavi Rohit

ECE

Pranavi Rohit grew up in Seattle carrying India with her. Every summer, Banarasi silks and decade-old photographs filled her suitcases home. She learned this early: the places and people you come from never leave you. They move with you, and they ask things of you. Now a sophomore at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ studying Electrical and Computer Engineering, she has spent the last year in Pittsburgh asking what the most impactful problems are.

That same question led her to co-found Quiet Intelligence alongside a nineteen-year venture capital veteran: a platform that gives VC firms a searchable memory of everything they have ever learned across their portfolio, starting with the LP reporting that costs investors thousands of hours every quarter. The very industry that funds the world’s most promising founders, and through that, the most critical problems.

Prior to this, Pranavi placed third at HackMIT’s Y Combinator track, competed at Stanford’s TreeHacks, and logged more than ten hackathons across Harvard, Princeton, and beyond in a single year. As a product management intern at Eigen Labs (a16z-backed), she built their first developer portal.

What comes next?

She found her answer in her grandfather's veranda in India, looking onto a garden he had grown for more than thirty years. Surrounded by photographs of her great-great-grandparents—farmers of a fertile land two centuries ago—she understood why some problems became hers.

Pranavi hopes to build for the very people she has come from: those who feed the world. The farmers watching their land turn brown from drought, choosing every day which crops get water and which don’t.

When she’s not building or running, Pranavi is painting or modeling. Her artwork on family and heritage has been exhibited at the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Chicago Women Made Gallery. Most recently, she modeled for Threaded Histories, a publication on South Asian clothing and generational memory. She is honored to join the Innovation Scholars community: people who care deeply about the problems in front of them, and who build better because of it.

Vivaan Sawant

CECE, Robotics

Vivaan Sawant is an Electrical and Computer Engineering and Robotics student at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ with a strong interest in building systems that connect hardware, software, and real-world decision making. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of SpoilSafe, where he has been working to develop an AI-driven platform for predicting spoilage in supply chains. Through this experience, he has spent time not just building the technology, but also talking to customers, iterating on the product, and learning what it takes to turn an idea into something people actually want to use.

He enjoys embedded programming and is especially interested in electric vehicles, with hands-on experience across robotics and electrical systems through multiple engineering teams at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿. His work has involved building and integrating hardware, developing embedded control systems, and contributing to complex, real-world robotics projects. He also helped organize ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿’s Build18, the university’s annual hardware hackathon, where he worked on coordinating teams, logistics, and technical mentorship for participants.

Outside of engineering, Vivaan enjoys playing golf and has spent years competing and coaching, which has shaped how he thinks about discipline, consistency, and long-term improvement.

Vir Toolsidass

College of Engineering; B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Machine Learning

Vir Toolsidass is a rising junior at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ studying Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Machine Learning, focused on building at the intersection of workflow automation, multimodal AI, and products that reduce human friction.

Originally from India, he grew up in Dubai and Bahrain. His entrepreneurial journey began in high school with PotentiAE, an AI-powered platform for migrant guest workers in the UAE that partnered with government ministries and scaled to 2,000+ users. He also worked on Neo-Lock, a biometric backpack zipper attachment that received the 1517 Fund Medici Grant.

At ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, Vir has been embedded in the entrepreneurship ecosystem since the beginning: reaching the graduate track finals of the McGinnis Venture Competition as a freshman with SpeakSmart.AI, contracting a beta test with 30 patients at a Pennsylvania nutrition clinic through NutriSync, a voice agent for clinical nutrition care, and launching Vinyl, an AI podcast generation platform on the App Store with 600+ downloads. This summer, he is working at Janus (YC X25) as a Member of Technical Staff deploying infrastructure for evaluating AI systems.

Outside of startups, Vir is a professional DJ on the weekends, having played events with Red Bull USA and Kingston. He is excited to join the Innovation Scholars community and build alongside people deeply committed to creating a positive impact on humanity.

Advika Vuppala

College of Engineering; B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, anticipated 2028

Advika Vuppala is an engineer and entrepreneur passionate about building technology at the intersection of AI and social impact. Currently, she is a co-founder of SpoilSafe, a hardware startup that targets the food supply chain with IoT devices that use embedded AI to predict food spoilage in real-time. SpoilSafe was selected as one of the 2026 World Finalists as part of the Microsoft Imagine Cup International Competition, was a finalist in the McGinnis Venture Competition, and was accepted into the AlphaLab Robotics Factory, one of the nation's top robotics accelerators.

Advika’s builder mindset began in high school, where she engineered PaddlePal, a patented adaptive kayaking device that reduced the cost of accessible sports equipment from $300 to $40 for amputees. Her early work in medtech, including an AI-based anemia detection app, earned her first place at many regional and national science fairs, and was published in an international conference. She also received personal commendation from former President Barack Obama at the National STEM Challenge. Throughout her journey, she has been recognized as a leader in computing, earning the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AiC) National Honorable Mention twice in high school before being named a Finalist Award Winner of the 2026 NCWIT AiC National Collegiate Award.

At Carnegie Mellon, Advika is an active leader on campus, serving as Vice President for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), an Entrepreneur in Residence for Sigma Eta Pi (SEP), and the Head of Web Development for Build18, ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿’s premier hardware buildathon.

Outside of the tech world, Advika directs the Hair and Makeup division for Lunar Gala, Pittsburgh’s largest student-run fashion show, leading a team of 10 artists. She was recently named a 2026 e.l.f. 22 Under 22 winner for her impact as a woman in technology. In her free time, she loves playing lacrosse on the ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Women's Club team, baking, embroidery, and spending time outdoors. Advika is excited to join the Innovation Scholars community and continue building scalable solutions that bridge the gap between complex engineering and human-centered needs.

Ariana Watson

College of Engineering; B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Design, Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Ariana Watson is a sophomore at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ studying Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Design, Innovation & Entrepreneurship. She is driven by a strong interest in building and commercializing technologies that create tangible, real-world impact, particularly in energy systems and robotics.

Her path into entrepreneurship began through research in algae biodiesel, where she explored both the technical challenges of alternative energy and the complexities of bringing emerging technologies to market. This experience sparked her long-term focus on deep tech commercialization and scaling breakthrough innovations.

At Carnegie Mellon, Ariana conducts research in the AirLab, working on hardware design and integrated robotic systems for autonomous platforms and sensing technologies. She is especially interested in the intersection of hardware and software and how tightly coupled systems can unlock new capabilities.

Ariana serves as Vice President of Administration for Sigma Eta Pi, where she helps lead a community of student builders and founders. She is also a co-founder of Locra, a live music data platform backed by the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund that has surfaced over 100,000+ unindexed events globally.

Her broader interests include energy infrastructure, nuclear engineering, and photonic quantum computing, and music all centered around advancing the bounds of human technology. As an Innovation Scholar, Ariana is excited to continue building at the intersection of engineering and entrepreneurship.