Team Pawva Refines Smart Pet Bed Pitch to Win $50K Idea Challenge

A student opens the top of a smart pet bed while another student speaks into a microphone and another looks on while standing on a stage. Image by Ed Brennen
Team Pawva members, from left, Tanish Araveti, Owen O'Brien and Jiya Panchal pitch their Smart Pet Bed, which won the top prize at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute's recent $50,000 Idea Challenge at University Crossing.

04/23/2025
By Ed Brennen

As every entrepreneur knows, setbacks are part of the journey.

When juniors Tanish Araveti, Owen O’Brien and Jiya Panchal, aka Team Pawva, entered their Smart Pet Bed in the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s Francis College of Engineering Prototyping competition last fall, they failed to make it past the preliminary round.

“We weren’t fully prepared to explain what we were doing,” said Panchal, a computer science major from Nashua, New Hampshire.

But they didn’t give up.

“We met up almost every night to iterate on our product, work on our presentation and build our self-confidence as a team,” said Araveti, a mechanical engineering major from Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Just four months later, they were back for DifferenceMaker’s 13th annual $50,000 Idea Challenge at University Crossing. This time, they took the top prize: the $6,000 Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker award.

A young man in a suit reacts happily while another person records him with a phone while seated in a row. Image by Ed Brennen
While a friend records with their phone, junior computer science major Owen O'Brien reacts as Team Pawva is named the winner of the $6,000 Rist Campus-Wide DifferenceMaker award.
“I can’t believe we made it this far,” O’Brien, a computer science major from Beverly, Massachusetts, said while celebrating the win with his teammates.

Ten teams emerged from the previous week’s preliminary round to pitch their projects to a panel of Idea Challenge judges: Brian Rist ’77, ’22, ’22 (H), Lorna Boucher ’86, David Laurello ’81, ’88, Amy Hoey ’88 and Joy Tong ’14 (H).

“Every time I come here for this, I am more impressed with the quality and the professionalism of the presentations,” said Rist, the program’s namesake who, along with his wife Kim ’22 (H), has been a longtime DifferenceMaker supporter. 

MBA student Madhavi Tarugu won the $4,000 Jack M. Wilson First to Market award for Core Advantage SAT Prep, a comprehensive program designed to help high school students improve their SAT scores. Tarugu is the founding director of the Shine In Math Academy in Burlington, Massachusetts.

A student in a suit hands a piece of a paper to a woman sitting at a table with a panel of pitch competition judges. Image by Ed Brennen
Sophomore business major Alex Donnelly gives a handout to Idea Challenge judge Lorna Boucher '86 while pitching his myHub personal branding app.
The $4,000 Andrew Sutherland ’94 Innovative Technology Solution award went to junior business major Camile LeBihan, junior computer science major Mark Callan and sophomore computer science major Ponita Ty for their “24/7 career coach” iPrep, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze a student’s skills and interests and develop a personalized career road map.

Bear Hugs, a glove that delivers pulsing vibrations and cooling and heating to help calm an anxious child, won the $4,000 Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle award, sponsored by AIRS American Infrared Solutions and engineering alum Dan Manitakos ’80.

Sophomore electrical engineering majors Aidan McGrail and Dilon Costa and sophomore business major Amanda Pajak, who made up the Bear Hugs team, were classmates at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School. They all have personal connections to people with anxiety disorders, and they decided to devise their solution after hearing about the DifferenceMaker program during their first year at UML.

A young woman and two young men admire a glass trophy while sitting in a row. Image by Ed Brennen
Team Bear Hugs members, from left, Amanda Pajak, Dilon Costa and Aidan McGrail admire their Contribution to a Healthier Lifestyle award at the DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge.
“It definitely gave us a lot more connections and opportunities,” Costa, a Milford, Massachusetts, native, said of DifferenceMaker’s structured mentorship and skill-building workshops.

The $4,000 Significant Social Impact award, sponsored by Enterprise Bank, went to the SenseMakers team of Manning School of Business Ph.D. students Cintya Gajardo Véjar, Oscar Aliaga and Bruce Lezana for their educational app iLearn. Designed to initially launch in the students’ native country of Chile, the AI-powered app would provide personalized tutoring for children and would support parents who want to help with homework.

Five teams received $2,000 seed fund awards:

  • AgentX, an AI-driven app to help international students navigate resources for scholarships, internships, health insurance and more (junior computer science major Enea Nushi);
  • Comprehension Clicker,  a wireless, handheld device that students can use to provide real-time learning feedback in the classroom (sophomore computer science and electrical engineering major Jetrin Orenberg);
  • Fridgie, an app designed to reduce food waste by tracking expiration dates on grocery items (senior computer science majors John Brann, Danny Machado, Noah Rothgaber and Will Susi);
  • Shay G. Productions, a food truck festival and fair to support Caribbean immigrants and businesses (doctor of physical therapy candidate Shaina Gedeon, public health doctoral student Chandni Shahdev, sophomore business major Jay Satrola and junior business major Serena Williams); and
  • myHub, an app for job-seekers to build their personal brand (sophomore business major Alex Donnelly).

A young woman stands next to her project poster and talks to another woman on a foyer. Image by Ed Brennen
Junior mechanical engineering major Hanna Hodzic explains her SoundWaves project to Senior Director of Corporate Engagement Kerry Pucillo. Hodzic won the Fan Favorite award.
Teams that did not advance past the preliminary round were invited to compete for the $1,000 Fan Favorite award, which went to junior mechanical engineering major Hanna Hodzic for SoundWaves, an app that connects concertgoers, artists and venues in real time.

Team Pawva’s winning Smart Pet Bed uses sensors beneath the cushion to track a dog or cat’s weight, body temperature and sleep patterns. The data is uploaded to an app that the owner can share with a veterinarian.

Tong isn’t a pet owner, but she can see the smart bed’s potential in the $10 billion global pet tech industry.

“There’s a lot of stuff they have to work out, but it is a great idea that a lot of pet owners would love to have,” said Tong, who, along with her husband, industrial management alum John Pulichino ’67, ’14 (H), owns and operates Group III International, a Florida-based global travel goods company. 

A young man holds a glass trophy and poses for a photo with a man on either side. Image by Ed Brennen
DifferenceMaker judge Brian Rist, left, and program director Richard Juknavorian, right, pose with sophomore Jetrin Orenberg, who won a $2,000 seed fund award for his Comprehension Clicker.
The Team Pawva members met during their first week at UML. They decided to form a DifferenceMaker team after taking a course called “Starting a New Venture” with Makarand “Chips” Chipalkatti, an adjunct professor of marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation. 

“We wanted to gain the experience of starting a business in real life, and (DifferenceMaker) was perfect for that,” said Panchal, who noted that the team took advantage of the program’s workshops and the guidance of DifferenceMaker Fellow David Vatalaro.

All of the finalists now have the opportunity to continue honing their ideas at the DifferenceMaker Summer Boot Camp. The winning teams also have access to $15,000 of in-kind legal services, provided by corporate sponsor Foley & Lardner LLP, where engineering alum Chris McKenna ’89 is office managing partner.

“I’m so excited for the boot camp,” Panchal said. “I can’t wait.”

“It’s going to be a fun summer,” added O’Brien.

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