More than 500 high school innovators and chaperones from 18 U.S. states and 19 countries converged in Wilmington, Delaware, for the 2025 Limitless World Summit, a global celebration of student-driven entrepreneurship hosted by the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship.
Held May 1–2 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront, the summit showcased the finalists of the Diamond Challenge and honored exceptional youth through the Ambassador and Emerging Innovator programs. The two-day experience featured three rounds of student pitches, seven hands-on workshops, four dynamic keynote talks, and community-building moments including a talent show, dance, and games like Jenga and cornhole.
“The essence of the summit is creating a larger room to bring more of these students together and ensure there’s a really rich environment for them to learn, to connect and to grow,” said Felicia Harrington, assistant director for youth programs at Horn.
A pre-conference innovation tour gave students a firsthand look at Horn’s Venture Development Center, the University of Delaware’s STAR Campus, the W.L. Gore Capabilities Center, and the Chemours Discovery Hub.
Student Awards and Finalist Honors
In total, more than $100,000 in awards were distributed to top Diamond Challenge teams across two main competition tracks, several topical prizes, Emerging Innovator Finalists, and Emerging Innovator of the Year.
Business innovation presented by CSC
First place ($12,000): Soundwave (Washington), an AI accent moderator for foreign call center agents that increases customer satisfaction and revenue. Prithvi Aravind, Dhruv Nair, Vedaant Kulkarni, Aravind Bala (Adult Advisor)
Second place ($8,500): AllerSense (Florida, www.allersense.com), allergic reaction detection – even before symptoms start. Rishi Chawla, Hunter Gittlin, Lucia Lecour, Logan Schwedelson, Keri Kolettis (Adult Advisor)
Third place ($4,000): Berboria (Boston, MA), a more efficient, safer, and more accessible berberine product. Jacob Shi, Leo Song, Branden Wu, Dedong Wu (Adult Advisor)
Social innovation
First place ($12,000): Spikey (Tennessee), a portable and discreet date rape drug detection keychain to prevent and reduce drink spiking. Christopher Belfiore, Abigail Goddard, Arne Noori (Adult Advisor)
Second place ($8,500): Aidify (Ontario, www.aidify.ca), a typing analytics tool that allows teachers to evaluate student effort based on their writing process. Edlyn To, Nico To, Ysu Luu (Adult Advisor)
Third place ($4,000): Research to Empower (New York, www.research2empower.org), a student-led nonprofit to provide free classes on research methods for underserved students. Grace C. Liu, Margaret Zhang, Ying Qiu (Adult Advisor)
Gore Topical Prize: Gore Innovation Excellence Prize
($1,500): Vaccelerate (Virginia), an AI-based vaccine development and clinical trial simulation software to accelerate vaccine development and manufacturing. Ridhi Gutta, Akanksha Muddagouni, Bethany Schwartz (Adult Advisor)
Social ($1,500): SoberRide (North Carolina, www.sober-ride.com), an adaptive intoxication detection device, featuring a tamper-proof facial analysis system, designed to stop drunk drivers before it’s too late. Bhavik Kanumuri, Shaurya Mantrala, Swayam Shah, Krithin Visvesh, Bhavik Shah (Adult Advisor)
DSWA Topical Prize: DSWA Waste & Recycling Innovation Prize
Business ($1,500): PureDae (California and Türkiye, www.puredae.com), an air filtration system that turns barn emissions into clean energy. Calixte de Belloy, Arda Bora Karahan, Bejan Yilmaz, Nujen Yuksel, Mehmet Emin Yuksel (Adult Advisor)
Social ($1,500): G LED (India), A reusable LED bulb with replaceable LED cartridge, reduces replacement cost and carbon emission. Aditya Raj Chopra, Dhiren Gupta, Naveen Chopra (Adult Advisor)
Horn Topical Prize: Pathways to Progress
Social ($1,500): MangiCare (South Korea and Thailand), a sustainable healing bandage with mangiferin, promoting diabetic wound healing and infection prevention. Nutvarit Manorotchaturong, Yujun Sung, Napamanee Kornthong (Adult Advisor)
Global Prize
Business ($1,500): Emacity (Singapore), transforming organic waste into affordable and sustainable water filters. Priyansh Bhatia, Abhilash Joshi, Dedeep Sai Vadapalli, Sheenu Gupta (Adult Advisor)
Social ($1,500): La Estufa Para Ti: Sawdust Edition (Guatemala), a low-cost combination of improved stoves and sawdust briquettes protecting users of open fires. Willow Contreras, Eugene Song, Katia Kayayan (Adult Advisor)
Emerging Innovator of the Year
Winner ($5,000): Megana Madhurakavi (New Jersey), sustainable clothing, sold at https://shopliila.com. She also won a scholarship to the Prodigy Camp for storytelling, donated by Jim Salters, who led a summit workshop on storytelling.
Eco Innovation Challenge
Winners ($100/team member): Eliza Keller (New York), Kylie Ford (Delaware), Megana Madhurakavi (New Jersey)
Gore Innovation Sprint
Round 1: Top team (EcoSense)$100/person, Most Creative (Team 12)$50/person, Best Pitch (Bussin) $50/person
Round 2: Top team (Compost Credit), Most Creative (Solar Clean), Best Pitch ( C )
DSWA Innovation Sprint
Round 1: Top team (Plasti-Check), Most Creative (Press & Pour), Best Pitch (Press & Pour)
Round 2: Top team (Binify), Most Creative (Recycle Rush), Best Pitch (Smart Dump)
Community Support & Gratitude
Horn Entrepreneurship extends deep thanks to the hundreds of judges, facilitators, panelists, and volunteers who made the event possible. Special appreciation goes to keynote speakers Henna Pryor, Keenan Williams, Evan Ehlers, and Amy Zitelman for empowering students with their stories and insights.
The Limitless World Summit is made possible through the generous support of The Siegfried Group, DSWA, CSC, Gore, Capital One, Headway Academy, Prodigy Camp, and the Paul & Linda McConnell Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative.
About Horn Entrepreneurship
Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement at the University of Delaware. Currently ranked among the best entrepreneurship programs in the US, Horn Entrepreneurship was built and is actively supported by successful entrepreneurs, empowering aspiring innovators as they pursue new ideas for a better world.
At its founding in 2012, Horn Entrepreneurship launched a youth initiative to address major gaps in secondary entrepreneurship education. At the time, most existing youth programs focused on small business management. In contrast, Horn Youth has been built to focus on unleashing creativity, encouraging a mindset of abundance and self-determination, and promoting purposeful entrepreneurial action. Today, Horn Youth is internationally recognized and has a robust local and global ecosystem and a network consisting of more than 20,000 alumni, 1800 educators, and 60 organizations that catalyze entrepreneurship education and impact.
