App to teach online safety habits to kids wins top prize in IdeaMakers Challenge

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An interactive, educational app that teaches online safety habits to kids was the winning idea in the 2024 Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge, held March 19 during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC. Hosted annually by the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), the early-stage business idea competition invites teams to identify a problem and pitch a solution that involves digital innovation.

The winning idea — an app called Into-Int, Turning Clicks Into Wisdom — was presented by a team of first-year Millennium Scholars from the College of IST, who received the top prize of $3,000 to further explore and grow their idea. The team included Christina Fontaine, who is majoring in cybersecurity analytics and operations; Kendall Reed II, who is majoring cybersecurity analytics and operations and minoring in philosophy; and Felicia Vijayarangam, who is majoring in data sciences and minoring in economics.

The Into-Int app, designed to provide age-appropriate internet safety education for elementary school students, would include progressive activities and modules, as well as parental access. The team was inspired by online dangers encountered by Fontaine's 10-year-old sister — whose experience reflects a statistic showing that 85% of 4th-grade children in Pennsylvania have access to the internet and, potentially, to phishing attacks, advertising scams and predator dangers. 

Team FIONA received the $2,000 second-place prize for their idea of an AI-based feedback tool for high-school and college writing assignments. The team included College of IST students Liam Brittin, Connor Day, Rishvvi Pooskur and Cameron Wilkinson.

Third place and $1,000 went to Team Jinni for their proposal of a privacy-focused digital journaling platform with friend-like features. The team included College of IST student Natalie Chow, Smeal College of Business student Khushi Patel and College of the Liberal Arts student Yeji Park.

The Dave Hall Award was presented to Team Politify, who proposed a platform to serve as a political matchmaker that facilitates informed connections between voters and candidates. Name for the late dean of the College of IST, who was instrumental in developing Startup Week and the IdeaMakers Challenge, the award recognizes the team that best exemplifies the challenge’s spirit of collaboration and innovation. Team members included Avery Dayal and Karina Field.

The six-week challenge was open to undergraduate students across the University. Participating teams received mentoring from faculty, industry leaders and experienced entrepreneurs to develop their idea-pitching skills, and 12 teams presented pitches to a panel of judges in the semi-final round. The top seven teams were invited back to present final pitches to a new group of experts, which included Marc Friedenberg, assistant teaching professor in the College of IST; Paul Horn, head of global cloud alliances at Nasuni and a College of IST alumnus; and Matt Christianson, a fourth-year student in the College of IST and president of Penn State’s Nittany Entrepreneur Society.  

The teams’ idea pitches were followed by a Q&A session with the judges, who evaluated the teams on how well they articulated the problem, how well their proposed solution addressed it, how well they defined their customer segment and how critical a role technology played in their solution.

Notable attendees included Penn State alumni Bob and Susan Bardusch, whose gift established the Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge Endowment in the College of IST, and Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins, whose son is an IST alumnus.

Friedenberg organized the challenge and helped mentor students as they developed their ideas. As the faculty coordinator, he reviewed all team applications, selected the teams to forward to semifinals, paired teams with mentors and met with teams weekly to review content and prepare presentations.

“I’m so proud of all the teams that participated in the competition,” Friedenberg said. “Not only did they think of great examples of problems where information technology could be a key part of the solution, but they also were able to work in interdisciplinary teams to engineer practical, exciting solutions.

“That’s just one part of the competition, though,” Friedenberg continued. “Students also need to successfully pitch those ideas. Public speaking can be anxiety-inducing, but these students all excelled and were able to answer difficult questions from the judges and from their mentors along the way. I can't wait to see what these students do next.”

Learn more about the competition on the Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge website.