Lyndsey Mekelburg earned first place and $500 at the University of Iowa IdeaStorm Applied AI Case Competition on April 27 at MERGE Iowa City. A total of $1,500 and mentoring sessions were awarded to student innovators.

Fifteen students participated in the competition, with 11 teams pitching business ideas built around real-world applications of artificial intelligence.

Mekelburg’s winning concept uses artificial intelligence to predict actual event attendance and recommend specific actions to maximize turnout while minimizing waste.

Second place and $400 went to Yash Bandla and Abhinav Mettapalli for a plug-and-play driver drowsiness detection device that can be installed in any vehicle, alerting drivers when facial expressions indicate fatigue.

Zach Julander placed third and received $300 for developing a platform that aggregates news from major sources and uses AI to strip away bias, opinion, and emotional language, delivering clear, fact-based summaries.

Honorable mention awards of $150 each were presented to Habib Saine for an AI compliance auditor that reviews company evidence against security policies, and Owen Miller for a system designed to match personal care assistants with individuals in need more quickly.

Ryan Hilger earned the People’s Choice Award and received noise-canceling headphones.

The competition was hosted by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC), in collaboration with Applied AI, a student organization within the Tippie College of Business focused on helping students explore artificial intelligence through hands-on learning.

“This event is a perfect example of how the Iowa JPEC Startup Incubator is working to build a front door to entrepreneurship at Iowa,” said Janice Baldes, director of the Startup Incubator. “Through our partnership with the Applied AI Club, we’re meeting students who have ideas for how AI can solve real problems and helping them take the first step toward turning those ideas into something real.”