The 2026 H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge saw five ventures founded by Rice University students compete for the top prize of $50,000. The April 21 event showcased some of the university’s top student startups and celebrated the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) participants’ work over the academic year.
This year’s champion is Bionostic, founded by Alexandria Carter, a doctoral student in Michael King’s lab. Bionostic believes different cancers deserve different care, Carter said. The team utilizes its Advanced Tumor Landscape Analysis System (ATLAS) platform, which makes it easier to generate large quantities of cancer cell clusters that accurately model metastasis.
“Our material harnesses super hydrophobicity, the ultimate biofriendly rain jacket for cells and fluids,” Carter said in her pitch to the judges. “This property lets human cells act like themselves, no artificial crutches, so you get authentic, multidimensional human biology driving the next era of drug discovery. Thanks to 3D printing, they’re tunable down to individual use cases built on scalable, inexpensive manufacturing and slacks of cost, time and waste, of preclinical validation to turn over meaningful, conclusive decisions about drugs entering the trials of tomorrow.”
Carter recently completed the Rice Innovation Fellows program and is working on establishing Bionostic to commercialize ATLAS. Run by Lilie, the program trains doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to translate their research into breakthrough solutions for real-world problems.
The Napier Challenge is geared toward undergraduate and graduate Rice students and includes two rounds before the final championship. Startups are scored on their five-minute pitch, their understanding of the market, customer and problem, the viability of the solution and the team’s work toward making their venture valuable. Lilie supports the ventures with one-on-one pitch coaching.
Rice’s entrepreneurship ecosystem has revealed the “founder DNA” in students from every school on campus, said Kyle Judah, executive director of Lilie.
“It’s on every corner, every nook and cranny and crevice of this campus — this beating heart of entrepreneurship continues to grow louder and louder and louder,” he said.
This year is the 10-year anniversary of Lilie. Yael Hochberg, head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, took her “moonshot” and pitched Rice the idea of an entrepreneurial lab to provide resources to students who want to build things.
“It’s been 10 years, but our growth doesn’t stop here,” Hochberg said. “Our growth is going to continue. Rice just put forth its Momentous plan, its next 10-year strategic plan. Entrepreneurship and innovation is a centerpiece of that plan, which means that we’re going to continue to build, and all of you who are freshmen here, who are just starting out on your Rice journey, there’s going to be lots and lots more for you to see here on campus.”
The Napier Challenge is one of many programs supported by Lilie, which is comprised of experiential courses, cocurricular opportunities, a state-of-the-art on-campus lab space and an array of resources to support student learning.
The championship provides a total of $100,000 nondilutive funding for 12 different awards, in addition to the final top three.
- 1st Place – $50,000
- Bionostic
- 2nd Place – $25,000
- Actile
- 3rd Place – $15,000
- Kairos
- Audience Choice Award – $2,000
- Kairos
- MBA Venture Award – $5,000
- UnitCode
- Undergraduate Business Award – $5,000
- Kairos
- Outstanding Undergraduate Startup Prize – $2,500
- Telstar Networks
- Frank Liu Jr. Prize for Creative Innovations in Music, Fashion and the Arts – $1,500
- Multiplay
- Chan-Kang family Prize for Bold Ambition – $1,000
- HAAST Autonomous
- Interdisciplinary Innovation Prize sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry – $1,000
- SOOZ
- Consumer Goods Prize – $1,000
- Dooly
- Healthcare Innovations Prize – $1,000
- HAAST Autonomous
- Social Impact Prize – $1,500
- Butterfly Books
- AI Prize – $1,000
- Kestral