By Jennifer K. Morita

April 08, 2025

Sacramento State students are among those representing just 25 teams of undergraduates who will compete in a nationwide business pitch competition in Minneapolis later this month.

Sac State’s team will compete against students from campuses such as UC Berkeley and Harvard for $215,000 in cash prizes as part of e-Fest, a three-day event taking place April 24-26. More than 200 teams from colleges and universities across the country applied for the competition.

For the students, who juggle school with their work as budding entrepreneurs, the selection as finalists is an impressive achievement. For the University, it’s a recognition that is becoming more common, indicative of campus efforts to foster student innovation and hands-on learning.

“This is the third year we’ve had a team go to e-Fest,” said Cameron Law, executive director of the Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “They’re going to do awesome.”

The first team, SentrySight, formed last spring when Computer Science majors Ritchie Martinez, Gavin Garcia, Enrique De La Torre and Huy Dao, met at the Carlsen Center’s first Hackathon. They took first place with their app using artificial intelligence to detect firearms.

“We want to use it to improve safety on campuses and businesses,” Dao said. “It would detect firearms and notify key personnel what’s going on to improve peace of mind and response time.”

The app would be integrated with existing camera systems to make it easier for businesses and schools to use, and would also notify law enforcement.

“I’m really stoked about being a finalist. Not only for the prize, but just being able to go out of state and meet other people who are doing startups. I’m really excited for that.”

-- Gabriel Sigala, Business Administration major

The SentrySight team was motivated to save lives after the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. They developed a prototype relying on images in the public domain, and the app already boasts 85% accuracy. The team hopes that, with more funding to create its own data set, they can increase that to 95%.

After winning the Hackathon, SentrySight competed in Sac State’s Innovation pitch competition before taking second place at the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Pitch Competition and winning $31,000.

“By going through these competitions, we’re building credibility and slowly building our knowledge of the business side since all of us are Computer Science majors,” Martinez said. “It was very surprising to find out we’re finalists for e-Fest, but also exciting.”

In addition to the four students from SentrySight, Sac State Business Administration major Gabriel Sigala is on the Splash Technologies team with seven UC Davis students. The group created a device that measures chemicals in residential pools. Owners can use the Splash app to monitor their pool water, and if the chemistry isn’t right, they can press a button to find out how to fix the issue.

A survey conducted by the Splash team showed 70% of pool owners find monitoring chlorine levels to be the most difficult part of having a pool. Only about half use a pool service, which can cost between $130 to $150 a month.

“I’m really stoked about being a finalist,” Sigala said. “Not only for the prize, but just being able to go out of state and meet other people who are doing startups. I’m really excited for that.”

In addition to e-Fest, Splash Technologies is also competing in the Sacramento Kings Capitalize competition for technology startups.

Four Sacramento-area teams are competing to win $10,000. The public can watch 30-second videos of each team and vote online. The ads will also be shown at the Kings’ April 9 game against the Denver Nuggets, with voting ending at halftime.

“The Carlsen Center and professors at Sacramento State have been really supportive,” Sigala said. “I have definitely benefited from learning about starting a business in my classes and being able to apply them to something I’m passionate about.”