Thursday, March 12, 2026
Media Contact:
Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubar@okstate.edu
The innovation and interdisciplinary skills of students at Oklahoma State University continue to
set a high standard for technological advancement and entrepreneurship.
Their first-place finish in the Rising Entrepreneur Track at the 2026 Riata Business
Plan competition marks another milestone for the team — Soroosh Farsiani, Mahla Hosseini and William Petty — who are now advancing to the global finals
of the TigerLaunch World Cup, the world’s largest student-run entrepreneurial competition, at Princeton
University.
In January, students from OSU earned first place and $4,000 in the Rising Entrepreneur Track at the Riata Business
Plan Competition with their commercialization strategy for SCIVINCE, an innovative
multi-axis and counter-gravity 3D-printing technology. The team’s winning plan consists
of advanced engineering innovation with a strong, data-driven market strategy, setting
it apart from others in the competition.
“Each competition has pushed us to refine our market strategy, financial model, and
commercialization roadmap,” Farsiani said. “As one of the judges recently said, ‘It gets better every time I see it.’ That comment really reflects our iterative
approach.”
Overall, the team has previously received two awards: First Place and $,4,000 in the
Big City and High-Tech business track at the Riata Business Competition in January
2025 as well as First Place and $21,000 in the High Growth Division at the Oklahoma
Entrepreneur’s Cup in April 2025.
The idea for SCIVINCE began with Dr. Hadi Noori, an assistant professor in MAE. Farsiani and a team of undergraduates have grown the idea into groundbreaking technology. While traditional 3D printers build objects from the bottom up, the SCIVINCE system uses a patented “counter-gravity” method. This
enables printing from multiple directions, even from below, allowing complex geometries
to be printed without support structures, significantly reducing material waste, post-processing,
and manufacturing time.
While the engineering behind SCIVINCE provided a strong foundation, the team’s commercial strategy played an equally important role in their success. Farsiani led the development of the business plan, shaping the overall commercialization roadmap
and competitive positioning. Petty, a graduate MBA student from OSU, contributed to
the financial strategy development, strengthening the credibility of the commercial
plan with judges and investors. Hosseini, a graduate student in the Business Analytics
and Data Science (BAnDS) program at OSU with a background in industrial engineering,
marketing, and data analytics, built the marketing strategy, identified early customer groups and analyzed where the technology could gain traction the fastest.
Soroosh Farsiani (right) accepts the prize check for finishing first in the Rising
Entrepreneur category of the 2026 Riata Business Plan Competition.
“What strengthened our plan was showing how the product fits into real business workflows,
not just presenting the technology itself,” Hosseini said.
The team’s business plan was strengthened by more than 200 customer discovery interviews
conducted through the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps programs. To date, the team has received $53,000 in NSF I-Corps funding and an additional $30,000 in business plan competition awards.
The team also credited their mentors for guiding the project. Dr. Noori provided technical direction, while Professor David Thomison helped refine the financial model and go-to-market strategy. John Nickles, assistant director of Cowboy Technologies, supported the team through the early stages of commercialization.
Like many innovative projects, SCIVINCE has faced challenges. The team noted that
narrowing down market segments to prioritize was difficult, given the wide range of
potential applications.
“One of the biggest challenges was narrowing down which market segments to prioritize.” Hosseini said.
“There was a wide range of industries that could benefit from our technology, and narrowing them down required a lot of analysis and discussion.”
Another challenge the team highlighted was navigating early-stage funding in a competitive
climate, where access to capital for deep-tech innovation has become increasingly selective.
“Securing the right funding at the right time has been a challenge, but it pushed
us to build a diversified strategy, pursuing alternative grants and private capital,
while staying fully committed to advancing SCIVINCE toward commercialization and economic
impact in Oklahoma,” Farsiani said.
Following their success at Riata, the team competed in the second round of the TigerLaunch World Cup at Rice University. Out of more than 500 startups, the team won first place
in the regional round and advanced to the finals, placing them among the top seven ventures
competing for the $60,000 prize on the international stage. The team will now travel
to Princeton University in April and represent OSU as they compete against finalists from across the United States, Europe, Turkey and the Asia-Pacific region in the TigerLaunch World Cup finals.
”Moving to finals gave us the opportunity to compete internationally, representing
Oklahoma State University on a global platform,” Farsiani said. “For our team, this
is more than a competition; it’s a chance to showcase innovation born at OSU on the
world stage.”
Story By:
Marianne Phu | mphu@okstate.edu