Louisiana Tech University’s premier entrepreneurial pitch competition, Top Dog New Venture Championship, crowned its 2026 winner. Tech in Schools, an educational technology venture designed to bring hands-on engineering experiences into classrooms, captured first place.
Hosted by the College of Business’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Top Dog is one of the state’s longest-standing pitch competitions. It brings together students from across Louisiana Tech to develop and pitch innovative business ventures.
Albaraa Farrag, a Mechanical Engineering major, and Samrageey Lohani, a Computer Information Systems major in the College of Business, earned this year’s top prize with Tech in Schools, a program that combines curriculum, equipment, instruction, and mentorship to give students real-world engineering and robotics experiences.
“Most students are introduced to engineering through equations on a board, and many decide it’s not for them before they’ve ever built anything,” said Farrag and Lohani. “Tech in Schools provides students with the opportunity to learn the fundamentals, and they also learn to fail, fix, and try again. When it’s taught through real projects, students go further and carry that confidence into whatever they do next.”
Following their Top Dog victory, Farrag and Lohani plan to launch a pilot at a local middle school and compete in other regional entrepreneurship competitions while expanding the program’s curriculum. Their long-term goal is to build one of the biggest education companies in the region.
The competition began with 23 teams, and 13 advanced to the preliminary round. Six finalists earned a spot to pitch to a panel of judges.
“Top Dog exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit we want to cultivate across Louisiana Tech,” said Dr. Chris Martin, dean of the College of Business. “By bringing business students together with students from other disciplines, we’re helping them develop the skills and experience needed to turn innovative ideas into viable ventures. This year’s finalists demonstrated tremendous creativity and entrepreneurial potential, and I’m grateful to our judges and mentors for helping them move their ideas forward.”
Finalists included:
- Tech in Schools (Albaraa Farrag and Samrageey Lohani) (first place) – a hands-on engineering education program that brings real-world robotics experiences into middle and high schools through equipment, curriculum, instruction, and mentorship, giving students opportunities to design, build, and program working robots.
- RecLink (Liam Baird, Bode Blackmon, and Jack Thacker) (second place) – a mobile app that connects recreational athletes with nearby players and pickup games, making it easier to find teammates, coordinate schedules, and build connections through sports.
- Kivaro (Andrew Thomas and Fairchild Scarbrough) (tied for third place) – an AI solutions company helping investment firms automate time-consuming tasks such as financial research, due diligence, data reconciliation, and investor reporting through secure, customized AI workflows.
- TagSentry (Ethan Smith, Cade Calcote, Hunter Babin, Jake Brooks, and Jacob Leone) (tied for third place) – a personal anti-theft system that pairs a portable device with an alarm-equipped tag to alert users when valuable belongings, such as backpacks, purses, or bags, are moved out of range.
- InkFlow (Kennedy Case and Baylee Mabou) – a community-based writing platform that helps aspiring writers develop consistent writing habits, organize their projects, track progress, and connect with fellow writers through creative prompts and shared work.
- TechCheck (Eden Howard and Jaicee McEntyre) - a fingerprint-based attendance system that automatically records attendance and delivers real-time reports to instructors and student retention specialists, helping schools improve accountability and identify attendance concerns earlier.
“This year’s competitors raised the bar with their creativity, determination, and willingness to collaborate,” said Jessica George, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “From the earliest stages of idea development to the final pitches, students challenged themselves to think bigger, refine their solutions, and build ventures with real-world potential. Watching that transformation unfold is what makes Top Dog such a meaningful experience.”
Throughout the competition, teams received mentorship and guidance from India Carroll, executive in residence at the College of Business. Many of the participants developed their ideas or refined their concepts in George’s “Crafting a Business Pitch” course.
The competition also highlighted the strength of Louisiana Tech’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, with several teams continuing ventures that originated in other programs. RecLink entered Top Dog as the Spring 2026 Top Pup winner, a first-year student pitch competition. TagSentry continued developing an idea first showcased during Backed by Business, a competition held in the College of Engineering and Science, and expanded its team to include a College of Business student for Top Dog. Notably, the founders of Kivaro are both freshmen and taking on the challenge of developing a business venture during their first quarter.
Judges for Top Dog included:
- India Carroll, ’81, executive in residence, College of Business, Louisiana Tech
- Michael Leachman ’02, partner and patent attorney, Jones Walker LLP
- Drake Goolsby, ’03 ‘04, founder and CEO, Exergy Ventures
- Malcolm Murchison, ’74, special counsel, Bradley Murchison Kelly & Shea LLC
- Judge Jeff Cox, ’87, judge, Second Circuit Court of Appeal
Winners were awarded $10,000 in prize money made possible by the generosity of BRF’s Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program, Jones Walker LLP, Bradley Murchison Kelly & Shea LLC, and the College of Business.
The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is housed in the College of Business and fosters an entrepreneurial culture at Louisiana Tech by equipping students with the skills, experiences, and networks they need to turn ideas into action and create value in any field they pursue.