BY Sarah Mary Toce-Donlon/UL Lafayette
LAFAYETTE, La. — Two graduate student teams from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette) have been selected as finalists in the Graduate Division of the Entrepreneurship Pelican Cup. With UL Lafayette students representing two of the six teams advancing to the championship round, UL Lafayette is showcasing the strength of its students to address complex societal challenges.
Jonathan Shirley, Louisiana Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (LEED) Center Operations and Programs Manager and faculty mentor says, “Having two UL Lafayette teams advance to the Pelican Cup finals is a testament to the creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurial drive of our students. There are six finalists and we have two of them! It’s exciting to see them represent the University on a statewide stage.”
Hosted by the University of Louisiana Monroe, the Pelican Cup is Louisiana’s premier collegiate business plan competition and features one of the largest award pools in the region, including $50,000 for first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place. The statewide competition invites students to submit formal business plans judged by business owners and investors, with finalists delivering in-person presentations to leading entrepreneurs.
Advancing to the finals from UL Lafayette are:
Team Bio-Pod (College of Sciences and B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration at UL Lafayette)
· Natasha Syed
· Mansu Acharya
· Matthew Hasling
Team Outage Pilot (College of Engineering at UL Lafayette)
· Md. Zahirul Kahn
· Md. Khairul Islam
· Usama Aslam
Team Bio-Pod led by Natasha Syed, is reimagining organic gardening by proposing plant pods to make the process less cumbersome and more streamlined.
“Being selected as a finalist in the Pelican Cup reflects the collaborative spirit that makes Bio-Pod possible,” says Natasha Syed, Graduate Research Assistant at UL Lafayette. “Our team set out to reimagine how people connect with soil and plants, making organic gardening accessible, sustainable, and scientifically grounded for everyone. Competing at this level lets us show that solutions to some of our most pressing environmental challenges can start here in Louisiana.”
Team Outage Pilot led by Md. Zahirul Kahn, is pitching a smart home energy platform that helps homeowners prepare for, manage, and recover from power outages more quickly.
“Every hour a family is without power is a risk to their health and safety,” says Md Zahirul Islam Khan, Graduate Research Assistant in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UL Lafayette. “With OutagePilot we aim to give homeowners the ability to predict an outage and stretch their backup power. Being selected as a Pelican Cup finalist tells us we are solving a real problem.
Each team’s selection underscores the strength of UL Lafayette’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and reflects the University’s growing culture of innovation across disciplines. The Pelican Cup encourages and celebrates cross-major collaboration, and the success of these UL Lafayette teams demonstrates how students from engineering, science, and business can unite to develop scalable, real-world solutions
Faculty mentors Jonathan Shirley and Farzad Ferdowsi have worked closely with the teams to refine their strategies and prepare them for the final round of competition, which will take place March 25, 2026, at The University of Louisiana Monroe.
Dr. Farzad Ferdowsi, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UL Lafayette says, "With OutagePilot, we are moving beyond just having backup hardware to providing an intelligent 'brain' for the home that knows an outage is coming before it happens. Our team is excited to translate our research in power systems and machine learning into a practical solution that ensures families in storm-prone regions stay connected."
Having two teams advance to the Graduate Division Finals is both a significant honor and a clear signal of the entrepreneurial talent emerging from UL Lafayette. As they prepare to compete on this major stage, the University community looks forward to cheering them on as they represent UL Lafayette and demonstrate the transformative power of student innovation.
