Competitions

Taking place on Loyola University Chicago’s campus, the NeuroVenture Challenge is an interdisciplinary competition that combines neuroscience, entrepreneurship and ethics. The DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society at Loyola created the competition to foster an ethics-based ecosystem of STEM innovation at the university.

On March 25th, 2025, the DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society put on its second NeuroVenture Challenge. Seven teams (12 students) of Loyola undergraduates entered the competition — three of which competed in the finals. To prepare, registered participants attended a virtual workshop and were offered a workbook and virtual mentoring prior to the event. The inclusion of workbooks and information sessions were new additions to the challenge which allowed the contest to be more accessible to those that were less familiar with neuroscience and/ or entrepreneurship. Via Zoom on the day of the contest, teams delivered a 10 minute pitch to a panel of 2 judges – Loyola entrepreneurship professor April Lane Shuster and neurobiology professor Bill Rochlin. The top two highest scoring teams were awarded $1200 (first place) and $800 (second place) scholarships.

One of the challenge’s creators, April Lane Shuster, met with competitors 1-on-1 in pre-event Zoom meetings to provide insight and feedback on the delivery and presentational aspects of their pitches. Shuster said one of the goals of the competition is for students to walk away with a changed perspective and newfound consideration of the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation.

“We want to open students up to a different way of thinking,” Shuster said. “Most of the students are neuroscience students who are looking to expand how they think about the knowledge they are learning in class and increase their business knowledge.”

In response to student feedback, the competition underwent substantial changes after its pilot in 2024. The NeuroVenture contest was lengthened past its original single-day format to provide additional details and guidance for the registered students. The new, 3-week-long timeline gave participants more time to explore their ventures and master their pitches.

In 2024, the first-place team’s concept was a venture called, “ReNewRx: Your Personalized Path to Recovery.” They envisioned a hybrid approach to treating addiction. The second-place team developed a business venture called, “SynapSense,” which would involve developing a new exposure therapy methodology to treat pediatric Sensory Processing Disorder symptoms. The program would use a combination of virtual reality (VR) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to relieve symptoms.

In 2025, Mikayla Cutler and Joanna Malec took first place with their business venture titled “TBI Recovery Program,” which focused on athletes. The winners pitched a tool that assists in a better understanding of concussions and brain injury, leading to enhanced recovery and overall brain health. Second place winner, Eman Aldajah pitched a virtual accessible tutoring service called “Jawaher Education” that incorporates cognitive science and artificial intelligence to enhance student learning. The goal of the organization would be to use technology and science to bridge the gap between tutor and student, helping learners reach their full potential. In third place was Lily Foster, who imagined a watch or bracelet titled “Foster’s Panic/ Anxiety Decompressor” that included fidget-like accessories with the potential to improve mental health.

Below are photos from the 2024 competition.

View more images from the competition

For the past two years, in the Spring of 2024 and of 2025, the DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society at Loyola put on a Neuro-Art competition to showcase the beauty of neuroscience and to provide an opportunity for creative exploration of the brain, its functions and ethical considerations surrounding them. The art-science competition requested submissions that reflected, reacted to or raised awareness for researched neuroscientific concepts and their subsequent ethical conflicts. Students from the undergraduate level to the post-doctorate level were welcomed to submit an art piece using any medium to compete for the $500 first place, $250 second place and $100 third place prizes. Each year, all submissions were displayed at the Chicago Society for Neuroscience meeting in March.

The competition was conceived by Bill Rochlin, PI of the DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society at Loyola and a Loyola professor. He was inspired by some of his neuroscience students who were gifted artists. Viewing the beauty of nature through their perspectives deepened his own appreciation for the field. Rochlin saw value in the incredible talent and conceptual understanding required to make neuro-art and hoped the competition would expose neuroscience students to take on a more creative approach to the subject.

“It provides a means of exposing neuroscientists to the extreme creativity and perspective of the subset of their peers who are great at expressing creativity and perspective," Rochlin said. “This has to broaden their perspective and provoke them to think in new ways about what they find most intriguing and inspiring."

In 2024, after receiving 11 submissions in the form of digital media, acrylic paintings, drawings, embroidery and more, a committee formed to judge the unique creations. After much deliberation, based on aesthetics, content and artist-written descriptions, the committee named their top three pieces. 

First Place - “Plasticity,” Acrylic on canvas | Vincent Lotesto | Northern Illinois University, undergraduate

Second Place - “Idiopathic,” Embroidery thread and pins on satin and paper | Grace Elizabeth Naylor | Northwestern University, research technician

Third Place - “Language,” Digital Illustration | Joe Salvo | Northwestern University, graduate student

In 2025, five submissions were received. These creative,  multimedia pieces featured digital illustrations, paper quilling and acrylic paintings. A panel of judges voted on their first and second place winners, but came to the conclusion there would be a tie for third place. 

First Place - “Ionic Cosmos,” Digital Illustration, Blender and Procreate | Kai Clane Belonio | University of Illinois Chicago, undergraduate

Second Place - “Neurogenesis, Brain in Bloom,” Acrylic on Canvas | Martha Alatorre | Lake Forest College, undergraduate

Third Place (tie) - “Cognitive Coils,” Paper quilling | Chanpreet Kaur | Loyola University Chicago, graduate student

Third Place (tie) - “Learning and Memory,” Digital Illustration, Procreate | Jashui Zárate Torres | Dominican University, undergraduate

During the Fall of 2024 and the Spring of 2025, the DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society put on nation-wide neuroscience and journalism competitions. The contest is meant to encourage the intersection of journalistic writing and neuroscientific research among undergraduates and to promote accurate, collaborative reporting. In a time where misinformation and disinformation are widespread, responsible journalism and science journalism, specifically, are important to nurture.

Bastiaan Vanacker, a media ethics and law professor at Loyola University Chicago, is one of the competition runners and judges. 

“I do believe, now more than ever, that students need to master the skill to convey scientific content ethically and accurately to the general public,” Vanacker said. “This is true for both journalism and science students. Therefore, I was glad to see that both groups submitted to our competition.”

In 2024, there were 14 submissions from Loyola University Chicago, where a panel of neuroscience and journalism experts chose first, second and third place winners. 

“The Myths that Fuel the War on Drugs,” by Mason Eaton won the 2024 competition and the accompanying $1000 cash prize. In second place, winning $500, was Grace Johnson for her article titled, “Neuromarketing Meets Emotions.” Third place winner Alex de Foy was awarded $250 for his piece called, “Should We Still Trust Anti-Depressants?”

The 2025 competition garnered 18 submissions from universities across the United States. A new panel of neuroscience and journalism experts evaluated each article based on neuroscience content, journalistic writing and relevance to society as a whole. Winning authors will be flown in to attend a ceremony on October 16, 2025 at Loyola, where they will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to discuss neuroscience and journalism with other students. 

“The Silent Pandemic,” by Sophia Martinez was selected as the first place winner and the recipient of the $1000 cash prize. Second place is “Broken Circuit,” by Tiffany Chan, receiving $750. In third place is Jeffrey Mu, winning $500 with his article titled, “Optimizing the Mind.”

The neuroethics contest aims to encourage neuroscience trainees to reflect and debate about the ethical implications of neuro technological advances. The Dana Program for Neuroscience & Society put on its first neuroethics competition in May 2024 and followed with the second installment in May 2025. The program especially encourages trainees to apply these questions to their own research, but also accepts any topics that address ethical dilemmas and social issues that are arising from new discoveries in neuroscience. Participants submitted narrated presentation videos no longer than 10 minutes.

The contest is the brainchild of Loyola University Chicago neurobiology professor Bill Rochlin, who invited Loyola philosophy professor and neuroethicist Joseph Vukov to serve as a judge. Vukov said he believed in the goal of the competition and that it would be a valuable learning experience for the trainees.

 “It’s important for people working in STEM fields to be encouraged to think about the ethical and social implications of the work that they’re doing and just the work of neuroscience in general,” Vukov said. “I think for that reason it's a really cool competition and an important one.”

To ensure an inclusive and well-rounded analysis of submissions, a panel of neuroscientists, ethicists, community members and others selected one winner. The panel of judges evaluated the presentations based on societal relevance of the topic (in general or in Chicago), presentation effectiveness and significance of the subject. 

One winner of the 2024 competition was Shikun Hou for their presentation titled, “On well-being as the neuropsychiatry end goal, and the case for brain manipulation on account of authenticity.” This submission focused on wellness-centered neuropsychiatry and the ethical issues that arise when considering changing the brain. The other winning submission in 2024 was Dana Silvian for their presentation titled, “Ethical considerations of decoding emotions.” The project discussed the ethical implications of artificial intelligence technology deciphering human emotions. Both winners received a $2000 prize.

The competition was held again in May 2025 and the first place selection was titled, “Neuroethics of memory erasure” by Tuba Balta and Dana Silvian. The project discussed the idea and ethical challenges surrounding the removal of unwanted memories from the brain. Since the winners did not present their project at the society for neuroscience meeting, they did not win the $2000 prize, but received a $500 award instead.

The DANA Program for Neuroscience & Society’s microgrant competition was open to proposals from non-profit community applicants who were working to raise awareness, appreciation and understanding of neuroscience and its ethical implications. The microgrant provided up to $5000 to its chosen applicants and hoped to reach communities within the field of neuroscience that are underserved, underrepresented or impacted by systemic racism. 

The first microgrant recipient was the Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST), a non-profit organization with the goal of creating accessible and engaging science and technology content. C2ST proposed a Neuroscience Field Trip for students in underserved communities, which took place at McCormick Place in Chicago during the Society and Neuroscience conference on Monday, October 7, 2024. 3 schools participated in the field trip — Schurz High School, Farragut High School and Chicago Vocational School — with a total of 25 students. The trip consisted of meeting neuroscientists, listening to researcher talks, attending poster presentations, viewing current lab equipment and asking questions. 

This Fall, the second microgrant winner, Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA), will put their proposal in motion. The project is a neuroscience-focused research program that hopes to cultivate interdisciplinary skills in subjects like neurobiology, computer science and engineering in participating students. Led by IMSA faculty, the program will serve approximately 300 IMSA PROMISE students (middle schoolers across Illinois that identify as members of linguistically, economically and/or culturally underserved communities) and 30 IMSA students (high schoolers), engaging them in STEM, introducing advanced tools, providing hands-on research experience and granting access to student-centered seminars. Throughout the program, staff will assess neuroscience literacy, interest and career confidence within its students, hoping to strengthen these aspects over time. Creating a more accessible space for early exposure to neuroscientific curriculum will likely open pathways and encourage more long-term engagement in the field. Grant funds will be used to pay educators and purchase equipment like surface electromyography (sEMG) and Backyard Brains products, for example. IMSA plans to continue and expand its neuroscience enrichment initiatives into the future.

The third microgrant recipient, Cities Mentor Project Summer Program (CMPSP), is carrying out their plan in the summer of 2025. The organization offers programming during the summer and works with Chicago Public School students to break the cycle of poverty through education, mental health services, employment opportunities and community building. In addition to pre-existing field trips and activities, the organization seeks the microgrant to incorporate a neuroscience curriculum into the program. With the help of DePaul neuroscience professor Dr. Dorothy Kozlowski, DePaul undergraduates and other CMPSP mentors, students will be introduced to foundational neuroscientific concepts in an accessible, interactive way. The goal of the initiative is to increase literacy, critical thinking skills, neuroscience engagement, diversify the field long-term and close opportunity gaps for participating students. Pre and post-program surveys will be administered to students to evaluate neuroscience interest, knowledge and confidence, along with gathering student feedback to improve effectiveness for the future of the program. Funding will go towards neuroscience supplies (Backyard Brains kits and lab materials, for example) and support educators and mentors.