A team of four students have won the 2025 Penn Y-Prize Competition, a contest in which students team up to create business plans using technology invented at Penn Engineering.

The winning team, Stentix, consists of Summer Cobb (SEAS), Amanda Kossoff (Vagelos LSM), Elizabeth Jia (Vagelos LSM), and Aarsha Shah (Vagelos LSM). Stentix makes use of MORF, a magnetic, self-reconfiguring “origami-style” material invented in Penn SEAS’ Sung lab.

The team proposed a bile duct stent that can be adjusted noninvasively, helping to maintain bile flow without additional surgeries. A biliary stent is a small, tube-like device inserted into the bile ducts to keep them open and allow bile to flow from the liver to the small intestine. These stents are used to treat blockages caused by conditions such as pancreatic cancer, gallstones, or complications from liver transplants.

However, biliary stents can easily become blocked or dislodged. Doctors typically replace or reposition them through invasive and uncomfortable  procedures like endoscopy. Stentix addresses this problem by allowing noninvasive adjustments to the stent’s position and diameter using magnetic reconfiguration.

Stentix was awarded the grand prize after presenting their business plan and fielding questions from a panel of expert judges from academia and industry. The team won $10,000 to help make their idea a reality. The competition is cosponsored by the Mack Institute, Penn Engineering, Venture Lab, and the Penn Center for Innovation.