Four Growers, a student team that’s developing a tomato-harvesting robot, will represent Pitt in the 2018 ACC InVenture Prize innovation competition. The annual event pits one team of undergraduates from each Atlantic Coast Conference university in competition for $30,000 in prizes. Students will pitch their innovations to a panel of judges before a live audience April 5 and 6 at Georgia Tech. The Four Growers team includes Brandon Contino (ENGR ’17) and Dan Chi, a mechanical engineering student in the Swanson School of Engineering (both pictured), as well as senior neuroscience student Daniel Garcia.

Four Growers has competed in several Innovation Institute student innovation programs, including last spring’s Blast Furnace student accelerator and the most recent Startup Blitz innovation competition.

The team also is competing for $100,000 in prizes at the March 29 Randall Family Big Idea Competition at Pitt and is among two Pitt teams at the Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston April 6 and 7.