The Waveform team includes: Kaitlyn Castellanet (AE), Hyunjun Ryh (ChBE), Sharayu Senthilkumar (BME), Emaan Jalal (BME), and Samuel Henshaw (BME).
A team of Georgia Tech undergraduates has won the $1 million top prize in the Device Innovation Challenge, a global competition developed by Sanofi and IDEO to reimagine large-volume drug delivery systems.
The winning team, Waveform, could receive up to $2 million in additional startup funding. The group was formed by Hyunjun Ryh, a student in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, after he discovered the challenge on LinkedIn in spring 2025.
Waveform also includes Kaitlyn Castellanet, an aerospace engineering major, and biomedical engineering majors Samuel Henshaw, Emaan Jalal, and Sharayu Senthilkumar.
Over the course of 2025, the team developed an adaptive on-body injector that tailors dosing, delivery, and pain relief to each patient in real time, allowing for more comfortable and confident self-injection.
All now juniors, the Georgia Tech students competed against 86 submissions from more than 400 students and recent graduates representing 114 universities across 42 countries. Approximately 70 percent of participants were master’s or doctoral students.
“Behind every one of these numbers is a student or recent graduate who took up the challenge to improve the impact of our drug delivery technologies on the lives of people they may never meet — and to find solutions that help them manage their treatment with greater compassion than ever before,” said Mitali Aon, senior vice president and global head of Device & Packaging for Sanofi.
Sanofi, an R&D-driven biopharma company, partnered with global design consultancy IDEO to develop the inaugural Sanofi Device Innovation Challenge.
Waveform was the only team from the United States to advance to the top five finalists, alongside teams from France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Nigeria.
“After the announcement of finalists, we were assigned to specific Sanofi and IDEO coaches to further develop our idea,” Ryh said. “In December, we were selected as a top three finalist after pitching our idea to device and packaging department leadership.”
Participation in the competition was independent of Georgia Tech coursework or programs, Ryh said. Team members dedicated more than 250 hours to collaborative development throughout the challenge.
"The challenge itself was really a humbling experience," Hyunjun said. "When we first started, we felt completely lost; we did not know where to start, where to find the resources, what the market is really needing, and most importantly how to build a product. So, for the first two months, we just spent the time to come up with all the ideas. Eventually, we got on the momentum, narrowed down the ideas, and put them together for the proposal."
In late January, the team traveled to Paris, France, for the competition’s grand finale, delivering a 10-minute pitch to Sanofi executives. The other finalist teams were composed of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from France and medical school students from the United Kingdom.
Ryh said the team is interested in further pursuing the technology, which is now owned by Sanofi, pending the company’s venture decision. “After our early discussions with leadership, we are hoping to continue the journey with Sanofi to further develop the idea into a product ready for the market,” he said.
Ryh added: “Although it was not part of the official GT curriculum, my ChBE coursework and research experience at GT were invaluable in pushing through challenges. This was especially evident during the iteration phase, where I had to simplify a complex system while preserving the novel features we aimed to incorporate into the device. It was really frustrating, but we got it done together as a team."