Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition
The winning team will receive the $50,000 grand prize to continue their project and launch their business!
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has identified fourteen Grand Challenges in topics spanning energy, health, safety, education, and our environment; many of these will be addressed and overcome by inspired engineers turning ideas into real products, companies, and solutions.
Through a generous gift from Fariborz Maseeh, the Viterbi School of Engineering runs the annual Maseeh Engineering Prize Competition (MEPC) to inspire our innovators to lead these transformations. MEPC offers mentoring and education, empowering innovators to create feasible business models.
Admitted teams will be paired with mentors and are required to attend educational sessions. Teams are also offered $250 customer discovery grants to test and refine their deep technology business ideas, putting their education training to practice.
View the MEPC Info Session Slide Deck from October 1, 2021.
Listen to the Viterbi Voices podcast to hear the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition episode. Tune in for a fantastic episode about how Viterbi Students use their passions to tackle some of the most pressing issues of the world!
For further information, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions.
The 2022-2023 Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition
This year's the MEPC 2022-2023 program received the most applications the program has seen in many years.
This years MEPC cohort has 18 teams from various industries and disciplines. The teams will receive 7 different educational sessions and will be mentored by the professionals in their field. Culminating in the MEPC Finals on Friday, April 28, 2023.
Prizes 2022-2023
Key Program Dates 2022-2023
2022 Winner
About Fariborz Maseeh
The Massiah Foundation’s founder and president, Fariborz Maseeh is at heart both a scientist and an entrepreneur. His undergraduate and graduate studies in the fields of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics inspired him to pursue the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In 1991, he founded IntelliSense with the vision to reduce the time and expense of creating next-generation MEMS devices that had broad industrial and humanitarian applications, from airplane landing gear to pacemakers. As his company grew, so did his desire to give back to the community. Ever grateful to his inspiring teachers and educational institutions that nurtured his skills and dreams his philanthropy is inclined towards education, youth, scientific innovation, healthcare and culture.
Mr. Maseeh founded the Massiah Foundation in 2001 on the concept of venture philanthropy. This means that the Massiah Foundation targets unique opportunities to invest in entities that will have a lasting and broad impact. It also seeks to leverage its resources to attract co-investors from the community so that the goals of impact and longevity will be realized.
The Massiah Foundation mirrors Mr. Maseeh’s entrepreneurial spirit as he applies management principles to improve the value of the Foundation’s social investments. It also applies his solution-based approach toward innovation and finding unique opportunities to serve and unite people and their communities.
The Massiah Foundation
The Massiah Foundation was established to provide charitable financial support to outstanding organizations with the potential to improve the future of humanity. Since its inception, the foundation has made significant contributions to various learning institutions, universities, children’s organizations, hospitals, cultural organizations, the arts, and general welfare organizations in the United States.
The Massiah Foundation seeks opportunities to make innovative, transformational or charitable contributions in areas within its expertise that can result in broad public benefit mainly in education, health, or arts/culture.
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