UT Tyler Named Top 50 Finalist at State Innovation Contest

December 1, 2025 | Hannah Buchanan

Team advances with project that leverages AI for advanced fire detection, prevention

The University of Texas at Tyler is a top 50 finalist of the 2026 Baylor New Venture Competition March 27 – 28 in Waco. This business plan and elevator pitch competition showcases collegiate student created, managed and led ventures from across the globe.

UT Tyler’s team with their namesake project, “FireAI” –– an innovative startup leveraging AI for advanced fire detection and prevention –– advanced by placing first among 51 other teams at the regional iLaunch Competition, hosted by the Texas Tech Innovation Hub in Lubbock, where they claimed a $10,000 prize.

“This cross-institutional team of alumni and current students showcases the strength of East Texas engineering and tech talent on a statewide stage,” said Brandon Reynolds, director of the UT Tyler ETX LaunchPad, the entrepreneurship and innovation branch of the UT Tyler Soules College of Business. “Their project is about two years in the making, and we wish the best of luck to FireAI in the iLaunch finals.”

UT Tyler team members are listed by hometown with classification.  

BULLARD – Ryan Crossman, senior mechanical engineering major and Theoren Stroud, electrical engineering alum.

CHANDLER – Kacey Flores, computer science alum and past UT Tyler Association of Computer Machinery student chapter president.

LONGVIEW – Rafael Reyes, electrical engineering alum (co-founder).

TYLER – Matthew Castillo, computer science and UT Tyler Honors College alum (founder); Ryan Dutcher, senior mechanical engineering major; Jimmy Lieu, computer science alum; and Antonio Morelos, computer science and UT Tyler Honor College alum and UT Tyler information technology department staff member.

Through targeted programs, the ETX LaunchPad at UT Tyler supports an innovative culture that engages students, faculty, staff and the wider community. To learn more, visit uttyler.edu.

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 11,500 students. Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.