Cade Prize for Inventivity Names 2025 Finalists

By: Cade Prize for Inventivity via Business Wire

August 21, 2025 at 16:03 PM EDT

Judges for the 16th Annual Cade Prize for Inventivity named this year's fifteen finalists. Finalists will compete to win $10,000 in their respective categories — Environmental, Healthcare, Technology, Sports, and Wildcard — and will compete in the final round of live judging at the awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 14 at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida.

At the event, finalists will mingle with attendees, show off their innovations in an expo-style format, and meet one-on-one with the judges. After a round of live judging, the winners of the categories will be announced and the final five will present their pitches live on stage to compete for the Grand Prize of $50,000, the Student Choice Award, and free product consulting and legal services. This year’s finalists include:

Environmental

Chemergy of Miami, Fla. for their HyBrTec system that produces renewable hydrogen, green carbon dioxide and heat from the elimination of organic and plastic waste generated by municipalities.

EZ Ag Innovations of Lakeland, Fla. for Smart Spray Systems, a tractor-pulled, smart spray technology for specialty crop farmers that detects, identifies, and localizes pests or crops and applies pest management tools only where needed.

Quornix of Bloomington, Ind. for pioneering anti-virulence therapeutics to combat Vibrio-related bacterial diseases in aquaculture and human health.

Healthcare

CasNx of Gainesville, Fla. for their CRISPR technology that help patients get safer organ transplants by genome-editing donor organs before surgery to make them virus-free, immune-silent, and more durable.

Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Florida and Adam Grippin, M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Texas for their methods for sensitizing cancer immunotherapeutic response.

NanoNeurosciences of Alachua, Fla. for NanoGlaucoOut, a platform for advanced peptide-based nanomedicines to treat conditions such as Glaucoma, Epilepsy, and Depression.

Technology

CoFlow Jet Lift of Miami, Fla. for Jetsail, their rigid wind sail technology that reduces fuel consumption for large maritime shipping vessels.

Flashpoint Building Systems of Boise, Idaho for their Integrated Layout System, a pre-printed, full-floor layout solution for the construction industry.

Immunogenik of Gainesville, Fla. for 8R-70CAR, a CD70-targeted CAR T cell therapy designed to treat aggressive, treatment-resistant cancers such as GBM, pediatric high-grade gliomas, and brain metastases.

Sports

Boss Helmet of Jacksonville, Fla. for their helmet designed to reduce head injuries for football players.

Mud Rat of Storrs, Conn. for developing eco-friendly biomaterials for the marine and action sports industries.

Puttrax of Orlando, Fla. for creating Puttrax 360, a portable training & gaming system for golf players.

Wildcard

Crypto Tutors of Orlando, Fla. for DeFi All Odds, a platform to help people pursue careers in blockchain technology.

Floe of New Haven, Conn. for their automated ice and snow prevention system for commercial and residential buildings.

VASA Pet of Tampa, Fla. for their pump-free, dishwasher-safe waterwheel pet fountain.

As a national competition, the Cade Prize received a total of 100 applications from inventors and entrepreneurs from 16 states and with affiliations ranging from research universities to the private sector and technology transfer organizations.

“We’re particularly excited by the addition of a Sports category to this year’s competition. Athletic innovation is part of our origin story, and we’re happy to officially welcome it to the Cade Prize.”

— Richard Miles, Cade Museum Co-founder and Cade Prize Judge

Final judging will take place at the awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention. Tickets are on sale at cadeprize.org.

This year’s prize is sponsored by The Community Foundation of North Central Florida, The Florida High Tech Corridor, Gatorade, Cyle Sage, Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, OneSixOne Ventures, Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, 3D Musketeers, NVision Strategies and Hyatt Place Downtown.

About

The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs, who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.