Oct 20, 2026
More than 100 student startups from 35 universities applied to the second Grainger Engineering Tech Startup Challenge. AISA Solutions, the team behind AISA School, an app for learning American Sign Language, was one of 18 named semi-finalists.
The challenge is run by the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship and Grainger Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We took part as a Case Western Reserve University team, and in October our team travelled to Chicago for three days of events, from October 19 to 21.
A day at the Venture Summit
The finals were part of the Chicago Venture Summit: Future of Health, hosted by World Business Chicago on October 20 in the Fulton Market District. Seven finalists pitched on stage for a share of $200,000 in funding and prizes.
AISA did not make the final seven. When the screen said “Congratulations to our semi-finalists!”, our name sat on it among teams from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, Michigan State University, the University of Waterloo, McMaster University and Missouri University of Science & Technology.
We spent the rest of the day meeting people across Chicago’s startup community and showing them AISA School, the app that teaches ASL with instant feedback on your signing.
From Cleveland to Chicago
Chicago is the latest stop in a run of pitch events for AISA. In February 2025, Amirali Rezaei won all three of his categories at Accelerate Cleveland, the Cleveland Leadership Center’s civic pitch competition, a first for the event.
Each event puts the app in front of people who have never seen it, and a semi-final spot at a summit on the future of health tells us a sign language app belongs in those rooms.
AISA School teaches ASL with short lessons, signs recorded by a Deaf signer and camera practice that gives you instant feedback on your signing. More than 200,000 people have downloaded it.
Thank you to the Landuyt Center and Grainger Engineering for having us, and congratulations to every finalist.
Want to try the signs we showed in Chicago? Browse our ASL sign library, with a short video for every sign.
Start free and practice your first sign today.