Each year, Americans throw away about 40 percent of the food purchased at the grocery store, but one Terry College economics student has a solution.

Fridgely — a fridge-mounted smart device designed by economics senior Gavin Gillespie to alert consumers before their perishables go bad — took home first prize at the University of Georgia’s 2025 Summer Design Sprint on Aug. 21.

“You truly understood the problem people are facing and came up with a knowledgeable yet simple solution,” said Design Sprint judge Mitch Rutledge, founder of Vertice AI, to Gillespie. “There are so many opportunities for business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer applications … I’m ready to be your first customer.”

Gillespie, who is pursuing certificates in entrepreneurship and sustainability, created Fridgely as a solution for busy families or individuals losing track of what’s in their fridge and how long it’s been there. The magnetic, digital tracker sits on the fridge door and displays green, yellow and red alerts when perishable foods are about to expire.

He plans to use the $2,500 prize to create a prototype.

This is the fifth time UGA Entrepreneurship hosted the Summer Design Sprint. The six-week program brings together students from all parts of the university for an intensive crash course in design thinking, said Don Chambers, program facilitator and associate director of the Entrepreneurship Program. Students start by identifying a problem in their community, conduct on-the-ground research to develop a solution, and create a detailed plan or prototype for that solution.

While 35 students started the Summer Design Sprint process in June, only 13 students — comprising six teams — were selected to pitch to Rutledge and fellow judges, Innovation Gateway Bootcamp Manager Allyson Hester, UGA Experiential Learning Director Andrew Potter, Innovation Gateway Engineering Catalyst Kevin Wu and UGA Society of Entrepreneurs marketing lead Ellison Suhoza.

In addition to Fridgely, judges recognized the career guidance and skills testing program Project Zero with second place. The chatbot-based career counselor was created by economics major Mairead Andren, MIS major Pranav Saravanakumar and sociology and political science major Abigail Harris.

Other teams presenting in the final round included:

• Border Bridge, a one-stop shop for visa application information, was presented by Niklas Kamp and mechanical engineering student Grant Baumann. They pitched it as Nerd Wallet for immigration information and services.
• Medic & Me, an upgraded emergency medical information app that would automatically transmit important medical data to emergency responders, was proposed by MIS and finance student Jay Sureka and his brother, EMT and recent UGA graduate Raj Sureka.
• The Brick, a stripped-down smartphone to help reduce screen time, was created by economics and MIS student Malhar Sethia.
• Safecrowd, a wristband-based crowd monitoring system to gauge large crowd flows at concerts and festivals, was created by biological engineering students Aditi Patel and Manaswi Gorle and computer science majors Sarayu Reddy and Anmol Matharu.

The mission of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is to help develop the mindset of future entrepreneurs and prepare students for business leadership roles. UGA Entrepreneurship Program accelerators are open to UGA students and Athens community members.