Nordine Sebkhi and Rebecca Royster won first prize at the inaugural TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) University Global Pitchfest Competition. This event took place on May 9 in Santa Clara, California and involved 20 teams from around the world. 

Sebkhi is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Royster is a 2018 Georgia Tech MBA alumna who worked with Sebkhi on this project in the TI:GER program, a commercialization education program housed in the Scheller College of Business.  

Sebkhi’s award-winning pitch was for a technology entitled Magtrack, a 3D tracking system that captures the motion of a tiny tracer in a novel way by being wireless, real-time, and high resolution. He and his team are currently using MagTrack for speech-related applications. They track tongue motion to enable patients with speech disorders to accelerate their recovery thanks to the team's gamification of speech therapy. 

MagTrack’s tongue tracking capability is also being used in speech recognition using only tongue motion. It may also be used in applications such as healthcare, assistive technology, and entertainment.