Ayush Karupakula, a second-year computer science student (CS), has secured $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator (YC) for Tropir, a startup that helps developers trace and debug failures in large language model (LLM) pipelines.
YC is a prestigious startup accelerator known for launching companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, and Reddit, and Karupakula’s acceptance into its Winter 2025 batch places him among the next generation of tech founders.
This semester 29 ISyE senior design teams were showcased in the Capstone Design Expo, competing against over 200 teams.
From a digital tool to enhance workshops to a real-time analytics platform for warehouse sensors, computing students demonstrated a wide range of software solutions at the Spring 2025 Computer Science Junior Design Capstone Expo.
Held on April 21 in the Georgia Tech Exhibition Hall, the event highlighted the technical skills and creativity of third- and fourth-year students in the School of Computing Instruction.
Though the College has long supported hackathons organized by student groups and independent teams, this event, dubbed Ramblin’ Hacks, was the first to be exclusively organized and hosted by the College.
Industry partners were crucial to the event’s success. Sponsors included Elevance Health, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Soccer, GEICO, FanDuel, Microsoft, and The Trade Desk. These companies provided valuable support through the Corporate Affiliates Program (CAP).
Four Georgia Tech students from Startup Lab—Alex Aridgides, Shinhai Chen, Varuni Chopra, and Christie Peng—have been selected for the 2025 immersive cohort at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. This weeklong, all-expenses-paid program allows university-affiliated innovators to refine their innovations, engage in customer discovery, and network with industry leaders. The students were chosen through a competitive application process and are the first from Georgia Tech to be invited. Their instructor, Yolanda Payne, emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning and entrepreneurial skills gained through Startup Lab.