A team of three Alfred University students has turned a classroom idea into an award-winning startup with a plastic-free packaging innovation.
Alfred University students (from left) Amina Shamshibayeva, Vladyslava Makarenko, and Mike Maeda claimed the first-place award and $5,000 prize at the sixth annual AHA! Allegany County Startup Collegiate Competition, hosted at Houghton University on Saturday, April 11.
ReGrow, founded by first-year students Amina Shamshibayeva and Vladyslava Makarenko and sophomore Mike Maeda, claimed first place at the sixth annual AHA! Allegany County Startup Collegiate Competition, held Saturday, April 11, on the Houghton University campus. Teams from Alfred University, Houghton University, and Alfred State College pitched their ideas for creating a new business to a panel of judges. Winning teams were awarded cash prizes, which can be used to put their business plans into action.
The team of Shamshibayeva (finance major), Makarenko (finance major; minors in business analytics and economics), and Maeda (data analytics major) won this year’s competition by pitching ReGrow, a business that makes bio-engineered packaging material grown from mushroom roots and agricultural waste. The concept is simple in principle but technically ambitious: mix mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, with sterilized hay sourced from Sunny Cove Farm of Alfred Station, let it grow for five days, then heat it in an oven to stop further growth. The finished product is ready in seven days.
The result is a packaging material that is water resistant, fire resistant, and thermally insulating. It can be molded into any shape or color to meet custom specifications. And when it's done its job it decomposes in 30 days, compared to up to 500 million years for conventional plastic, and several years for cardboard, which also lacks fire resistance and waterproofing.
What separates ReGrow from established players in the space comes down to the manufacturing process itself. Companies like Ecovative, which has operated in the mycelium packaging space for nearly two decades, use plastic molds to grow their products. That means plastic never fully leaves the production line. ReGrow developed a different approach by using 3D bioprinters to print directly from the hay-mycelium mixture, cutting plastic out of the equation entirely. The method also sidesteps existing patent barriers, giving the team a clear lane in which to operate.
"Bringing everything together as a group was very fun and challenging," said Maeda. "It definitely shaped our entrepreneurial mindsets, and winning first place was a way for us to solidify our growth as a team."
The team originally developed the idea for a Contemporary Business course before deciding to pitch it at AHA!, where they went up against other student startups and walked away with the top prize. The win wasn't just symbolic and they're planning to invest a portion of the prize money directly into the business and are in talks with an on-campus incubator for office space. Their next milestone is connecting with the university's Institute for Experiential Entrepreneurship to accelerate development.
Makarenko credited the team's diversity as a key asset. "We all contributed from different aspects and as a result, it helped the team drive the concept forward,” she said. “Our mentor Seann Bishop also brought an industrial perspective that pushed the idea further."
ReGrow is still at an early stage, but its founders are treating the competition win as a starting point for growing their venture. Their win in the 2026 AHA! competition came with a $5,000 cash prize that can be used to help make their business idea a reality.
Story by Andrii Maltsev ’27
