The 27th Annual Be Your Own Boss Bowl (BYOBB) took place on April 23rd, 2025. The entrepreneurial competition, hosted by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute at the Fox School of Business, invites students, faculty and staff from all 17 of Temple’s schools and colleges to pitch their budding business ideas. This year’s grand prize went to Megan Kane, CLA ‘24, for the AI-Aware Writing Environment (AAWE).

Kane, who recently completed her English PhD studies at Temple and is now an Assistant Professor at Seton Hall University, found that she and many of her peers in education were unprepared for the questions brought on by AI text generators like ChatGPT. Would AI eliminate future demand for writers? How do educators keep their students writing when tools like AI exist? How could instructors implement AI in the classroom in a controlled fashion? These uncertainties were the impetus for AAWE.

AAWE provides a digital environment that allows professors to set guidelines for the degree to which students can use AI in their assignments. When a student submits their work, professors are given a host of metrics to determine the probability that any of the previously set AI parameters have been violated. To do this, the software uses a proprietary algorithm that factors in linguistic patterns as well as the student’s processes.

The pitch also highlighted AAWE’s seamless integration with popular learning management systems such as Canvas, which will be familiar to Temple students. Kane hopes that AAWE can encourage greater transparency and communication in classrooms as AI tools become more prevalent. Users can try AAWE for themselves at their webpage.

Since its inception in 1997, BYOBB has developed into one of the nation’s most lucrative pitch competitions for aspiring entrepreneurs. In the lead-up to the event, finalists attend workshops with guest speakers, expert mentors and pitch coaches in workshops, further developing their entrepreneurial skillsets.

This year’s esteemed live judges included Professor and Deputy Chair of Fox’s Department of Marketing Katie Gerst, CEO of Rebel Hill Consulting and 2024 inductee to Temple’s Gallery of Success Zack James, and Sports Business Leaders found Jake Voorhees, who once pitched a mobile device repair service called Nerdit Now on Season 11 of Shark Tank.