CMA 1st classman wins entrepreneur competition at Notre Dame

A Culver Military Academy first classman who designed an affordable, comfortable solution for autistic children who struggle with sleep because of sensory issues caused by light or sound won first place in the high school division of the McCloskey New Venture Competition at the University of Notre Dame.

Tristan Gamel ’25 placed first in the competition involving hundreds of entries from high school students. Gamel’s goal was to create a favorable sleep environment for people with sensory issues by combining a sleep mask with noise-canceling headphones.

“I wanted to build something that was silent, comfortable and convenient,” he said.

Gamel won $2,500 for winning the high school division and earned the chance to pitch his product to judges who then listened as college students vied for the $50,000 grand prize.

“To be invited to be on that stage where Notre Dame believes that his product has the quality and integrity to be put up against the ventures that are going for real seed money is an incredible compliment to Tristan and his work and a confirmation that his experiences at Culver Academies and The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur have prepared him to be at that level,” said J.D. Uebler, director of the Rubin School.

Last year, Emma Butcher ’25 placed second and roommates John Afari-Aikins ’24 and Brit Crockett ’25 placed third in the McCloskey Competition. Five Culver student teams entered the McCloskey Competition this year, five made it past the first round and three submitted entries for the final round.

Uebler said the McCloskey competition has provided the Rubin School with a way to measure how it is doing.

“It’s been really helpful for us to confirm that our program offerings and rigorous expectations are on the right track,” he said.

Gamel won the high school competition by creating a sleep mask that wraps around the head, using earphones that have noise-canceling speakers, which he describes as active noise cancellation.

Passive noise cancellation simply tries to block out sound, “but it doesn’t really work,” Gamel said. Active noise cancellation involves a microphone, a speaker and a sound processor. The microphone picks up incoming sound waves and the sound processor then finds an equal but opposite sound wave and the speaker projects both, creating silence.

“It is quite literally projecting silence. It’s really cool, and it works,” Gamel said. “I have them on my headphones. Turn them on and silence.”

Gamel said his first prototype used passive noise cancellation, and he realized that wasn’t enough. He said it blocked out no sound and was uncomfortable.

The second prototype blocked out light more effectively, but the speakers were too big and a strap he was using could get stuck in hair, so he knew he needed a more comfortable design.

Uebler said he was impressed by how much time Gamel spent on his prototypes trying them out on other students and talking to parents of autistic children to make sure he was improving his product.

“I’m proud of the strategies he used to test his prototypes with both customers and end users in his market,” Uebler said.

 

 

Gamel said his third prototype is customizable and washable and more effective than earlier versions. He said the challenge for him was finding speakers small enough so users could comfortably lie on their side. He used about $650 of the money he won in the McCloskey competition to hire a freelancer to give him a 3D design and a detailed list of everything needed for a manufacturer to make the device.

He plans to use some of the remaining McCloskey funds to pay to have some units of the device made.

“I’m really excited for that,” he said.

He said his device will be “affordable,” although he has not yet determined the exact price as he works through his manufacturing costs.

He said the autism disorder market in the United States is valued at $1.03 billion, with sleep medication and treatment making up about a quarter of that market.

Gamel said he’s interested in helping people with autism because his mother is a pediatrician who works with neurodivergent children. He said he also is close to a family member on the autism disorder spectrum and he also has struggled with sleep disorders and sensory issues.

Gamel said his device might be of interest to numerous people with sleep issues.

Gamel initially was interested in helping autistic children who were picky eaters and weren’t consuming enough of certain nutrients. He sought to help that through various solutions, such as a bath balm that allowed the micronutrients to be soaked through the bloodstream, but found that potential solutions he found were impractical to implement. So he decided to pivot.

“I think a lot of people for entrepreneurship create a solution and then they try to find a problem that it solves. I started with the problem and then found multiple potential problems that stem from that, and then solutions for that,” he said. “When I found one solution was impractical, I switched to the sleep aspect.”

He said the autism spectrum disorder sleep market has three major distribution channels: online, hospitals and retail. He said he plans to begin selling his product online, even though it makes up only about 10 percent of the market. He said retail makes up about 60 percent of the market, but it is more difficult to get into because producers must sell in bulk.

‘“So the most effective way to start is small because I don’t want my startup costs to be $10 million,” Gamel said.

He also plans to create his own content on his website about how to improve sleep for children in the autism disorder spectrum and educational content on his own product and track it through Google analytics to determine what people are interested in. He also will seek contributions from parent bloggers and medical professionals.

“The idea is to build a community while marketing my product for free,” he said.

Gamel said his goal is to start small as he attends Purdue University, where he plans to take part in a double-degree program in integrated business and engineering and industrial engineering. The program bridges the divide between business and engineering, preparing graduates to pioneer intersections and design and manage complex systems.

“I think that is perfect for me, and I think this project highlights that,” he said. “I’m really excited because now I have some funding. So I’m going to see where it takes me.”