Obatala Sciences' COO, David Bode, served as a mentor to the DAWn Team in the 2020-2021 Tulane Novel Tech Challenge. The Novel Tech Challenge is a collaboration between different departments of Tulane University: the Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Development, the School of Science and Engineering, and the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurshp and Innovation, that allows students to develop and iterate new technologies and identify if there is a market opportunity for their innovations. The competition connects students to mentors and resources such as intellectual property attorneys to help them commercialize their technology. The Burton D. Morgan Foundation provides $20,000 in prizes to finalists.
The DAWn team built a cloud network to allow for remote collaboration of recording engineers who use digital audio workstations. The team consisted of Class of 2021 Engineering and Physics students: Leo Simanonok, Kaitlyn Miller, Sam Matluck, Jake Gus, Diego Pinzon. The DAWn project took 2nd place in the year long competition.