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Friday, May 10, 2024
Innovation Meets Investment: Highlights from MS AI Venture Studio Investor Day
Last Wednesday, Carnegie Mellon University hosted the MS AI Venture Studio - Investor Day, designed to connect the dots between AI innovation and investment. Orchestrated by MS AI Venture Studio Professors Adam Paulisick, Sean Ammirati, and SkillBuilder.io Cofounder Kit Mueller, the event showcased the burgeoning potential within Pittsburgh's growing AI community, drawing hundreds of founders, investors, researchers, faculty and community leaders.
That evening, attendees gathered for a reception at the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, which allowed for further networking and reflection on the day’s events. Sean Ammirati, another lead organizer, commented on the day's impact: "The energy today was palpable for both investors and entrepreneurs. It's clear that when brilliant minds converge with impactful ideas, the potential for innovation is limitless. Today was not just about hosting an event; it was a preview of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary future using AI to make the world a better and more interesting place."
Thursday, May 9, 2024
CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship President Steven Guo Named to Technical.ly's RealLIST Connectors 2024
Steven Guo is a health tech consultant who dedicates much of his time to social impact. As president of Carnegie Mellon University alumni organization CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship with the CMU Swartz Center, he helps grads connect with training, opportunity, capital and mentorship. Steven helped design an accelerator and develops programming to further a stronger CMU alumni entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Blue Belt Co-founder Dr. Anthony Digoia Launches JointIQ To Help Diagnose Hip and Knee Arthritis
Dr. Anthony DiGioia (M.S. 1982), who co-founded Blue Belt Technologies along with CMU Swartz Center EIR and Carnegie Mellon University Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship Craig Markovitz, is launching JointIQ, a free educational platform created by orthopedic surgeons to help non-experts learn how to diagnose hip and knee arthritis. JointIQ offers gamified courses and quizzes that teach users how to recognize hip and knee arthritis.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Setex (formerly nanoGriptechnologies) Sells Business Unit
Setex Technologies, the global leader in the commercialization of gecko-inspired adhesive and gripping products, has announced that it has sold its industrial tape and gripping technology business unit to Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., Inc., a publicly traded Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, semiconductor silicon, and electronics and specialty materials.
Setex Technologies, a spin out of Carnegie Mellon University founded by former faculty and distinguished service professor Metin Sitti, is the first commercial manufacturer of micro-fibrillar polymer-based dry adhesive materials for a wide range of product applications.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Gecko Robotics Partners with UAE Oil Company
Gecko Robotics Inc.,co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus and COO Troy Demmer and CEO Jake Loosararian, has announced a contract with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Gas, based in the United Arab Emirates. Gecko's robots will be deployed across ADNOC Gas sites to perform predictive maintenance, improve efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and maintain safety. The contract has an estimated ceiling of $30M.
Friday, April 26, 2024
The Swartz Center Announces the 2024-26 Innovation Scholars Cohort
After a rigorous application process with over 70+ Carnegie Mellon undergraduate students from across schools, the CMU Swartz Center has selected twelve students for its 2024-26 Innovation Scholars cohort. The students, which hail from Tepper, Engineering, Computer Science, CMU Qatar and more are all rising juniors interested in various areas of entrepreneurship.
The students (in order of appearance in the photo) are:
Timothy Brown, Tepper School of Business; Ekaterina Demenkova, CMU Qatar/Information Systems;
Audrey Hasson, School of Computer Science; David Hershensen, Electrical & Computer Engineering;
Simran Jolly, Tepper School of Business; Janise Kim, School of Computer Science; Aaryan Lalwani, Tepper School of Business; Krish Mawalkar, Statistics and Machine Learning; Jiwon (James) Park, Statistics and Machine Learning; Evan Pinnix, Tepper School of Business; Erika Ramirez, Electrical & Computer Engineering; Avalon Sueiro, Tepper School of Business
Friday, April 26, 2024
Andreessen Horowitz Promotes Jennifer Li to General Partner to Help Lead its New AI Infrastructure Fund
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is promoting Jennifer Li to general partner after six years at the firm. She’s being tapped to help invest the new $1.25B Infrastructure fund managed by longtime a16z general partner Martin Casado.
Prior to joining a16z in 2018, she led product at Carnegie Mellon University AI startup Solvvy, acquired by Zoom in 2022, led self-service and analytics products at AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7B and was a Kleiner Perkins Product Fellow in 2016.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Limelight Steel wins $2.9M from ARPA-E's Iron and Steel Program
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy selected thirteen projects in nine states to receive a total of $28M through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Limelight Steel, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumni Olivia Dippo and Andy Zhao, received $2.9M for its cutting-edge, zero-emissions iron making technology development.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Why Incorporate in Delaware? Pros and Cons in 2024
Nearly two million businesses—including more than 50% of all publicly traded companies in the U.S. and almost 70% of all Fortune 500 companies—are incorporated in Delaware.
In a recent story by USA Today, Dave Mawhinney, Executive Director at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship said most investors actually “demand” the businesses they invest in be incorporated in Delaware. “It boils down to [how] Delaware is perceived to be the friendliest state for business formation and residency, and venture capitalists want standardization across their portfolios,” he explained.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Congrats to CMU Undergraduate Scottie VenturesTeam! Winners of the 2024 VCIC Global Finals and $5K!
After winning first place at the VCIC Undergraduate Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals in February—the first undergraduate team to represent Carnegie Mellon University composed of members of CMU's Scottie Ventures club recently won the VCIC Global Finals and $5K. The team members are: Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar), Saaketh Chennaiahgari, Ethan Yeo, Aditi Shimpi, Darren Grendi and
Meher Sujay Kaky.
Global VCIC is the world's largest venture capital competition with over 120 university and graduate school teams competing.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
RoboBurger to Air on Shark Tank this Friday
RoboBurger CEO and Tepper School of Business alumnus Audley Wilson announced in a post on LinkedIn that the company will be featured on Shark Tank this Friday on ABC at 8:00 PM EST. It will also be streamed on Hulu.
RoboBurger is an all electric solution and ventless kitchen that can go anywhere—just plug it in, that allows anyone to make fresh burgers at the press of a button anytime, anywhere.
Friday, April 12, 2024
D.Sole Co-founders Win $25K Investment at the Rice Business Plan Competition
Forty-two of the best student ventures from top universities across the world competed in front of nearly 350 angel, venture capital and corporate investors on April 4-6, 2024 at the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition. Among the finalists was D.Sole, a smart insole that utilizes multimodal sensors for the early detection and monitoring of foot complications such as ulcers in diabetic patients, co-founded by CMU's James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows Saisri Akondi and Zilin Zhang.
The team bought home $5K in cash and $25K investment from Rice Alliance. D.Sole is currently participating in the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator in Los Angeles, CA.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Advanced Optronics CEO Jay Reddy Is Helping Surgeons Do Their Job Better
Jay Reddy, a California native, came to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University for graduate school, and decided to stick around to co-found and run Advanced Optronics Inc., a Pittsburgh-based biotech company that uses sensor technology and flexible materials to help surgeons do their jobs better. Jay was recently featured in the Pittsburgh Business Times' Personalities of Pittsburgh.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Galen Health To Compete at Hult Prize Mumbai Summit 2024
Galen Health, founded by Logan Nye, MD (James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow), has been officially selected to compete at the Hult Prize Mumbai 2024 Summit hosted in partnership with SDA Bocconi Asia Center on June 7- 9, 2024. The company's flagship product OncoSight, harnesses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) for early cancer detection and treatment, with a primary focus on pancreatic cancer.
Friday, April 5, 2024
Founder of ShopKirana Named Disruptive Retailer of the Year
ShopKirana, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Sumit Ghorawat ('2011), Deepak Dhanotiya and Tanutejas Saraswat and headquartered out of India, was just named Disruptive Retailer of the Year by the Economic Times. ShopKirana is a commerce company focused on technology and supply chain innovation that aims to empower retailers to be competitive by providing technology, operational expertise and scale advantage.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Tepper School of Business Alumnus Todd Medema Receives 2024 Undergraduate Alumni Award
In a post via LinkedIn, John Segenberger, Executive Director of Alumni Relations at the Tepper School of Business, announces that Todd Medema (TPR/BS 2014) is the recipient of the 2024 Tepper Recent Undergraduate Alumni Award in recognition of his career success and his ongoing support of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. Todd, also a mentor with the CMU Swartz Center, is a founder, entrepreneur and innovator—all while co-authoring a best-selling book, co-founding Fabricate.IO and pursuing his interest in clean energy.
Todd will receive his award at the upcoming Tepper Alumni Awards Ceremony at Acrisure Stadium on April 20, 2024.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Toyz Electronics Is Empowering Gen Z
In a recent feature in the Pittsburgh Technology Council newsletter, Toyz Electronics—founded by Damola Idawu and his son Wole—was featured for its positive impact on Generation Z, which has recently joined the workforce, marking a new era of growth and challenges. Employers have already identified a generational skill gap that could potentially result in trillions in lost revenue. Toyz Electronics combines gaming, a marketplace and online learning platforms all into one immersive platform.
The company is an MIT Solve finalist for Anti-Racist Technology and runner-up in the Richard King Mellon Foundation pitch competition. In 2022, the company raised a $500K seed round
Friday, March 29, 2024
Gather AI Raises $17M in Round Led by Bain Capital
Gather AI, maker of computer vision and AI-powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions, has announced a $17M Series A-1 led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Tribeca Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, and Bling Capital. The new funding provides a total of $34M raised to date. It will be invested in scaling operations as Gather AI continues to attract customers by solving supply chain issues with richer data and AI. Gather AI is co-founded by CMU alumni Sankalp Arora, Daniel Maturana and Geetesh Dubey.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Lowercarbon Capital Partner Christina Chang Visits the Swartz Center
Dr. Christina Chang, partner at Lowercarbon Capital, visited Carnegie Mellon University for its Energy Week last week and also stopped by the CMU Swartz Center on Friday, March 22 to give a talk, 'Lab to Climate Venture: Solving Problems that Matter'. During the lunchtime talk, Dr. Chang shared career lessons learned--from academia and government, to founding a climate tech startup and investing and how the company backs companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions and more.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Swartz Center Hosts CMU Venture Challenge
The CMU Venture Challenge, sponsored by the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, is an annual startup competition held by the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association. Held at the Swartz Center on Saturday, March 23, 2024, the event showcases innovative ideas and entrepreneurial talent from across the nation. This year, twelve finalists competed for $9K in cash prizes, $5K of legal services, expedited interviews with Dorm Room Fund and Contrary, and office hours with Y Combinator.
The winners are:
First-place; CMU, KnitFit (CMU), founded by Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar)
Second-place; Fetal Therapy Technologies, Selena Shirkin
Third-place; Pananosis Laboratories, Joseph Yu
Thank you to the judges: Shomik Ghosh, Norman Sadeh, Don Morrison, Paritosh K., and Amy E. Storms Sable, and to this year's speakers: Lucy Guo and Blake Scholl, who gave empowering advice to the young entrepreneurs who attended. Dave Mawhinney, Swartz Center Executive Director, coordinated the judges and led the closing ceremony.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Announcing the Winners of the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition
After an intense, multi-round competition that kicked off in early January, the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition was held at the Swartz Center on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Held in person and also live streamed, the final round teams completed their final pitches to twelve esteemed judges competing for $60K in investments. Teams from CMU Africa and CMU Qatar also participated virtually.
The winning teams are:
Graduate Track:
- First Place ($25K): J.P. Robotics, mapping big problems in small pipes using robotics and AI. Team members: Tina Tian
- Second Place ($15K): Galen Health, AI for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer. Team members include: Logan Nye, MD (Swartz Fellow) and Kushagra Agarwal.
- Third Place ($10K): Sitewiz, AI-driven iterative optimization for e-Commerce websites. Team members include: Ram Potham (Innovation Scholar), Rohit Malhotra and Drake Som.
Undergraduate Track:
- First Place ($4K): Assurif.ai, boosts efficiency for mortgage underwriters in lower markets, plagued by redundant tasks making up to 75% of workflow. Team members include Alex Chen, Joey Park, Andrew Kang, Erik Wang and Meher Sujay Kaky.
- Second Place (2.5K): KnitFit, custom-fits compression garments using machine knitting. Team members include: Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar) Astha Shah, Advika Jayanti (Innovation Scholar) and Sreekar Kunaparaju.
The undergraduate track winners were also awarded a place in the CMU Venture Challenge, which will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2024.
Congratulations to all of the McGinnis Competition winners, participants and final round teams, as well as this year's judges: Alicia McGinnis and her two sons Lochlan and Manus, Meredith Meyer Grelli, Ed Engler, Laurie Barkman, Lisa Frankovitch, Afshan Khan, Zach Malone, Andrew Rabin, Aaron Tainter
and John Levinson.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Seven Lessons he learned from Jerry McGinnis
At the McGinnis Competition celebration, Will Kaigler shared Seven Lessons he learned from
Jerry McGinnis. See the full tribute (pdf).
- Develop your core talent and be world class at it.
- Innovation is not an academic exercise. Get hands on with the people that you are trying to help, know your customer!
- Solve a big enough problem where you can make a significant impact.
- Entrpreneurship demands commitment and many long hours of work, so do something you love and are passionate about. Never lose sight of your "why".
- Never quit! Every company has a moment like this. Successful entrepreneurs look for solutions and are always optimistic.
- Keep your mind and your eyes open to the unexpected opportunities.
- Have fun! Entrepreneurship is about solving problems, making a difference and following your passion. If that is not fun to you, well then you're doing it wrong.
This year's McGinnis Competition was in loving memory of Jerry McGinnis.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Efficient Computer Secures $16M in Seed Round
Efficient Computer, a startup with Carnegie Mellon University ties, has raised $16M in a seed funding round led by Eclipse Venture. Efficient is introducing a computer processor it says is up to 100 times more energy-efficient than leading models in the current market. Carnegie Mellon professor Brandon Lucia is co-founder and CEO.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Refiberd Co-founders Included in 2024 Tartans on the Rise
From operatic stages and virtual worlds to industrial warehouses and medical research labs, Carnegie Mellon University’s 2024 Tartans on the Rise are transforming the planet through their artistic expression, scientific exploration, entrepreneurial spirit and visionary innovations. Carnegie Mellon alumni Sarika Bajaj and Tushita Gupta, co-founders of Refiberd—a 2020 VentureBridge program startup that performs intelligent sorting for textile-textile recycling—are among those in the new class.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
ESTAT Actuation Selected for Robotics Factory Residency
Five Pittsburgh-based robotics companies have been accepted to the Robotics Factory’s Scale Residency program, including 2021 VentureBridge startup ESTAT Actuation. The companies will receive one year of access to the Robotics Factory’s space in the Tech Forge building, and will be provided with connections to potential grant funding and local manufacturers, among other benefits.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
U. S. Steel Makes Strategic Investment in Pittsburgh-Based Autonomous Warehousing Pioneer--Freespace Robotics
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) (“U. S. Steel”) today announced a strategic investment in Pittsburgh-based Freespace Robotics, a pioneering manufacturer of robotic storage and retrieval systems that are in demand by warehouses worldwide. Carnegie Foundry is a unique Robotics and AI venture studio, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. In partnership with the world leader in autonomous robotics and AI - the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University.
Friday, March 8, 2024
RET Ventures Leads $7.5M Series A in Conservation Labs to Interpret Sound for Water Conservation and Machinery Maintenance
Conservation Labs, an artificial intelligence (AI) company that developed a groundbreaking platform that decodes audio data into actionable insights in the built environment to reduce carbon emissions and energy and water usage, today announced that it has raised a $7.5M Series A funding round. The round was led by RET Ventures’ Housing Impact Fund and included the participation of Sustain VC. Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Mark Kovscek is founder and CEO.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Carnegie Mellon Founded Holy Cow Productions' New Game to Join PlayStation's Incubator Program—India Hero Project
Holy Cow Productions, co-founded by Goutham Dindukurthi, ETC 2010 alumnus and Vinay Ramakrishna, have announced that its newest game, Requital: Gates of Blood, has been chosen to be a part of PlayStation’s incubator program–India Hero Project. The game is one of five games from India to be accepted into PlayStation's incubator program. Holy Cow Productions is an independent game development studio located in the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Adam Paulisick Featured on Apple Podcast Dealing with Mental Health and Entrepreneurship
Adam Paulisick, CMU Swartz Center EIR, adjunct professor and CEO, SkillBuilder.io, was recently featured on a podcast: The Ripple Effect with Stephanie Romero, Ed.D., discussing mindfulness and the transformative concept of "welcoming". Adam shares his journey, revealing how the practice of "welcoming" —accepting every moment and challenge with openness and readiness—has been a game-changer in his approach to entrepreneurship and personal fulfillment.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Collective Selected by Forbes As One of America's Best Startup Employers
Financial solutions company, Collective, has been named by Forbes as one of America's Best Start-up Employers again this year. Collective is co-founded by Carnegie Mellon ECE alumnus Hooman Radfar, Ugar Kaner and Bugra Akcay. In a recent Linkedin post, Hooman stated, "So proud of our amazing team for continuing to invest to make our workplace better and better, all while continuing our rapid growth".
Thank you to our Swartz Center Patrons
