Toyz Electronics is gamifying STEM to draw diverse students into Tech
Not everyone can walk the path of early genius and start pursuing an engineering degree at 16 the way Damola Idowu did — and like his son, Wole would similarly do at Carnegie Mellon University at 15. But almost anyone could download Dah-Varsity, Toyz Electronics’ video game app based on the father-son duo.
The goal is to expose “diverse and disadvantaged students” to STEAM.
Inspired by Booker T. Washington’s educational outreach, Toyz Electronic is on a mission to get more Black people involved in tech, Idowu told Technical.ly...
Edulis Therapeutics and Magnify BioScience Invited to Pitch in the 2023 RICE Business Plan Competition
Congratulations to Edulis Therapeutics and Magnify BioScience, both groups that have worked with Project Olympus, on being invited to pitch at the prestigious RICE Business Plan Competition, the world's largest and richest intercollegiate student startup competition! This is a huge honor, and we are wishing them the best of luck!
Farm to Flame Energy Inks $4.4M Purchase Agreement
Pittsburgh-based renewable energy startup and Incubator alumni company Farm to Flame Energy recently announced a $4.4 million combined heat and power purchase agreement with a Vermont furniture company.
“We’re very excited about this contract as it’s a 20-year contract, and it shows the long-term growth trajectory that Farm to Flame has,” explained Kwaku Jyamfi (KJ), the company’s CEO & co-founder.
Ecotone Renewables wants to help Pittsburgh reach its zero waste goal
Food waste costs the US an estimated $218 billion per year. Since the Pittsburgh region counted more than 4,000 restaurants and other eating establishments in the region as of 2020, the Steel City isn’t immune from needing to be vigilant about how it handles its food waste. Through Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan, the city is working toward eliminating organic waste from its landfills by 2030.
A sustainability-minded startup is helping the city work toward this goal.
Resilient Lifescience Wins $500K In Richard King Mellon Foundation Pitch Competition
Resilient Lifescience, co-founded by CMU alumnus and CEO Brad Holden, won first place and $500K at the second Richard King Mellon Foundation's Social-Impact Investment Pitch Competition. The company, which aims to combat drug overdoses with wearable, intelligent drug delivery systems, was also recently named to Technical.ly's 2023 RealLIST Startups list for Pittsburgh.
Read more at Technical.ly...
Edulis invited to 2023 MassChallenge HealthTech Sprint
Congratulations to Spencer Matonis and Edulis on being invited to the 2023 MassChallenge HealthTech Sprint. This is an 8-week program intended to work intensely with 20-25 startups to accelerate the tools and technologies that could transform healthcare.
Shift Robotics' Moonwalkers Featured in Video by WIRED
WIRED's Brent Rose has some questions: Are the Moonwalkers by Shift Robotics real? Are they safe? Are they actually any good? Brent goes inside Shift Robotics's research and development lab to get some answers.
Watch the full video...
Q&A With Toyz Electronics Co-Founders Damola Idowu and Wole Idowu
Meet the team empowering diverse and disadvantaged students to find rewarding careers.
Can you provide a short description of your product?
We are empowering disadvantaged students by gamifying STEAM learning and training using hip-hop culture and entrepreneurship. Our activities expose kids to superhero industry veterans who have achieved high levels of success in their professions so they can better envision themselves in STEAM careers. For example, we ran a hackathon at Carnegie Mellon where the General Manager of EA spent 30 minutes on Skype answering questions from students on game development.
Read more...
Gather AI CEO Sankalp Arora Named A Pittsburgh Deal Maker of the Year
Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and Gather AI co-founder and CEO Sankalp Arora has been named a Pittsburgh Deal Maker of the Year by Smart Business Deal Makers. Sankalp will be honored at the Pittsburgh M&A Conference in Pittsburgh on February 9, 2023.
Bloomfield Robotics looks to grow strategic partnerships following $4.4 million funding raise
A Lawrenceville-based agriculture-tech startup has landed $4.4 million in external funding that will be used to aid the company's growth of its robotics-based technology that's being used by international companies in the specialty crop industry.
Bloomfield Robotics CEO Mark DeSantis said he's looking forward to growing the startup's relationship with Osaka, Japan-based agricultural machinery company Kubota Corp. and Bordeaux, France-based wine producer Oeneo Group...
Read more...
Alison Alvarez Selected to EY Entrepreneurs Access Network
Alison Alvarez, CEO and Co-Founder of Blastpoint, has been selected to join the 2023 cohort of the EY Entrepreneurs Access Network for Black and Hispanic/Latino leaders.
Read more on LinkedIn...
On keeping the ‘big-picture goal’ in mind: 10 questions with Farm to Flame Energy cofounder Kwaku Jyamfi
In this RustBuilt Pittsburgh Q&A, the exec shares lessons on building a mission-driven team and scaling a young energy company.
If you’re anything like Kwaku Jyamfi, he says, you might tend to get lost in the details of growing a company. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — but seeking advice from others who’ve been in your place can go a long way to keep perspective.
In 2018, Jyamfi and Will McKnight cofounded Farm to Flame, a Duquesne-based startup bringing clean energy to farmers and businesses by manufacturing generators that replace diesel with carbon neutral feedstocks.
Read more...
NetBeez Releases 2023 State of Remote Work Report
NetBeez, provider of high performance network monitoring co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus Stefano Gridelli, Panickos Neophytou and Panos Vouzis, has released its 2023 State of Remote Work Report. The paper discusses the results of a survey on the current state of remote work and the experiences of employees who support remote work. The survey included a diverse group of 100 participants from various industries and job titles, with a majority being engineers.
Find out more and get the report...
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