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Friday, June 26, 2026
The CMU Swartz Center Announces StartUP PGH, September 14-18!
Pittsburgh is becoming one of the nation's frontier technology hubs, where world-leading research moves into companies, capital and jobs. This September, the region's innovation community is coming together to make that momentum impossible to miss.
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University is proud to announce StartUP PGH, a region-wide week running September 14-18, 2026, celebrating Pittsburgh's strength in AI, robotics and life sciences.
Fifteen partner organizations have aligned their flagship annual events into a single coordinated week, with new programming built alongside. From the Pittsburgh Robotics Network's Discovery Day to the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance's Health Innovation Symposium to Innovation Works' Venture Expo, the week brings the region's founders, investors, students and corporate partners into one shared moment.
StartUP PGH builds on CMU Startup Week, which the Swartz Center originated and launched in fall 2025. That inaugural run spanned 25 events over four days, drawing 2,000 participants and over 200 investors and corporate partners from outside the region.
Carnegie Mellon will host four signature events during the week, including Lab to Market, AI Robotics Venture Day in partnership with Innovation Works, the SPARK Startup Job Fair, and the Swartz Student Startup Showcase.
We're grateful to our partners across the region, and to Mayor Corey O'Connor and Allegheny County Chief Executive Sara Innamorato for standing behind the founders and researchers building Pittsburgh's future.
Friday, June 26, 2026
Meet the 2026 Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund Cohort!
The CMU Swartz Center is excited to announce the 2026 Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund cohort.
Designed to support high-potential CMU alumni and faculty founders building the next generation of transformative companies in Pittsburgh, the Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund provides investment capital, mentorship, and connections to help companies accelerate their growth.
This year's cohort highlights the strength of the Carnegie Mellon startup ecosystem, with founders pushing the boundaries of AI, robotics, cybersecurity, healthcare and advanced technologies.
Congratulations to the 2026 cohort:
Analogical Engines - founded by Vikram Mohanty (PhD), Aniket Kittur (Faculty), Nikolas Martelaro (Faculty), Cole Biehle, and Dafna Shahaf (Faculty) is building the AI engine that augments your team to solve your hardest R&D challenges with novel ideas from unexpected domains.
Glacian Technologies - founded by Jie Zhao (PhD) and Wangda Zuo, helps data centers expand AI compute capacity by reducing the power consumed by cooling systems without utility permits or
major construction.
North Star Labs - founded by Mitchell Sipus (PhD), Jenafer Howard, and Jeff Howard provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to counter nation-state adversaries and protect critical infrastructure against long-horizon APT.
Origami Robotics - founded by Quanting Xie (PhD) and Yonatan Bisk (Faculty) is building the Physical AI infrastructure for the future of robotics manipulation.
Sooth Labs - founded by Yaser Sheikh (Faculty), Russ Salakhutdinov (Faculty) and Chuck Hoover, is developing foundation models for long-horizon institutional forecasting, helping organizations make better decisions over extended time horizons.
Each company will receive $100K in investment and strategic support through the Fund as they continue building and scaling their ventures. We are proud to support these founders and look forward to following their progress as they advance breakthrough innovations from Pittsburgh and beyond. Learn more and the inaugural StartUP PGH!
Friday, June 26, 2026
Third Coast Foundry Hosts Official Opening in San Francisco During Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day
This week, Swartz Center Managing Director & Interim Executive Director Meredith Meyer Grelli was in San Francisco for the official opening of Third Coast Foundry, a new shared hub for university-backed founders and startups. In a LinkedIn post shared by Swartz Center Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships Namrata Banerjee, she mentions the attendance of Mayor Daniel Lurie, who joined the event for the ribbon cutting, which was followed by the Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
NoRILLA Wins Global Competition
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science won an international competition aimed at transforming kindergarten through 12th grade learning. The SCS team won in the Transform category for their project, "NoRILLA: AI-Enhanced Hands-On Science Learning."
NoRILLA, which stands for Novel Research-Based Intelligent Lifelong Learning Apparatus, is a mixed-reality educational system that enhances STEM learning for children. Researchers in CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), including Nesra Yannier, Ken Koedinger and Scott Hudson, developed the system.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Agility, Maker of Humanlike Robots, to Go Public in $2.5 Billion SPAC Deal
Agility Robotics, a startup that makes humanlike robots used in manufacturing facilities and warehouses, is set to go public in a deal valuing it at about $2.5B. Agility Robotics maintains a significant engineering and testing presence in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, closely tied to CMU’s robotics ecosystem and the National Robotics Engineering Center.
Agility's co-founders, Jonathan Hurst and Damion Shelton, met while earning their Ph.D.s in robotics at CMU.
Friday, June 19, 2026
The Swartz Center Announces VentureBridge ’26 Cohort and Launches Inaugural VentureBridge Fellows Program
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is excited to announce the VentureBridge (VB) ’26 cohort and the launch of the inaugural VentureBridge Fellows Program.
Following a highly competitive application process, 14 startups were selected to receive funding and participate in VentureBridge, Carnegie Mellon University's flagship pre-seed fund and accelerator. The cohort includes founders from across the CMU community building companies in AI, robotics, healthcare, cybersecurity, semiconductors, energy, advanced manufacturing, and enterprise software.
The program kicked off in San Francisco, where founders spent three days learning from experienced entrepreneurs, operators, and investors on customer discovery, hiring, fundraising, sales, and the realities of building companies. Speakers included Scott Dietzen, Kahini Shah, Jon Chu, Michael Donohue, Nafis Jamal, Mike Shin, Sahil Shah, Miranda Nover, Saurabh Misra, and Zachary Sussman, who shared candid lessons from building, scaling, and investing in technology companies.
The cohort also spent nearly half a day with CMU Trustee Lane Bess, who shared lessons from decades of leadership experience and led a candid discussion on culture, scaling teams, and what it takes to build enduring organizations.
The announcement also follows a successful VentureBridge Demo Day during New York Tech Week, where 21 Carnegie Mellon startups pitched to investors and ecosystem leaders from across the country. The event featured keynote conversations with Todd Olson, Co-Founder and CEO of Pendo, and Sankalp Arora, Co-Founder and CEO of Gather AI (VB '18) whose journey from CMU researcher to founder highlights the impact of translating breakthrough research into venture-scale companies.
This year also marks the launch of the inaugural VentureBridge Fellows Program, a new initiative supporting a select group of high-potential CMU founders and researchers. The program includes VentureBridge Fellows, a track for student and alumni founders building startups, and VentureBridge Research Fellows, a track for faculty members, PhD students, and researchers exploring the commercialization of emerging technologies and research innovations.
VentureBridge companies and Fellows also gain access to one of the most comprehensive startup benefits packages available to university founders through partnerships with leading technology, legal, and financial organizations, including AWS, Braintrust, Carta, Cloudexe, Dentons, DocSend, Fidelity Private Shares, FinStrat Management, Framer, Google for Startups Cloud, HubSpot, J.P. Morgan Startup Banking, Microsoft for Startups, Nebius, Notion, NVIDIA Inception, OpenAI, Pillsbury, Puzzle, PwC, Rho, Rippling, Roboflow, Snowflake, Vanta, Vouch, ApertureData, Passionfruit, Reveal AI, and Trainwell.
Together, the VentureBridge ’26 cohort represents the breadth of entrepreneurship taking place across Carnegie Mellon University and its global alumni community.
Friday, June 19, 2026
CMU Deep Tech Venture-Ready Program Reaches Major Milestone in New York
Some of the world's most important innovations begin in university labs. Turning those innovations into successful companies, however, requires a very different set of skills. Carnegie Mellon University's Deep Tech Venture-Ready (DTVR) program was created to help faculty founders, PhD students, researchers, and deep-tech entrepreneurs navigate that journey through six months of investor-led education, mentorship, investor engagement, and non-dilutive funding opportunities.
The program recently celebrated a major milestone in New York City with its Mock Investment Committee, where ten selected teams had the unique opportunity to observe how investors evaluate startups behind closed doors. Twenty-six investors participated as Deal Leads and Mock IC members, bringing perspectives from leading venture firms and financial institutions. Participants included David Coulter (Warburg Pincus), Nhi Lê (Alpha Intelligence Capital), Uday Sandhu (Alpha Intelligence Capital), Felipe Mejia (Ardent Venture Partners), Phil Bronner (Ardent Venture Partners), Grace Dai (Bessemer Venture Partners), Emily Yu (Boost VC), Mark Martin (Cybernetix), Victoria Grace (Colle Capital), Charles Kennedy (Carnegie Mellon University), Joseph Botsch (Deviation Capital / Two Sigma Ventures), Justin Krauss (J.P. Morgan), Sohail Khalid (Lightscape Partners), Adit Arora (Lightscape), Sumay Parikh (NVIDIA), Kahini Shah (Obvious Ventures), Harris Stolzenberg (Pear VC), Jonathan Betz (Plaid Matrix), Chris Lytle (Smith Point Capital), Sewon Park (Smith Point Capital), Arian Agrawal (South Park Commons), Andrew Gollach (SOSV), Jay Kapoor (VSC Ventures), Jyotika Gupta (z21 Ventures), Shachi Shah (z21 Ventures), and Mark Zhu (Zenture Capital).
The New York program concluded with a fireside conversation featuring David Coulter, Chair of Carnegie Mellon University's Board of Trustees, and Meredith Grelli, Managing Director and Interim Executive Director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Drawing on decades of leadership across finance, technology, and higher education, David Coulter shared reflections on innovation and Carnegie Mellon's role in shaping the future.
As the program enters its mentorship phase, participating teams will be paired with experienced investors for 18 months of one-on-one guidance. Approximately five to seven teams will ultimately receive non-dilutive funding awards.
Special thanks to our partners at Pillsbury, J.P. Morgan, and the Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Association for their support in making the Swartz Center's flagship annual New York event possible.
Friday, June 19, 2026
The CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and Project Olympus Announce the 2026-27 Innovation Commercialization Fellows
The CMU Swartz Center and Project Olympus are excited to announce the 2026-2027 cohort of Innovation Commercialization Fellows (ICF's).
The Innovation Commercialization Fellows is a yearlong program aimed at accelerating the process of commercializing university research. The program fosters entrepreneurship among graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research personnel who work directly with faculty investigators to conduct scientific experiments, solve problems and innovate. Fellows are awarded $50K in funding and participate in dedicated workshops and intensive mentoring to pursue their startup idea. Since 2015 the program has awarded 62 fellowships, including this year's cohort.
The new cohort of ICF's is listed below (in order of the above image):
- Bashu Aman, Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Engineering
- Shreya Bali, Ph.D. Candidate, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
- Dhruv Bhattaram, Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Engineering
- Julie Downs, Professor of Psychology and Decision Science
- Anurag Ghosh, Ph.D. Candidate, Robotics Institute
- Rajdeep (Ron) Sarma, Ph.D. Candidate, Chemistry
- Jonathan Shulgach, Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Engineering
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Abridge Developing Healthcare AI Foundation Model with Nvidia
Abridge, a locally founded med-tech startup that has grown across the country, is developing a healthcare focused AI foundation model with Nvidia. The company, co-founded by CMU alumnus and CEO Shiv Rao, CEO, was founded in 2018 by a team bringing together medical, academic, and technical expertise from the Pittsburgh healthcare ecosystem
The startup initially launched as an ambient listening tool for doctors that would record and then transcribe conversations with patients. Over time it has expanded its offerings to contextualize those conversations. Now, Abridge is developing a new model built off of Nvidia's Nemotron suite of models, which a release states will be designed to reason "from its foundation." The model will be offered exclusively though Abridge's platform.
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Addy AI Officially Integrates with MeridianLink Mortgage
Addy AI, a VentureBridge cohort participant founded by CEO Michael Vandi, has announced its official partnership with MeridianLink Mortgage, bringing together MeridianLink's leading mortgage platform and Addy AI's powerful AI automation technology. This integration will make it easier than ever for lenders to streamline operations, eliminate manual work and accelerate the loan process.
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
CMU Hosts Robotics, AI and Autonomy Forum at Its Robotics Innovation Center
A number of stakeholders pitched Pittsburgh as a developmental defense tech hub to visiting crowds at Carnegie Mellon University's recently opened Robotics Innovation Center this week.
The Robotics, AI and Autonomy Forum was largely the chance for the Army AI Integration Center, a longstanding partner of CMU, to showcase and discuss the increasing use of robotics and artificial intelligence by the military, and to identify critical needs. The Army AI Integration Center's national headquarters is in Bakery Square, and the region is home to a number of startups working with the Department of War through Small Business Innovation Research contracts.
Friday, June 12, 2026
Meredith Meyer Grelli Named Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Associate Vice President
Meredith Meyer Grelli has been appointed Carnegie Mellon University's inaugural vice provost for entrepreneurship and associate vice president, effective July 1, 2026.
A longtime leader in CMU's entrepreneurship ecosystem, Grelli will help shape and expand entrepreneurship education across the university while strengthening connections among students, faculty, researchers, industry partners and investors.
In her new role, she will lead the planning and implementation of a scalable, university-wide entrepreneurship curriculum designed to provide students with pathways to engage in entrepreneurship education. In collaboration with internal and external partners, she will develop governance structures, academic programs and sustainable funding models that support entrepreneurship across the university.
Since joining CMU in 2020, Grelli has played a central role in significantly expanding the university’s entrepreneurship initiatives, growing their scale and national standing. She launched Deep Tech Venture-Ready, a cohort-based program connecting 40 founders with 40 leading venture firms that has soft-circled $250 million in capital for participating companies, and raised $4 million in new non-dilutive and friendly-equity funds for research-based startups. She created CMU Startup Week, now the university's flagship entrepreneurship event, which drew more than 2,000 participants and 200 investors and is expanding into a regional initiative in fall 2026. She also launched the nation's first NSF I-Corps cohort in AI and robotics and built the investor and founder infrastructure, including a network of more than 4,500 investors, that connects CMU founders directly to capital.
She will continue to serve as an associate teaching professor of entrepreneurship in the Tepper School and as interim executive director of the Swartz Center while the search for the center's next executive director is underway.
Friday, June 12, 2026
Sprinklr Acquires ViralMoment to Define the Next Era of Multimodal Customer Intelligence
Sprinklr (NYSE: CXM), the definitive, AI-native platform for Unified Customer Experience Management (Unified-CXM), has announced the acquisition of assets of ViralMoment, an AI-powered social video intelligence and analytics solution, strengthening Sprinklr’s leadership in modern, multimodal customer intelligence.
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Skild AI Partners with Vietnamese Firm to Explore Integrating AI Into Humanoid Robots
Skild AI has signed a memorandum of understanding with VinDynamics. The partnership will focus on validating humanoid robotics systems and integrating Skild's AI model into VinDynamics' platforms. The deal comes months after a partnership with Nvidia.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Ecotone Renewables Co-Founders Share How the Pittsburgh-based Company Has Diverted 400K Pounds of Food Waste From Landfills in WPXI-TV Interview
Ecotone Renewables co-founders Dylan Lew and Kyle Wyche share how the company has solved commercial food waste in a recent interview with Pittsburgh's Bill Flanigan. The company has successfully launched a full retail partnership with Giant Eagle, who is carrying their Soil Sauce organic plant food in 100% of Market District locations, and produced from their fleet of commercial biodigesters.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
How a Shared Passion for Entrepreneurship Brought Two Tepper School Alumni Together
Through the Tepper School and the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Grant and Emily Vandenbussche (both alumni James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows) found opportunities to collaborate, innovate and launch careers dedicated to health, food innovation and venture investing.
Friday, June 5, 2026
Astrobotic Technology Inc. Acquired by Denver-based Voyager Technologies for up to $300M
Pittsburgh lunar lander company Astrobotic Technology Inc. is being acquired by Denver-based Voyager Technologies for up to $300M in cash and stock. The company, which sprung out of Carnegie Mellon University, The companies said Astrobotic’s next mission, Griffin Mission One, will be on schedule with the acquisition.
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Trainwell Officially Partners with Weight Loss App, Lose It!
In a recent LinkedIn post, Trainwell co-founder and CEO Matt Spettel has announced that the company has officially partnered with one of the biggest nutrition and weight loss apps in the world, Lose It!. In the post, Spettel says, "This partnership allows the millions of Lose It! members to take their weight loss and body recomposition goals to the next level by integrating our 1-on-1 personal training at heavily discounted rates."
Friday, May 29, 2026
AI Security Company Gray Swan Raises $40M Series A
Gray Swan, the AI security company born out of Carnegie Mellon University's pioneering AI safety research team, has announced a $40M Series A round co-led by Wing Venture Capital and Madrona with participation from Obvious Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Hudson River Trading, Samsung Next and existing investor Magarac Venture Partners.
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Hellbender Secures $12.5M Seed Round
Emerging as a foundational platform for Physical AI, Hellbender, Inc.—the robotics engineering and hardware firm—leverages an arsenal of IP to unlock on-edge computer vision for autonomous systems. The company has announced the closing of a $12.5M seed funding round, co-led by Magarac Venture Partners and Veredas Partners, with significant participation from Mana Ventures, Gaingels, Sum VC, and the Active Angels Network.
CMU Masters of Robotics Systems Development alumnus Roger Nasci, is Co-Founder and
VP of Projects.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Pedal Power: How Two CMU Engineering Ph.D.s Founded the Tartan Bike Project
Carnegie Mellon has a strong cycling culture, with many students, faculty and staff biking to campus or simply riding around Pittsburgh for exercise and recreation. In recent years, the university has invested in making campus more accessible and safer for cyclists and pedestrians alike with new policies, maps and bike paths, infrastructure, and dismount zones. Still, for some students, something core was missing.
For Kenedy Sánchez and Hosea Santiago-Cruz, that “something” missing was community. They founded the Tartan Bike Project at CMU to change that.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Graduate Swartz Fellows, Undergraduate Innovation Scholars and PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellows
This past weekend, many of our Undergraduate Innovation Scholars, Graduate Swartz Fellows, as well as a PhD. Innovation Commercialization Fellow participated in CMU's graduation ceremonies. This year's commencement address was given by NVIDIA CEO Jason Huang, who told the graduates, "Your career starts at the beginning of the AI revolution".
We are incredibly proud of each of these students and the hard work they've put into exploring entrepreneurship, starting companies, participating and winning competitions and further reaching their entrepreneurial goals, all while balancing their busy academic schedules. These newly crowned alumni will continue to be a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem here at Carnegie Mellon, staying connected with their respective programs by becoming ambassadors and mentors to future cohorts and returning to campus to participate in and attend future Swartz Center events.
The graduates pictured above (from left):
Swartz Fellows: Ashwini Karanth, Tepper School of Business; Jennifer Evans, PhD, Abdullah Jawhar, AI Engineering/MechE; Dr. Shubhaa Chawla, MIIPS, Business, Design & Engineering; Anthony Edwards, Tepper School of Business and Shiv Panjwani, Tepper School of Business.
PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellow: Mitchell Fogelson, PhD (center)
Innovation Scholars: Eagle Lo, Master of Computational Data Science, Simran Jolly, Business Administration (minors in Finance and Entrepreneurship); Aaryan Lalwani, Tepper School of Business; Avalon Sueiro, Business Administration/Computer Science.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Cinder Raises $41M in Series B Funding to Scale its AI-powered Infrastructure
In an announcement via LinkedIn on Tuesday, Cinder Co-Founder and CEO Glen Wise announced the company has raised $41M Series B funding to scale its AI-powered infrastructure, which is designed to protect the internet from AI-generated abuse and bad actors. The funding round was led by Radical Ventures, with ongoing participation from existing investors Accel and Y Combinator.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Beyond Reach Labs Named to Black Flag's 100 List
Beyond Reach Labs (YC W26), Co-Founded by CMU's Mitchell Fogelson, PhD (Mechanical Engineering), has been named to the Black Flag 100 List, which gives 500+ founders the opportunity to share which companies they're most excited about.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Kaavio Announces $2.9M Pre-Seed Round
Kaavio, co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus Derek Gregg and Sam Bobb, has recently raised a $2.9M pre-seed round led by Baukunst, with participation from Techstars, Looking Glass Capital, and a number of other great investors.
"We're already working with some of the largest manufacturers and distributors in the world, including Fortune 500 companies. We're not just helping them go from thousands of bare-bones SKUs to rich, publishable product pages in weeks instead of years—we're helping them build the agentic future of commerce", says Gregg.
Thursday, May 7, 2026
HeadStrait Labs Takes First Place and $20K at Duquesne University's New Venture Challenge
HeadStrait Labs, a smart medical device system that prevents secondary spinal injuries during transport, is the winner of the 2025 – 2026 Duquesne New Venture Challenge (DNVC). Co-founded by CMU team Mary Squire and Alyssa Theroux, HeadStrait was one of 15 teams to advance to the competition's semi-final round from more than 150 initial entries.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
The Swartz Center Partners with CMU's LEAP Program and Duolingo Social Impact Group for Pitch with Purpose Event
This past Saturday, the Swartz Center hosted the Pitch with Purpose: Storytelling for Sustainable Impact event, organized by the CMU LEAP program (joint CMU Dietrich College/CFA) and Duolingo's Social Impact group.
The session kicked off with inspirational words given by Jerome Bettis, Steelers Hall of Famer and Director of the Bus Stops Here Foundation, to the attending 27 CMU LEAP high school students. Bettis shared a few words about his own journey, as well as general advice and guidance on navigating the challenges of creating and running your own business.
CMU Swartz Center Undergraduate Innovation Scholars Thomas Kanz, Caden Chico, Aanya Chidananda, Graduate Swartz Fellows Kousalya Mohan, Edward Chanquín, and Duolingo social impact representatives Sean Beauford and Allison Yu answered questions and shared their entrepreneurship experiences and guidance.
A highlight from the event was the students working in groups to identify Pittsburgh problems that they wanted to solve and pitching sustainable solutions to address them. Proposed projects included addressing food deserts, supporting Pittsburgh farmers raising organic food, building communities and a system for sharing Pittsburgh news in one place. The teams received feedback from their peers, as well as the mini judging panel composed of Jerome Bettis, LEAP Porgram Director Sarah Ceurvorst, and Duolingo Impact Specialist, Allison Yu.
Friday, May 1, 2026
CMU Alumnus and Co-founder Announces Launch of Physical API Startup, Sancho
Carnegie Mellon alumnus, Co-founder and CEO Chao Cao recently announced that his first demo debuted on Jensen Huang's GTC Keynote and the launch of his company, Sancho. Sancho builds the intelligence layer for flexible manufacturing, the physical API that enables general-purpose robots to move material, interact with machines and carry work seamlessly from one production step to the next.Sancho is also partnering with Multiply Labs to help with production requirements.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
CMU Spinoff Edulis Therapeutics Wins Top Prize at AGA Tech Summit
Edulis Therapeutics, founded by Spencer Matonis, CEO, was recently awarded the grand prize at the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Tech Summit. A participant in the 2025 VentureBridge cohort, Edulis is revolutionizing GI medicine with an endoscopic drug delivery system that enhances lives and provides sustained, maintenance-free medication for 1M+ patients.The company has opened a private SPV round via WeFunder.
Support Edulis Therapeutics on WeFunder!
Friday, April 24, 2026
The Ultimate Draft Pick: CMU Showcases the Winning Power of Sports Innovation
Pittsburgh once powered America’s industrial economy, and it is now galvanizing the era of artificial intelligence. This week, Carnegie Mellon University—the birthplace of AI—and the AI Strike Team hosted a first-string lineup of global visionaries to highlight the city's power at the intersection of sport and innovation during NFL draft week.
"Powering the Future of Sport: A Draft Week Showcase," was a sports-themed day of engaging discussions, live robotics demonstrations and industry innovations on AI’s extraordinary potential to transform the future of sports. Hosted at CMU’s Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at Hazelwood Green, Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian said the site reflects the evolution of the Steel City and its vitality.
Hundreds looked on from chairs draped with Terrible Towels as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro took the stage at the Showcase and talked about making the region and the state more competitive for investment and development. He underscored CMU’s role in driving that change. A highlight was hearing from NFL legend Jerome Bettis, whose perspective grounded the conversation in how these innovations connect back to the athletes and the game itself.
What stood out most wasn’t just the technology—it was the collaboration and conviction in the room. The Forge to Field AI Pitch Competition, emceed by the Swartz Center’s own Meredith Meyer Grelli, brought that energy to life—while investors and executives made real, game-time commitments to back top AI founders from across the nation, signaling that this isn’t just exploration—it’s execution at speed.
The six finalists teams that pitched were: MyoVerse (CMU), Peachy Day, Perforated AI (CMU), Sensi Fit, ServeSense (CMU) and Flowstate (CMU).
Thursday, April 23, 2026
VentureBridge Startup Quivly PIcks up $100K at the Chargebee's Beelieve AI Pitchoff
Quivly AI, a VentureBridge '25 startup building the AI workforce for post-sales teams and co-founded by CMU alumni Tanay Agrawal and Chandrika Maheshwari, recently took home $100K at the Chargebee-sponsored AI startup pitchoff. Quivly's AI agents help companies like Union AI, Mycroft and Upflex scale their customer base 3-4x without adding headcount.Thursday, April 23, 2026
Descartes Acquires CMU Spinoff Idelic
Descartes Systems Group (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that it has acquired CMU spinoff Idelic, a leading provider of AI-powered driver safety and performance management solutions co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumni Nick Bartel, CEO and Hayden Cardic, CTO.Idelic’s safety intelligence platform unifies day-to-day safety management activities such as training, monitoring, reporting and coaching into a single solutionw with an AI analytics workflow designed to measurably impact driver behavior.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
CMU Spin-Out, Niche Partners with Huron to Merge Student Behavior Data with Financial Aid Insights
Niche, the Strip District-headquartered college and school search platform, announced a new collaboration with consulting group Huron to connect data sets on higher education. The two will combine their data sets to allow higher education institutions to have a broader understanding of both the general interests of students and their financial needs.Niche, founded in 2002 as College Prowler, is a CMU spin-out founded by CEO Luke Skurman.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
The Swartz Center Hosts Final Family Business Initiative Peer Advisory Group Session of the Year
The Swartz Center closed out this year’s Family Business Peer Advisory Group with CMU Professor Brandy Aven, who challenged the group to think more intentionally about AI, change management and how family businesses evolve without losing their identity.Key themes included how organizations adopt AI responsibly; the role of networks and internal champions in change; where resistance originates—and how to anticipate it; and
how family governance structures uniquely shape adaptation.
A reunion and wrap-up gathering will take place on May 28.
Friday, April 17, 2026
The Swartz Center Announces the Newest Cohort of Undergraduate Innovation Scholars
The CMU Swartz Center is excited to announce its next cohort of Undergraduate Innovation Scholars. The 2026-28 cohort, a mix of fourteen entrepreneurially minded students from across CMU's campus, was chosen after a competitive application process which included over 70+ undergraduate student applicants. Each of the students are actively exloring their own startup and will continue working with the Swartz Center's resources and EIR's to further their progress.
The students in the cohort are (in order of the above photo):
- Garrett Arendt, Tepper School of Business
- Daniel Baytin, Tepper School of Business
- Caden Chico, School of Computer Science/Tepper
- Aanya Chidananda, Tepper School of Business
- Ivan Cornejo, Dietrich College
- Trisha Jha, Tepper School of Business/Dietrich College
- Abhay Kadambi, School of Computer Science
- Manya Khemka, Dietrich/Information Systems
- Surabhi Komanduri, School of Computer Science/Tepper
- Pranavi Rohit, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Vivaan Sawant, Electrical & Computer Engineering/Robotics
- Vir Toolsidass, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Ariana Watson, Mechanical Engineering/EDIE
- Advika Vuppala, Electrical & Computer Engineering
The new cohort will be welcomed at the final Spring semester Proseminar on Friday, April 17, where they will meet and network over lunch with current and past Innovation Scholars. The students will officially start programming in the Fall, when they will also join the newest cohort of graduate James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Swartz Center Program Manager Steven Guo Receives Pittsburgh 30 Under 30 Award
Some members of the Swartz Center team attended the PIttsburgh 30 Under 30 awards ceremony held at the Sea Monkey venue in the Strip District on Tuesday to celebrate Steven Guo, Program Manager for the Swartz Center's VentureBridge program, who was an honoree. Not only did Steven choose the best walk up music to the podium (Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Someoby"), he also added a spirited dance move that captured his personality perfectly.
Congratulations again Steven!
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Aimee Langevin Transforms Personal Acne Struggles into Smart Skincare Solutions
For more than 50 million people, acne appears as a prolonged negotiation with uncertainty, one that CMU alumnus and James R. Swartz Fellow Aimee Langevin, the founder of Skintuition AI, knows all too well. She founded Skintuition AI, a platform designed to follow the full arc of a user's experience, encompassing daily habits, product usage, environmental factors and professional input, all working in tandem. "The goal is to connect people to an expert and actually give them context," Langevin explains.
Friday, April 10, 2026
Swartz Center Powers National AI Showcase During NFL Draft Week
Carnegie Mellon University and partner the AI Strike Team unveiled new details this week for the Powering the Future of Sport: A Draft Week Showcase—an invite-only gathering that will bring together global investors, founders, innovators and sports leaders to Carnegie Mellon during one of professional football’s most high-profile weeks. The high-impact, four-hour showcase includes remarks from state and city leaders, demonstrations, and culminates in a Shark Tank-style AI pitch competition, led by the CMU Swartz Center and AI Horizons, during which select AI startups will pitch live to a high-profile panel of judges for a part of a $1.75M prize pool.
Friday, April 10, 2026
CMU's Revora Health and SpoilSafe Named 2026 Imagine Cup World Finalists
Three startups have advanced to the 2026 Microsoft Imaging Cup World Finalists, two of which are founded by CMU students. Revora Health, founded by Tepper School of Business MBA Surya Kukkapalli and SpoilSafe, founded by CMU students Vivaan Sawant, Advika Vuppala, Rohan Ganesh and Troy McBride have advanced to the finals.
SpoilSafe is addressing a critical gap in the cold chain, where limited visibility into food freshness leads to waste, rejected inventory, and lost revenue. Revora Health is addressing a critical gap in how patients access and experience recovery, where long wait times and limited support often leave individuals navigating rehabilitation on their own.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Pittsburgh's Meter Feeder and Mapless AI Test Robotaxi Parking Payment System in Bid to Prevent Lost City Revenue
Meter Feeder and Mapless AI tested a machine-to-machine system that lets autonomous vehicles pay for parking on their own, just in time for Waymo’s planned local launch.“Cities have spent decades building analog parking infrastructure for humans,” Jim Gibbs, CEO of Meter Feeder, told Technical.ly. “We are ensuring municipalities don’t lose millions in revenue just because driverless vehicles can’t feed meters.”
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
OpenFX Lands $94M Amid Cross-Border Stablecoin Push
OpenFX, a startup that focuses on foreign-exchange market making and remittances,announced it has raised $94M in a funding round led by several venture capital firms, as it looks to use stablecoins to speed up cross-border payments.The capital raise was led by investors including Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone and Pantera.
Tepper School of Business alumnus and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Daniel McDade is Head of Operations at OpenFX.
Friday, April 3, 2026
NVIDIA Co-founder Jensen Huang Among 2026 CMU Honorary Degree Recipients
Carnegie Mellon University will award honorary degrees to four individuals at its 2026 Commencement ceremony set for Sunday, May 10 in Gesling Stadium. Jensen Huang, the electrical engineer, philanthropist and business executive who co-founded NVIDIA, will be the Commencement speaker and receive an Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree in recognition of his extraordinary contributions as a visionary founder and technology leader.
Thursday, April 2, 2026
BlastPoint, Inc. CEO Alison Alvarez to Receive Tepper Recent Masters Alumni Award
Tepper School of Business alumnus Alison Alvarez (MS/CS, 2007, MBA 2016), CEO and co-founder of BlastPoint, is among the recipients of the 2026 Tepper School Alumni Awards. She will receive the Tepper Recent Masters Alumni Award at a ceremony to be held on May 2, 2026 during the Reunion 2026 celebration dinner.
BlastPoint, Inc., is a B2B provider of customer intelligence and analytics solutions that companies across sectors rely on to optimize revenue growth.
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Founders Capital Spotlights Portfolio Company Beyond Reach Labs
Beyond Reach Labs, co-founded by CMU's Mitchell Fogelson, PhD, is building deployable solar arrays that expand from the size of a dining table to a football field in orbit, giving satellites 10x more usable power without increasing launch mass or volume. Their patented deployable truss architecture enables this while maintaining structural rigidity.
The company is targeting a first in-space demonstration flight for Q2 2027 and has already secured multiple LOIs from space companies totaling over $175M.
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