Hub news and announcements
Sharing successes
Shutterbug Exchange (SBX), a company committed to innovative solar solutions, has been awarded the $75,000 CSIT Clean Tech Seed Grant, Round 3. Their project, named the "Solar Revitalizer" is giving old solar panels a new life using AI and 3D printing, boosting solar panel efficiency while reducing waste.
Carbonbridge, a project that makes renewable microbial methanol, has been selected for the prestigious ARPA-e award as part of the GREENWELLS program. The DOE project funds 14 projects to develop technologies for harnessing renewable energy sources, and Carbonbridge was the only bio-based method selected to make liquid fuel.
GradTLC, a startup that offers coaching, consulting, and online blended courses to foster community, flourishing, and scholarly success for graduate students, is officially an LLC and has launched their website. The group completed the Propelus I-Corps program at Princeton University. Visit their new website at https://www.gradtlc.org.
Team Members: Laura Murray, Kate Thorpe
HEXAspec, a startup whose mission is to enhance the future of computing by substantially improving the thermal conductivity of chips, won a $10k Rice Innovation fellowship and won $2.5k from the Rice Business Challenge Pitch Competition as a qualifier. HEXAspec went through the National I-Corps program.
Team Members: Tianshu Zhai, Chen Yang Lin
Materium Technologies, a company who is developing innovative materials for clean energy solutions using advanced machine learning models, has been awarded a Clean Tech Seed Grant from New Jersey's Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT). The grant will support their ongoing work on the thermal management of solar cells.
Team Members: Scott Daniel, Sheldon Fereira
Pinegem, a startup that is developing clean energy-powered robots using precision location and visual AI for lawn care, has been accepted into the 2024 Cleantech Open Northeast startup accelerator. The team, which participated in the I-Corps Northeast Hub Propelus training program earlier this year, is working on turning the repetitive chore of lawn mowing into an automated task easily handled by AI-enhanced robotic machinery.
Team Members: George Jiang, William Jiang, Margaret Zhu
NucleusRx, a digital health company whose mission is to empower healthcare providers through a virtual care continuum and enable patients to be therapy compliant to achieve a better quality-of-life, completed the UMass Lowell's M2D2 IMPACT Accelerator program and received the "Best Presentation Award."
Team members: Projit Aon, Ashok Rakhit
The PumpKin team has been awarded a USDA Phase I SBIR grant. This team aims to increase access to safe and nutritious breast milk through storage technology, diagnostic testing, and by providing reliable, scientific information. They participated in the Propelus I-Corps and national I-Corps Teams programs.
Team members: Justin Silpe, Maggie Moore, Katie Silpe, Bonnie Bassler
The Makani Homes team won the $10,000 first place prize in the Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation (GNEC) Main Street Pitch-Off. This team is creating a home-sharing community built for Muslim travelers, where users can share and swap with other Muslim-friendly homes to save on accommodations while traveling.
Team members: Nourin Abubaker, Yara Ourfali
The Materium team has been selected for the Department of Energy's Cradle to Commerce (C2C) accelerator program, which provides access to resources and intellectual property at four national laboratories in the United States. The program will accelerate the team's research and development as they apply advanced artificial intelligence tools to optimize production of clean energy devices such as solar panels.
Team members: Scott Daniel, Ravi Ravindra, Sheldon Fereira
Press Coverage
Princeton University-led Consortium Forms Northeast Innovation Hub
New Jersey Business Magazine
Princeton, other regional schools to form I-Corps, innovation research hub for Northeast
ROI-NJ/Tom Bergeron
NJIT, Rowan thrilled to be part of I-Corps hub collaboration
ROI-NJ/Tom Bergeron
NJIT joins business research hub with $15M in funding
NJBIZ/Linda Lindner
5 local universities part of $15M National Science Foundation research entrepreneurship hub
Philadelphia Business Journal/Kennedy Rose
New Regional Princeton-led Innovation Hub to Accelerate Tech, Enhance Diversity in Entrepreneurship
American Entrepreneurship Today
Princeton University to lead new regional entrepreneurship innovation hub
Planet Princeton/Krystal Knapp