Start Me Up Bootcamp

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Portfolio of industries

Advanced manufacturing, Agtech, Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), Augmented reality (AR), B2B payments, Big Data, Cleantech, Climate tech, Construction technology, Cryptocurrency and blockchain, Cybersecurity, Digital health, Ecommerce, Edtech, eSports, Femtech, Fintech, Foodtech, Gaming, Healthtech, HRtech, Infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), Legal tech, Life sciences, Manufacturing, Micro-mobility, Mobile commerce, Nanotechnology, Pet tech, Real estate tech, Restaurant tech, Robotics and drones, Software as a service (SaaS), Space tech, Virtual reality (VR), Wearables and quantified self

Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week hybrid program designed to build your successful startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs.  Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps students and researchers identify new ways to apply research to solve global challenges. 

Faculty, staff, postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate student researchers may apply with a team of one to three people. Applicants are expected to be available for all short-course sessions. Teams that successfully complete this bootcamp may become eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant.

Spring 2024 Bootcamp Program Dates 

Kickoff Day 1: April 11, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Kickoff Day 2: April 12, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Midpoint Checkin: April 19, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Finale: April 29, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

*Interviews are required prior to acceptance. Please email seaseship@columbia.edu to set up a brief interview after submitting your application.

Application PDF Sample 

Bootcamp Stories

WEREWOOL
"The Start Me Up Bootcamp at Columbia this Spring was our first experience with customer discovery and business model canvas. While being able to do customer discovery in person would have been great, doing it during COVID-19 from our homes, we were actually able to conduct many interviews in the span of a couple hours every day with people from all over the country and world. Everyone we contacted was super generous in sharing their time and knowledge with us.

Presenting our work each week to the cohort was helpful in that it pushed us to continually think about how our interviews refined our business model canvas & through doing so, we were able to ask more specific/relevant questions that helped us better understand how we can go to market, what considerations we need to be cautious of as we grow, and how to start developing and maintaining customer relationships.

While rigorous, our team gained so much from the bootcamp, we defined a customer, and a set of value propositions that were developed through our customer discovery interviews. Since the bootcamp, our team has participated in a couple of accelerator programs – both in which we have been able to utilize the lessons learned, and work developed during our time at the bootcamp – we cannot recommend it enough!"

Chui-lian Lee, Werewool, Spring 2020 Bootcamp
More info about Werewool
10 MIN
"Participating in the Start Me Up Bootcamp has been invaluable for our team. It provided a structured and rigorous opportunity for us to delve deep into defining and understanding our customer segments. We were able to articulate our positioning within the market, gain clarity on lingering questions, and seek input from others. Moreover, we established actionable next steps as we continue to create, develop, and grow."

Dariela Sosa, 10 Min, Spring 2023 Bootcamp
CENTRAL DIGITS
"Central Digits' participation in the “The Start Me Up Bootcamp at Columbia this Spring was a great decision that helped us solidify our business plan and refine the customer discovery process. The focus on customer discovery and business model canvas was incredibly helpful for our team to understand the target audience and refine our value proposition.

We have no doubt that Central Digits will continue to thrive with the skills and knowledge gained from "The Start Me Up Bootcamp at Columbia University". The latter is very valuable as we apply to the Hub71 Accelerator in Abu Dhabi, and apply to participate at the Reserve Bank of India and Bank for International Settlements competitions and integrate CBDC solutions inside Aigorithm NFT Treasure Hunt P2E Metaverse.

The bootcamp was an invaluable experience that helped us to take our business to the next level. We would highly recommend the Start Me Up Bootcamp at Columbia to any entrepreneur who is serious about starting or growing a business. The program is a valuable investment in your future success."

Dr. Suren Movsisyan , Central Digits, Spring 2023 Bootcamp
LADDUU
"The bootcamp helped us immensely with translating our vision into tangible action steps, with a strong emphasis on using time tested approaches adhering to a pre-defined timeline. The focus on customer discovery worked wonders for us in gaining new insights from our end users. By interviewing 20+ prospective end-users, buyers and influencers, we were able to validate certain aspects of our product quantitatively. These interviews also helped us realize certain blind spots we had regarding our end users and applicability of our product. Overall, it took our startup journey to the next level. Grateful for all the support from the fellow participating teams and especially the teaching team who made sure we hade access to amazing resources throughout. This is an incredibly helpful bootcamp from Columbia if you are serious about entrepreneurship and care to learn about your potential customers to improve your business plan. GOOTB!! (Get out of the building)"

Sourya Kakarla, Team Ladduu, Summer 2022 Bootcamp
ULTRASONOS
"The activities of customer discovery allowed me to test my core business assumptions by speaking with potential users and stakeholders. I now have evidence to back my assumed product-market fit and am better positioned to further develop my business plan."

Yazmin Feliz, Ultrasonos, Summer 2020 Bootcamp
TheH.itchApp
"Our Bootcamp experience pushed us to successfully redefine our core competencies and consumer segment to better target our audience. It was around the second week of the Bootcamp, as we were past 10 interviews, where we had the "aha moments" and we found flaws in our initial hypotheses. We often placed ourselves as the customer and were victims of natural biases. By learning how to properly conduct customer discovery, we were able to change our approach and be more receptive to inputs and shifts in our goals."

Paritosh Kulkarni, TheH.itchApp, Summer 2020 Bootcamp
CIPHER
Participating in this bootcamp was an incredible journey for our team, transforming our early-stage medical device concept into a startup with a strong business model. The bootcamp's hybrid structure allowed us to benefit from comprehensive online sessions while encouraging us to "get out of the building" and immerse ourselves in the market.

In under two weeks, we engaged with 23 customers and established key relationships both within and beyond the campus. Additionally, we had the opportunity to participate in a medical conference, which allowed us to expand our network with top experts and acquire more profound insights into our industry.

We are immensely grateful for the training, support, and abundant opportunities provided by the bootcamp!
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PROGRAM


Program

Each team consists of at least three members:

The Entrepreneurial Lead (EL) can be a postdoctoral scholar, graduate, undergraduate or other student with relevant knowledge of the proposed technology and a deep commitment to investigating the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation. The Entrepreneurial Lead should also be both willing and able to support the transition of the technology, should the I-Corps project demonstrate the potential for commercial viability.

The Technical Lead (TL) will typically be a faculty member, senior research scientist or postdoctoral scholar with deep and direct technical expertise in the actual core technology about which the I-Corps team is exploring commercial potential.

The Industry Mentor (IM) will typically be an experienced or emerging entrepreneur who operates in proximity to the institution and is experienced in transitioning technology out of academic labs. The Industry Mentor may be recommended by the proposing institution or may be a member of the NSF-supported I-Corps Mentors network. The Industry Mentor will be responsible for guiding the team forward and reporting on its progress through regular communication with the cognizant NSF I-Corps Program Director.

Benefits

  • Identify the best product-market fit for your team’s technology or idea
  • Concentrated time to focus on commercialization activities
  • Build relationships with experienced entrepreneurs and investors who can help you bring your product to market
  • Identify commercial potential for your technology to increase probability of grant success and/or raising venture capital
  • Develop entrepreneurship skills and learn about business model development
  • Engage in the customer discovery process by spending time outside the lab and talking to customers, partners and competitors

Funding Opportunities

  • $3,000 conference travel funding (max): teams are required to complete at least 20 customer interviews, attend all Columbia bootcamp sessions including the kick-off and finalé meetings, weekly web sessions and office hours. After all requirements are met, teams may apply for conference travel funds to further explore their market discovery.
  • DEI Fellowship Funding: underrepresented students and post-doctoral researchers are eligible to apply for funding upon completion of the two-week Columbia bootcamp program. If selected you will receive a $500 stipend once your fellowship requirements are completed.

National NSF I-Corps Program Eligibility

  • Complete I-Corps regional program
  • Team consists of at least three members: The Entrepreneurial Lead (EL), The Technical Lead (TL), and The Industry Mentor (IM)*
  • The technology should be within a STEM-related industry that has potential commercialization ability and is scalable
    Teams that successfully complete this I-Corps short course can apply to receive travel funds to continue customer discovery and become eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant.

Columbia Engineering and NY I-Corps Hub

Columbia Engineering, in partnership with NYU and CUNY serves as the home for the NY I-Corps Hub, the regional node for the NSF Innovation Corps (“I-Corps™”) national program in NYC. The bootcamp program is provided by Columbia Engineering to prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and broaden the impact of select, NSF-funded, basic-research projects. 

Learn more about the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program.

Visit the Venturewell’s I-Corps website for additional resources.

Bootcamp teams

Take Charge, Arianna Suarez; Barnard College

A platform to connect high schoolers from low income communities with mentors, internships, and community opportunities, akin to LinkedIn and other college job search engines, but designed specifically for this demographic who lack work experience. At this moment, I’m building this platform to launch in my town, Peekskill, and I aspire to expand.

Catwalk Chemist, Lauren Hannmann, Ziwen (Mia) Sun, Vishnu Ganapathiappan Kaliswamy; Columbia Alumn

Catwalk Chemist is a creative perspective that highlights life from a scientific point of view.
Our mission is to simplify and visualize learning and make it equitable and playful, bridging the gap between the academic ivory tower to the general population through fashion and art.

Halo AI, Aditya Khandelwal, Hugh Thomas, Shaunak Joshi, Ashutosh Sathe; CBS and SEAS

Halo AI is a virtual assistant that is your digital clone. It learns when you need help, and automatically detects and engages the right tool at the right time, across whatever devices you own, in a completely personalized and private manner.

Hydro-Heat, Karina Orellana, Soteri Homenides, Rachel Ioffe, Segundo Chimborazo; CCNY team 

We plan to design a modular device retrofitting existing boilers to burn hydrogen or natural gas for increased sustainability. Our focus is on investigating cost-effective hydrogen production methods for integration. Participation in the ICorps program will guide our commercialization strategy.

Juliette, Louis Zhao, Kewei Zhang, Kristen He; Columbia SEAS CS, SEAS

Juliette is creating an easy-to-use 3D modeling software that lets you build models with just your hands, immensely boosting productivity. It’s designed for the upcoming Apple Vision Pro platform. This tool will make creating 3D models faster and a lot more enjoyable.

CIPHER, Sean Kim, Megan Heenan, Annabel Cho, Leo Heinrich; SEAS

CIPER is a medical device that aims to reduce the frequency of intravenous medication manual administration errors, primarily due to the incorrect rate of infusion. The device works in conjunction with standard IV syringes, and it is intended to deliver small infusion volumes per medication specific rate.

A Uniform Brain Computer Interface Adaptor Xueqing Liu; SEAS

Based on our research on simultaneous EEG-fMRI, we can generate ahigh resolution uniform 3D source space from EEG data.Currently the research work is done and we have a usable model at handwe can transformed into A Uniform Brain Computer Interfrface AdAdaptor, itcan either be build into a softftware or hardware plug-in.

SterileView Spencer Robbins, Rashell Ramirez; SEAS

SterileView is a projector-camera duo device designed for laboratory laminor flow hoods. SterileView attaches to the outside of the hood and aids researcher training and experimenting by offering a way to view procedures and record experiments in order to evaluate lost specimens or missed steps.

PerfectPortrait George Kenefati, Mansi Narenda Singh, Xumin Shen; SEAS

PerfectPortrait is a smartphone photography app that provides real-time, onscreen feedback resulting in high-quality portrait photos, every time. Using composition templates, adaptive presets, and computer vision, the app is designed for users who want to ask someone to take their photo without worrying about the person’s photography skills.

Machina Robotics Jamie Palmer, Emre Onal; SEAS

Humanoid robots will shape the coming century. Currently, the early humanoid market is being dominated by 4x big players, who manufacture everything in-house, with the cheapest options projected at 150,000$ per unit. Machina aims to produce low-cost humanoids using off-shelf components to democratise the availability of humanoid robots to all.

Surgonomic Solutions Arvind Nandakumar; Columbia Alumn

Surgonomic Solutions is designing new surgical instruments that are not only ergonomic, but will revolutionize the way surgeons interact with their tools.

Sarf Saad Hazari, (Aadi) Nagavenkat Saikamal, Aaditya Kodali, Xenos Hu, Afham Bashir; SPS

Sarf is a financial platform that’s challenging traditional lending systems. By focusing on digital tools and ethical principles, Sarf is creating a fairer financial environment for everyone.

Berry Health Mark Ma, Steven Yu

Our goal is to transform physician reimbursement medical coding by developing a Generative AI-driven ‘medical coding copilot.’ This innovation is designed to significantly improve efficiency and accuracy compared to the existing solely manual process.

ImmuMesh Anna-Liisa Sepp, Lance Kam, Ana Sofia Poli, Neeraj Sahkrani; Microscale Biocomplexity Lab

ImmuMesh is a T cell activation platform that integrates into CAR T cell immunotherapy workflows to improve the quantity and quality of T cell products. The technology leverages T cell mechanosensing with a mechanically tuned mesh biomaterial base, functionalized for optimal cell proliferation with novel biologics.

SparkleMate Eugenia Baek; Barnard College

We aim to create a clutter-free environment essential for well-being, significantly reducing dishwashing time. Despite advances in water and energy efficiency, dishwasher design has stagnated, with the standard process of loading and unloading dishes taking over an hour. Our innovative design allows individual kitchen items to pass through the machine quickly, collecting them in seconds. This not only expedites the task, making it a quick, shared activity but also saves the energy typically needed to resume unloading dishes much later.

Compendium Health Tony Sun, Shreyas Bhave; Noémie Elhadad

Compendium Health provides succinct clinical summaries of clinical guidelines and literature. We provide patient-specific recommendations and hospital specific real-world clinical evidence, which competitors do not provide. By leveraging large language models for curation, we can reduce costs and update our platform daily, while still maintaining clinical accuracy via expert validation.

Revive-A-Rhythm Erica Bonheur, Lauren Heckelman, Lauren Bazay, Ijeoma Obi, Hadeel Sajidah Abdul-Rehman, Carol Xu; SEAS

Revive-a-Rhythm is focused on making an assistive chest compression device for individuals experiencing cardiac arrest. The product automates the process of administering chest compressions while providing stability, force and rate, allowing our target group – untrained bystanders – to effectively administer CPR.

BeatTheNudge, Tapasi Brahma; SEAS

After the final product is ready, I am planning on providing the product (hardware and software) to healthcare providers on subscription model.

Secra, Brandon Pae, Darson Chen; SEAS

Secra is an AI scheduling assistant for students that has 3 main objectives. First, to easily plan meetings and events. Second, to suggest intermediate times to work on assignments. Third, to communicate with other student assistants.

HWEeee, Fansheng Shi (Steve), Fanmin Shi (Jeff); NYC local team

Our initial idea aims to enhance interview readiness for the 200K STEM majors graduating each year in US through our AI-assisted interview preparation platform

Sourceable, Lena Arkawi, Siddhant Kumar; SIPA and SEAS

A platform or service providing diaspora communities direct-access to verified news from their home countries.

Captivating exploration, Waleed Khan; SEAS

It gets frustrating when you walk into a gym or store to just walk out because it is crowded. My idea proposes that we make these live numbers available to the public before they leave their homes to go to the gym or to a grocery store.

EpiFlour, Jewelyn (Jewels) Sonderman; School of Nursing

Healthcare product that reduces the rate of skin breakdown.

Open Worlds Game, Sunny Chen, Johnny Chen; Columbia Business School

Open Worlds is an immersive and multisensory game that decodes social languages for individuals on the spectrum and promotes neurodiversity. Inspired by Duolingo, we provide a gamified approach to help grasp diverse social concepts. Our bite-sized, self-paced exercises teach the varied perspectives between neurodivergent and neurotypical communities.

Recommend Ed, Nicole Pochinski, Joe Olson; Teachers College

We will build a search engine that provides personalized and scaffolded educational content by organizing e-learning resources into context-aware knowledge maps. As users navigate websites, we track their learning goals and subject expertise. We will generate curricular roadmaps and recommend content to deepen their knowledge and/or strengthen knowledge gaps.

Credibility.AI, Sitong Feng, Zizhou (Gary) Liu

We’re developing an AI-powered chatbot plug-in that quickly and accurately fact-checks digital content to combat misinformation, enhance transparency, and promote responsible AI usage across various sectors, from journalism to education and beyond.

CentralDigits, R. Benson Evans, Dr. Suren Movsisyan; SEAS

CentralDigits aims to create a Central Bank Digital Currency Platform that creates a Central Bank Digital Currency and provides a hub allowing the interoperability or exchange of Central Bank Digital Currencies between nations.

Opal, Jen Chiang, Lance Norman; SEAS and BUS

For people who need an additional layer of safety and security, we are building a thoughtfully designed and fashionable smart ring that allows the user to silently request help from first responders.

Ditto,  Ayman Talkani, Aadil Mehdi Sanchawala; SEAS.

Ditto’s platform generation and annotation voluminous, privacy-preserving datasets by leveraging AI with humans in the loop. Through this, we address AI’s lack of high-quality, diverse, and privatized data in healthcare. We combine AI and humans to create production grade datasets to train AI for customizable applications with minimal real-world training data.

Peptide Matter, Deborah Sementa, Rein Ulijn Tavis Ezell; Research Associate @ CUNY.

Intracellular therapeutic targets are often undruggable due to phospholipidic membrane permeability resistance. Our peptide-based liquid-like microdroplets smoothly cross the cell membranes and can be visualized by conventional microscopes. Nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, but also artificial chemical entities can be encapsulated in the platform formulation and successfully traced inside the cells.

10min, Dariela Sosa, Liz Alarcon, Leonela Serrano, Shaimaa Goher, María Paola Sánchez; SIPA.

At 10min, we’re on a mission to create a better world, 10 minutes at a time. Our AI-powered platform sources easy, scalable, and evidence-based actions for global collaboration to tackle today’s biggest challenges. Join our community, take part in our social media challenges, and make a real difference.

Full Circle, Hemish Dave; Columbia BUS’20.
Digitising smallholder farmers in emerging markets to value economic input from various farming-related activities and increase smallholder earning potential.

Platypus Bio. Yuyang He, SEAS.
Medical diagnosis software for the early identification of illnesses.

INfACT, André Corrêa d’Almeida, Sourya Kakarla; SIPA.
AI-powered data analytics-based advisor that makes it easier to extract useful information from data and assist with implementing actions that deliver the highest impact for organizations.

ParkEezy, Janam Shah, Chankrit Sethi, Jack Kaplan; SEAS.
ParkEezy is here to make this imagination a reality by offering you a quick parking solution if you’re a vehicle owner or making you some extra cash if you own a parking spot in the city.

Kriya AI, Aditya Jadhav; DSI.
An AI based solution to improving accessibility for the deaf and mute community. Specifically, build a state of the art computer vision model that transcribes sign language video to plain English.

Pendulum, Miao Kang, Jeffery Wu; CBS.
Pendulum is a fashion trend analysis SaaS tool designed for businesses to make optimal product decisions. We use big data to help fashion companies sensing the outbalance between supply and demand.

aRoboticsCompany, Akaash Kancharla, Jack Norleans, Richard Hallahan, Kevin Quimbo; SEAS.
We build robotic systems that perform engineering work on the exteriors of large structures.

Intellimem, Zhaoqing Wang, Paul Xuanyuanliang Huang; SEAS.
Enabling smarter devices across multiple industries, such as AR/VR/XR, AIoT & Autonomous-driving and others with lower-power consumption and higher-efficiency.

BHARAT, Bharat Bhushan Singh; SIPA.
E-commerce platform where all stakeholder related to e-waste management can connect.

ExCELL—Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy, Curran Mahowald, Dr. Carol Scheffner Hammer, Dr. Barbara Wasik; Teachers College
ExCELL is an all online program that trains preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade teachers in evidenced-based strategies for building children’s language and literacy skills. Teachers complete web-based modules, video record themselves practicing the strategies in the classroom, receive one-on-one feedback from coaches, and also use a library of instructional resources.

Kriash, Neetika Ashwani; Columbia Startup Lab
A wearable device that monitors skin-to-skin contact with other vitals in preterm babies directly send to the hospital’s dashboard.

fooooof, Hangqi Zheng, Jessica Chen, Donald Ferguson, Linda Pang; SEAS, CC, Barnard
fooooof is an app that makes the world more connected and empowers people to form sustainable friends through shared connection. We help users find friends of friends (fof) on an interactive map and simplify the process of organizing different social events.

Ladduu, Radha Jagarlamudi, Sourya Kakarla, Gautam Karajgi; School of Engineering and Applied Science
Disrupt the untapped global rural market of 3.4B people through speech, visual, multilingual solutions powered by a decentralised AI platform to overcome the barriers of technology use due to differences in culture, language, dialect, literacy, tech-savviness, and physical-ability. .

deSTIgma, Jaan Altosaar, Vivian Shi, Susanna Baek; Columbia University Irvine Medical Center
Public access to health care is crucial for monitoring and treating infectious diseases. We propose destigma, a free digital platform for screening and care navigation that uses artificial intelligence to assess an individual’s risk for infection, given social determinants of health such as de-identified location, symptoms, community spread, and more.

MealMe, Ariel Wu, Zekai Zhang, Elaine Su, Magan Chin; Columbia College and Barnard College
Scheduling app for spontaneous meal-time with your friends.

ViveSense, Benjamin Greenfield, James Wang, George Wayne; SEAS
In the U.S., 1 in 6 couples are unable to conceive within a full year of trying. The male partner is responsible in half of these cases. However, clinical testing is stressful, embarrassing, and inaccessible to the public. ViveSense is developing a rapid, accurate, and inexpensive at-home male fertility test, just as women have ovulation and pregnancy tests, to help couples struggling to have children seek medical help on their own terms sooner.

PreCrastinate, Cheng Gong, Weijia Zhang, Dayo Ogunlana, Stef Kim; SEAS
an App that optimizes project/workspace efficiency by AI assisting in planning. The goal is to increase individual productivity by generating a concrete, actionable plan for the user’s project by using AI to dismantle large/difficult tasks to small ones that can be achieved daily.

Chorepool, Subbu Muthukrishnan, Deirdre Silberstein, Sivakumar Lakshmanan, Aparna B Sharma; School of Professional Studies
We help residents save time, money, and gas by collaborating on daily chores. As one in two urban Tier-1 residents live in apartments, there is no community-focused solution to reduce redundant errands. We empower our customers to be on a mission to reduce the global carbon footprint.

Nio, Noel Cedanio Ureña, Emmanuel Ureña; CUNY
Nio the 6 generation of cacao farmers in the Caribbean, who’s now manufactures high-quality healthy kosher dark chocolate made with the best cacao beans of the Caribbean. They are made with a concentration of 100, 85 and 75% cacao beans. They are made with 100% birch or coconut sugar.

FastIX, Alex Bi, Steingart Lab, SEAS
We make the renewable energy development process 10x faster and less hassle. We will solve this problem with a software platform that integrates OASIS data, visualizes it on a map along with US transmission system parameters, and provides realtime notifications for changes to the interconnection queue. This helps developers save time and accelerate revenue.

Edge Foods, Bianca Drevensek, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
We are developing a technology that makes animal cell expansion amenable to large industrial bioreactors. This will increase biomass yield and allow for the creation of a competitively-priced alternative to livestock agriculture for producing meat.

SimpliDine, Lynn Hsieh, Columbia Business School (CBS)
SimpliDine focuses on the in restaurant experience. SimpliDine aims to be the center of operation, by offering digitized menu so customers can order and pay at their own pace. At its core, SimpliDine is an app-based product that allows restaurants to re-create their menu with photos, videos, and descriptions. Customers will gain more understanding of the menu items AND have a more efficient dining experience.

AI-into-unknown-frontier, Tian Cai and Prof Lei Xie, CUNY
An AI company providing out-of-generalization capability to illuminate new frontier of molecular function discovery.

Melanated Doc, Ekenesenarienrien Omokaro, SPS
Melanated Doc is a mentoring platform for minority students in the healthcare field. It links mentees with mentors in their community who can provide support, guidance, and leadership as they navigate their career path. Mentors who can nurture their potential and help them fulfil their dreams and goals.

Sourceable, Lena Arkawi and Siddhant Kumar, Engineering and SIPA
Sourceable is an online platform and mobile application that empowers, supports, and connects citizen journalists in areas of conflict and crisis globally. Leveraging innovative verification technology, Sourceable helps citizen journalists document, verify, archive, and share critical data in real-time with media, human rights groups, and legal accountability mechanisms.

Link Biosystems, Kacey Ronaldson-Bouchard, BME, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic group, SEAS
Link Biosystems is developing closed, modular bioreactors with efficient gas exchange and cell-cell contact in a low-shear perfusion environment for the rapid expansion of individual patient’s cells, enabling the rapid generation of thousands of identical organotypic tumor models to facilitate a precision medicine workflow.

Milestones, Hanna Park, Teachers College & Columbia GS Alum
Milestones provides safe and harmless eco-friendly educational toys (wood, cotton, BPA free plastic, silicon, etc.). Cognitive development-promoting toys (teaching-aids) that the child directly manipulates and learns from playing with the toys (i.e. cause-effect relationship). Toys that are suitable for age-specific developmental characteristics (milestones) or for educational purposes.

Pestocare, Kwabena Boateng, General Studies
Petsocare is a digital marketplace that partners with local pet stores to provide scalable digital services to these stores and their valued customers (pet owners and their pets).

Light the Universe, Esther Jung, SIPA Alum 2010
We provide a social emotional foundation for students to reach full potential through a three phase process: cultivating one’s identity, developing soft/academic skills, and giving back to society with one’s unique talents

ByeByeBarnacle, Vittorio Bottoli, UG Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, SEAS
A device that cleans boat hulls, removing algae and other sea creatures to reduce boat drag and decrease fuel consumption, cutting fuel costs and decreasing fuel pollution.

PhythonFix, Iden Kurtaliaj, CUMC, Stavros Thomopoulos, Thomopoulos Laboratory
PythonFix combines a unique mechanical fixation approach with sustained local delivery of biologics. The device consists of a porous base secured at the attachment site and teeth that rise above to grasp the tendon. PythonFix fundamentally changes the repair paradigm by distributing load transfer across the entire repair footprint.

EZ Health, Etizaz Shah, SIPA 
EZ Health is a telemedicine platform which closes the communication gap and significantly enhances access to healthcare for 25 million Americans by providing a platform which connects patients and doctors who speak the same language.

Democratize Machine Learning, Ender Minyard, SEAS
Training machine learning models usually requires more compute than a single computer can provide. There are paid services that allow researchers to pay for more compute but researchers are not always given dedicated funds for training. Federated learning is an active area of research that allows researchers to share compute. 

Hi-AI, Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi, Computer Science; Uzay Macar, SEAS
Our mission is to make AI an accessible skill to all, and offer a hands-on experience along with a comprehensive approach to a broad range of AI concepts. We aim to build a new startup “Hi-AI” that aims to promote online AI education and empower everyone from age 9 to 109 with freely accessible AI knowledge.

Bandhu, Jacob Kohn and Rushil Palavajjhala, Urban Works India
Our platform builds upon the marketplace idea of competitors like Just Jobs and QuikrJobs, but also verifies the credibility of users and allows for greater customization and access to real-time intelligence. Bandhu’s AI model assists and personalizes a user’s decision-making process, thus relieving the user from decision fatigue.

BoreCharger, Rahul Suresh Bakare, Urban Works India
A unique patent pending technique that recharges dried and low yielding borewells by inducing 4 to 20 times more recharge of rainwater and improves water quality, quantity and sustainability in different parts of India. 

Persapien, Dr. Shashi Ranjan and Prateek Arora, Urban Works India
IP/technology for large scale implementation for continuous disinfection of air and surfaces in all kind of enclosed spaces to prevent transmission of pathogens. 

Bucephalus, Nicholas DeGiacomo, SEAS
Bucephalus helps e-commerce sellers and DTC brands manage their inventory so they can get out of the spreadsheet and focus on what matters – their product and brand.

City Scanner, Parul Sharma, GSAPP
An experiential Waze for pedestrians and cyclists.

UniTie (Uni-ty), Shriya Mangla, Prof. Gerard Neumann, SEAS
UniTie brings university students together on one platform all over the country, scouting budding entrepreneurs and innovators who have a solid base idea but need help in building their team, finding the right talent-fit, establishing their project and getting funding.

Wallet Max, Bhuva Subramaniam, CBS
Real-time personal finance app that saves money while you shop, and helps retail shoppers to decide the best purchases and investments with intuitive technology controls, advanced analytics, cybersecurity and privacy compliance.

Echo, Scott Caputo, SEAS
Echo redefines the world of social networking through the centralization of numerous online communities, providing the user with the convenience of opening just one app to participate in all of their communities. The platform integrates classic and novel features to allow the user expression and creatively like never before.

GreenCart, Jocelyn Chen, Kennedy Salamat, Franck Mugisho, Sarah Howard, John George, Prof. Aaron Moment, SEAS
GreenCart is a browser extension that assesses the environmental impacts of fashion items in users’ e-commerce carts. This data-driven tool empowers consumers to make informed, sustainable decisions as they shop online.

HoopDuel, Alex Han, Axel Xu, SEAS
HoopDuel is a mobile application that matches pick-up basketball players according to their level/experience. We aim at gamifying pick-up basketball by providing rankings and a virtual league on the app, so that users can feel the thrill to compete and quantify their improvement.

NeuroImpact, Andrew Basilo, Leanne Pichay, SEAS
Many car accident deaths are attributed to delayed fatality from brain swelling following a car accident. These deaths have been undetectable during R&D efforts. We will provide a service to car companies and help them catch these undetectable deaths during R&D efforts, thus increasing their brand reputation and customers count.

DeliverE, Abhirat Shinde, Sarvadyna Kulkarni, SEAS
DeliverE is the e-mobility driven last-mile logistics company that focuses on Tier-2 cities in India, our B2B focus aims to generate greater value for (decentralized) brick-and-mortar establishments by being their reliable partner in doing deliveries.

EmNet, Nikhilesh Belulkar, Preethi Prakash, Anushka Gupta, Shruti Verma, SEAS
EmNet is a distributed network of on-call emergency responders in Urban India. In response to the significant delays ambulances in Urban India face (avg. wait time of 25-30 mins), we’ve built an oncall network of responders who can reach patients in less than 10 minutes.

Envirobe, Ravish Rawal, SEAS
Using plastic-eating microbes to break down waste into biologically-derived chemical precursors, helping close the plastic manufacturing loop and eliminating dependence on fossil fuels.

The Conscious Loop, Pratyusha Kiran and Sri Kapish Gollapalli, SEAS
Digital marketplace for working women to shop multiple sustainable clothing brands within their price point and with comprehensive label transparency.

MIA: Mask Infrared Assessment, Nikita Manjuluri, Margherita Firenze, and Bhoomika Kumar, SEAS and CC
A low-cost infrared and custom software to validate mask fit and detect exhalation leaks for hospitable workers.

Psicologia Conectada, Wendy Fernandez, School of Engineering
A platform for Latin Americans to confidentially and quickly connect with verified psychologists.

Disco, Saron Yitbarek, CBS
An online education platform for corporate managers to purchase audio-based courses to upskill and train their employees more effectively.

TheH.itchApp, Paritosh Kulkarni, Chemical Engineering 
The Über of networking, connecting scattered employees with their friends in virtual sessions.

USCI Company, Luozhou Li, SEAS
Aggregate information on product availability and track prices changes to optimize and automate the shopping process. 

Extrinsic Labs, Akshara Baru, SEAS
Develops online behavioral training modules to help reduce incidence of sexual harassment at the workplace and improve work culture. 

Local & Yonder, Minqi Cai, SEAS
A B2B web app that matches and provides supply chain solutions to farms, manufacturers, and grocers. 

JMS, Michana Pubien, Columbia University
Job placement algorithm for technology managers to expedite the recruiting process and save on placement fees. 

UltrasonOS, Yazmin Feliz, Mechnical Engineering 
A personalized mobile solution for at-home ultrasound scans to reduce exam time and provide mothers and doctors with clearer sonogram images and critical information. 

Genius.ai, Nikhilesh Belulkar, SEAS
Highly flexible and easily implemented email classification software to maximize time small businesses spend on communication. 

Kiefer Robotics, Max Kiefer, Chemical Engineering 
An electronic product that can attract and eliminate a bug pest for citrus farmers, avoiding the environmental and economic costs of relying on harmful pesticides.

Werewool, Chui-Lian Lee, Theanne Schiros
Designing biodegradable fibers with tailored aesthetic and performance properties while minimizing the environmental footprint of the $961.5B textile industry. 

Wellbotics, Dr. Pam Davis, TC 
Supplies products used to help trauma survivors cope by teaching them to program robots to meet challenges modeled on real-life behavioral health scenarios.

Project Zero, Isha Gupta, SEAS 
An ML- & NLP-backed, easy-to-use one-stop solution to provide personalized job recommendations by translating the person’s traits and future goals to matching career and corresponding course recommendations.

At Your Service, Katie Spradley and Aditi Gargi, CBS 
A waste management intermediary that more effectively sorts trash earlier in the waste cycle using “smart” waste bins and makes waste management more efficient for the hauler using compaction techniques.

DataBuddy, Jannick Tapken, SEAS
Marketplace to connect people to sell their unused mobile data capacities to others who need it. 

Lionsight, Justin Law, SEAS 
Helping brands, public figures, and large institutions keep track of their online image using our algorithms.

Jogger Set, Sophia Raji, SEAS 
Digital-first retailer for luxe cashmere jogger sets. 

Kara Water, Bill Irvine, CBS 
An in-home appliance that takes humidity in the air around us and creates up to 3 gallons of pure drinking water.

VasculoTox, Shaghayegh Harbi, John Kerbawy, NYCRIN
Development of assays for diagnostic and therapeutic applications – including both sophisticated high-throughput applications and point- of-care (POC) diagnostic assay development for practical applications.

Popfizz, Jane Lee, Junho Lee, Teachers College
Popfizz CS is an online platform where students learn computer science by creating games, programs, and artwork and share it with the world.

Project Heartbeat, Lindsay Meyerson, Ana Zeneli, NYCRIN
Currently, service members have no ability to know what is going on in their own bodies. We propose to pair sensor technology with an application that will analyze data on physiological vitals and use that knowledge to prevent deterioration of health of deployed service members.

In Your Ecosystem, Nhi Dinh Tran, Arber Ruci, NYCRIN
A web-based customer discovery platform for innovation educations to remotely critique and track captured learning of entrepreneurship students.

X-battery, Xi Chen, Xiangbiao Liao, SEAS
Cost-effective flexible li-ion batteries with high-energy density and superior flexibility

Marko Motors LLC, Matthew D Marko, GSAS
Marko Motors is working to use thermodynamic theories developed by the founder, Dr. Matthew Marko, to build a revolutionary new solar engine. Rather than use photovoltaic cells, these solar engines use the intermolecular attractive Van der Waal forces present in all fluids to enhance the thermodynamic efficiencies of Stirling engines.

Small-Scale Med, Dimitrios Fafalis, Aykut Aksit, SEAS
We develop hollow micro-needles of 300 micro-meters length and 5 micro-meters tip diameter (i) to deliver therapeutics into the inner ear for treatment of hear-related diseases like Meniere’s disease, and (ii) to aspire perilymph from the inner ear for diagnostics.

New Money, Najin Kim, SIPA and GS
Private/permissioned blockchain ledgers to connect all stakeholders of impact investing.

Medi-SCAPE, Elizabeth Hillman, Wenxuan Liang, SEAS
Swept confocally-aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscopy technology is a novel single-objective lens light-sheet microscope for volumetric imaging of living biological tissue at ultra-high speed.

GetRight, Markus Kuhn, Suhyun Kim, SEAS
GETRIGHT is an improved and modernized method of watching game and practice film for all current NFL and NCAA teams, as well as replacing the current outdated version of studying the playbook.

Sobrite, John Bosco, Mailman, Engineering
A Sober Community On and Offline

Newtrima, Nicoleta de Deugd, CUMC
Personalized health and wellness tool, available at your fingertips

FITS Commute, Junhui Lou, SEAS
Flexible Integrated Transportation System

HelpingHandBiopsy, Jason Kahn, ChemE, SEAS
We are developing a a one-use, disposable, and sterile first of kind soft material that can aid in lung biopsy needle stabilization and placement.

3D Capsule, Vladlena Powers, IEOR, SEAS
Creating 3D technology that will capture specimens in 3D regardless of shape, color, or size and reduce processing time for any object by ~100 times

Colonai, Jacob Nye, Drew Afromsky. SEAS
We improve the physician’s ability to spot the hard-to-see, early-stage polyps, which increases their adenoma detection rate (ADR) and allows them to remove the polyps at a stage where it prevents cancer.

AdvanceH2O, Halil Kurt, Young Lee, Kartik Chandran, SEAS
We are developing a next-generation, advanced monitoring/sensor and data informatics platform that will address critical customer priority concerns for drinking and wastewater treatment.

BURPA: a Bio-Unified Research Project Agency, Qianru Qi, Bhubaneswar Mishra, NYCRIN
Developing patient-centric healthcare using blockchain and securitization.

coLiberate, Salah Chafik, Mohamed Haroun, SEAS
coLiberate is a collaboration platform that decentralizes tools, resources, and knowledge to facilitate making/fabrication. Put differently, it is a digital commons for local fabrication, and global collaboration.

Developing a Shakespeare Augmented Reality Application, Kevin LaGrandeur, John Misak, NYCRIN
The Augmented Reality (AR) application we are developing for smartphones and tablets would be of commercial use for college classrooms, and could also be used in high school and middle school to help teach Shakespeare.

huMOrgan, Yanne Doucet, Kacey Ronaldson-Bouchard, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, SEAS
The technology consists of an integrated platform where engineered human tissues can be matured and combined in a physiological manner so that they are cultured in their specific media, but connected to other tissues/organs via a vasculature system within the platform. These models provide opportunities to both test the safety and efficacy of drugs on individual tissue/organ systems or combinations of multiple organ systems to more closely mimic the human body as an integrated system in vitro.
 
TRANSFR, Bharanidharan Rajakumar, Dr. Erica Snow, Pranav Bhakta, NYCRIN
Using evidence centered design to develop virtual reality training modules for skill development for ultimately job placement or career advancement.