We are looking for candidates who dream big and take risks, want to become a CEO, CSO, or CTO founder, and want to take their entrepreneurial skills to the next level. The Ignite Fellow for New Ventures pre-phase allows any candidates with Ph.D. and master’s degrees to select an eligible Cornell technology from our database and connect with the Cornell inventor, if selected, to partner on a technology venture before applying to the open application cycle.
Pre-Phase: Matching Candidates With Cornell Faculty Inventors
Instructions
If you are eligible and interested in starting a company out of one of the Cornell technologies below, follow these steps:
- Fill out and submit the pre-selecting form (you can find it under each technology description)
- The Ignite team will review your application and will match potential candidates with faculty-inventor
- If you are a match, you will receive a request to interview with the faculty-inventor
- Once both the candidate and the faculty-inventor agree to work together, apply to the program as applicants and future co-founders. Learn more here.
Cornell Innovations
Learn about current innovations with the potential to become a venture.
Technology:
Drop on Demand Additive Manufacturing Technology for Metals
Faculty Inventor:
Atieh Moridi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Venture Opportunities:
Research within the Moridi lab has resulted in several breakthroughs in the metal 3D printing field. The developed process uses energy from a pulsed laser beam for the ejection of metallic droplets to construct a part in a layer-by-layer manner. This technology provides unique on-the-fly tunability of feature resolution based on the localized complexity of manufactured partsured, reducing production time and costs.
The successful candidate will be working to further develop the drop-on-demand printing technology, develop instrumentation, and explore paths for commercialization.
Submit interest to connect
Technology:
Quantum Artificial Intelligence for Optimization and Deep Learning Application
Faculty Inventor:
Fengqi You, Ph.D.
Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Venture Opportunities:
Professor You’s research group has pioneered developing quantum artificial intelligence computational technologies, including hybrid quantum-classical optimization technologies, novel quantum-computing-based technologies for fault diagnosis in complex energy, power, and manufacturing systems, and targeted molecular design via quantum deep learning.
The successful candidate will lead further development of this technology platform, including but not limited to efforts in defining and implementing a minimum viable product prototype to demonstrate product capabilities to a broad audience, building a front-end interface that allows for user interaction, performing customer discovery research to identify near-term commercial use cases, and training a backend model on existing data for such use cases.
Submit interest to connect
Technology:
Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) Inhibitors for Pharmaceutical Therapeutics
Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) Inhibitors for Pharmaceutical Therapeutics
Faculty inventor:
Justin Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Venture Opportunities:
The Wilson lab has developed several novel and potent ruthenium-based complexes that inhibit calcium uptake through the MCU. The compounds demonstrated low cytotoxicity at micromolar concentrations and were able to attenuate necrosis after reperfusion injury. These compounds may be applied to treating or preventing diseases associated with mitochondrial calcium imbalance, including but not limited to neurodegenerative diseases.
The successful candidate must be a Ph.D. holder and will be working to identify lead pharmaceutical candidates via experimentation and data generation, as well as exploring paths for commercialization.
For more information about this technology, visit the tech’s brief here.
Submit interest to connect
Technology:
Rechargeable Zinc Battery
Rechargeable Zinc Battery
Faculty inventor:
Lynden Archer, Ph.D.
Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering; James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor in Engineering
Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Venture Opportunities:
The Archer group has developed technologies and small-scale prototypes for aqueous zinc-ion batteries for use in low-cost energy storage.
The successful candidate should have a background in materials science and electrochemistry and will work to further develop the technology, build prototypes, test the technology, develop partnerships with potential users, and develop scalable processes to produce aqueous zinc batteries with commercially relevant form factors and specifications. The candidate will also be expected to explore desired parameters for a ‘minimum viable product’ and pursue paths for commercialization of the technology.
Submit interest to connect
Application Schedule
Application Period Opens: November 13, 2023
Application Period Closes: March 29, 2024, at 5 p.m.
Selection: End of May 2024
Starting Date: July/August 2024
Once matched with a faculty-inventor, return to the main Fellow for New Ventures page to apply to the program.
Contact information
Lynda Inséqué
lci2@cornell.edu
Director
Technology and Venture Initiatives & Engagement
Aaron Delahanty
abd99@cornell.edu
Manager
Technology Acceleration and Venture
