Ignite Postdocs* Explore New Market Opportunities in a Hands-on Training

Current Ignite Fellow for New Ventures (formerly Postdoc for Ventures) participants came together on a 6-session workshop designed to help them get a clear overview of their potential market domains and make confident decisions on where to play next. The workshops offered a structured approach for identifying, evaluating, and strategizing market opportunities. The fellows gained important insights with a hands-on approach through teaching and break-out sessions. They got acquainted with tools that will accompany them over time as they learn and make critical strategic decisions for their new business.

The workshop was imparted by Sharon Itzkovitch from Where to Play, a company helping entrepreneurs and business managers identify, evaluate and prioritize market opportunities for their businesses to increase their chances of success and create significant new value.

“Sharon’s Where to Play workshop is part of the training sessions that kick off the 2022 Spring Cycle of Ignite Fellow for New Ventures educational programming to aspiring entrepreneurs, which include a series of lectures and workshops,” said Lynda Inséqué, assistant director, Technology Initiatives & Outreach at CTL.

Ignite Fellows Brandon Regensburger, Anthony D’Amato, David Buchholz, Juneho Hwang, and Hassnain Asgar, share their takeaways from the Where to Play workshop.

The Ignite Fellow for New Ventures program aims to build new solid businesses, grow entrepreneur scientists and engineers, advance technology commercialization, and enrich Cornell’s venture ecosystem by creating high-value startup companies based on the partnerships of an Ignite candidate and faculty inventor.

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. To learn more about the program and how to apply to the 2023 cycle, join one of our information sessions here. Applications open on December 12, 2022, through February 28, 2023.

CTL Ignite Contact
Lynda Inséqué
Assistant Director, Technology Initiatives & Outreach
lci2@cornell.edu

Aaron Delahanty
Venture Fellow
abd99@cornell.edu

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
vbt6@cornell.edu

* The Ignite Postdoc for Ventures program has been recently renamed to Ignite Fellow for New Ventures

Changing the Landscape for Women Innovators and Entrepreneurs

Alice Li, executive director at the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University, shares the efforts of AUTM, Cornell University, and other academic institutions to increase women’s participation in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Alice Li

As Alice mentions, “As tech transfer professionals, we are in a unique position to change the landscape for women innovators and entrepreneurs. We are in the trenches, working with and educating vast numbers of researchers in technology creation, evaluation and protection. We partner closely with investors, mentors and industries. We can influence the ecosystem within academia, facilitate connections with industries, and create new programs and models for nurturing women innovators and entrepreneurs. Pilot programs that are effective for women can also be evaluated and adapted to benefit other under-represented demographics within the innovation ecosystem.”

At CTL, we are supporting women with training and mentorship through the Women Innovators Initiative, a Cornell program to engage, empower, and grow women faculty, staff, and graduate students on the path toward technology innovation and entrepreneurial leadership. Also, the newly established Women Innovator Awards is a celebration of Cornell women innovators for their contributions in innovation and commercialization. Learn more about the program here.

Get the Changing the Landscape for Women Innovators and Entrepreneurs article on AUTM’s website.

AUTM is the non-profit leader in efforts to educate, promote and inspire professionals to support the development of academic research that changes the world and drives innovation forward. AUTM’s community is comprised of more than 3,000 members who work in more than 800 universities, research centers, hospitals, businesses and government organizations around the globe.

De-risking The Pathway Toward Entrepreneurship: Five Postdocs Recruited to Start New Ventures at Cornell University

Cornell University is taking a new path in supporting Ph.D. scientists and engineers who are making the leap from researchers to entrepreneurs. Through the Postdoc for Ventures Program, one of the four signature programs of Ignite Cornell Research Lab to Market gap funding series managed by the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL), five researchers with entrepreneurial outlooks will be supported and trained to start new ventures out of Cornell technologies. The program aims to build new solid businesses, grow entrepreneur scientists and engineers, advance technology commercialization, and enrich Cornell’s venture ecosystem.

“We are excited to welcome the inaugural cohort of the Ignite Postdoc program,” said Alice Li, executive director at CTL. “This program is one of the flagship programs to support venture creation leveraging the growing strength of Cornell’s ecosystem: research, technologies, venture incubation, mentoring, and network.”

Each selected project is funded approximately $120K a year to support the compensation of the postdoc and the expenses of basic experiments. Each Ignite Postdoc will report to the faculty inventor during the program’s first phase while still developing the technology. During phase two, triggered by the company’s incorporation, they will report to one of Cornell’s business incubators. During both phases, they will work at the lab and have access to the incubators as associate members.

The projects selected for the inaugural cohort are diverse and represent the breadth of Cornell’s commitment to any field study:

EV in motion

Technology: Dynamic Wireless Charging for Electric Vehicles (EV)

Postdoc: Brandon Regensburger, Ph.D.

Faculty-inventor: Khurram Khan Afridi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Description: Electric vehicles (EVs) have the potential to dramatically reduce the negative environmental impact of road transportation, which is the dominant source of air pollution in urban areas. Unfortunately, EVs are expensive, have a limited range, and have long charging times—all related to limitations in battery technology. The team within Afridi’s lab has developed a transformative approach to overcome the challenges posed by battery technologies to substantially reduce energy storage on the vehicle and instead deliver power wirelessly to the EV while it is in motion—dynamic wireless charging.

Kidney treatment

Technology: Arteriovenous (AV) graft

Postdoc: Anthony D’Amato, Ph.D.

Faculty-inventor: Yadong Wang, Ph.D., McAdam Family Foundation Professor of Heart Assist Technology, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering

Description: Arteries and veins have significant differences in their mechanical properties, and current fistulas or synthetic grafts for hemodialysis often fail because they cannot adequately withstand these differences under high blood flow rates. Wang’s group has developed next-generation vascular grafts that can match disparate compliances and prevent mechanical failure, so patients don’t need repeated surgeries for replacements.

enveloped viruses

Technology: Use of Membrane Inhibitors to Enhance vaccine Development against Enveloped Viruses

Postdoc: David Buchholz, Ph.D.

Faculty-inventor: Hector Aguilar-Carreno, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology

Description: The team at Aguilar-Carreno lab has developed a method to inactivate enveloped viruses such as COVID-19, HIV, and the flu, by developing vaccines that preserve the viral genome and proteins to elicit a more robust immune response from the patient.

Software developer

Technology: Ultrasonic Fourier Computation Hardware for Convolutional Neural Network Computing

Postdoc: Juneho Hwang, Ph.D.

Faculty-inventor: Amit Lal, Ph.D., Robert M. Scharf 1977 Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Description: Professor Lal and his team have invented a computing architecture that can utilize the newly discovered 2D FFT using ultrasonics to perform a neural network operation that is useful for deep learning applications in computer program products comprising processor-readable storage media. The technology computes 2D Fourier Transform much faster than traditional architectures and uses much lower energy.

CO2 to H2

Technology: Methods and Processes for the Adaptive Use of Ca- and Mg-bearing oxides, hydroxides, and silicates or Ca- and Mg-bearing aqueous streams to capture, convert and store CO2 and production of H2

Postdoc: Hassnain Asgar, Ph.D.

Faculty-inventor: Greeshma Gadikota, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Description: Professor Gadikota and her team has developed a method for using calcium- and magnesium-bearing oxides and hydroxides to capture, convert, and store CO2 while coupling this to the efficient production of H2. The invention produces valuable products while mitigating CO2 generation.

“The Ignite Postdocs are receiving tailored training to bring them up to speed in their understanding of venture creation, their customers, and the market,” said Lynda Inseque, assistant director, Technology Initiatives & Outreach at CTL. “They will be supported all along the way through their journey at Cornell.”

After each postdoc completes the program, which time will vary depending on the stage of the technology and business plan, they will have the tools, network, and necessary knowledge to continue working on growing the company on their own. The next recruitment cycle opens on December 12, 2022. If you are interested in applying to the next cohort, visit Ignite Postdoc for Venture website here.

CTL Ignite Contact
Lynda Inséqué
Assistant Director, Technology Initiatives & Outreach
lci2@cornell.edu

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
vbt6@cornell.edu

Innovators, Investors, Entrepreneurs, and Experts Convened at First Roundtable of Cornell Innovation & Venture Advisors Group

The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) recently launched the Cornell Innovation & Venture Advisors (CIVA) group. CIVA is a new and exclusive community of industry experts who are provided a first look at emerging technologies and venture opportunities from Cornell innovations. The group, which advisors may join by invitation only, aims to connect Cornell inventors from the Ithaca, Geneva, Cornell Tech, and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) campuses with potential entrepreneurs and corporate partners with the goal of leveraging advisor feedback to best advance technology toward commercialization and venture.

A total of 80 participants attended the first virtual meeting, which took place in the last week of October 2022. “Every quarter, CIVA members will be invited to an hour-long virtual meeting to attend presentations from Cornell’s most promising inventors,” said Alice Li, executive director at CTL. “It’s not a pitch event for fundraising. The technologies presented are in the early development stage. The main goal of CIVA and the event series is to connect Cornell inventors and prominent corporate investors and entrepreneurs who are ardent supporters of Cornell’s innovation ecosystem, figure out suitable commercialization strategies for different technologies, and build pipelines for partnerships and ventures.”

The roundtable will feature three pre-selected Cornell innovators who describe their technologies in separate breakout rooms during the event. The advisors may choose the breakout room of most significant interest to them, including innovations in life sciences, physical sciences, and medical advancements. Following the inventors’ presentations, the advisors, inventors, and hosts participate in an open roundtable discussion that provides feedback, explores strategy, discusses the next development steps to add value, and more. 

“While we will continue to improve the CIVA platform, we are delighted with the results and feedback we received during the first CIVA event,” said Lisa Placanica, senior managing director at CTL@WCM. “By providing this unique access to early-stage opportunities in venture and commercialization, we are opening the doors of CTL’s up-and-coming portfolio of technologies that have the potential to disrupt and transform their markets.”

In 2021, Cornell was granted 105 U.S. utility patents[1], ranking in the top 20 internationally and first in the State of New York. The establishment of CIVA and the roundtable series will help catalyze the adoption of these inventions into the marketplace and increase the potential impact of Cornell research and innovation.

[1] Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents 2021. National Academy of Inventors. https://academyofinventors.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/8.17.2022-Top-100.pdf  

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
vbt6@cornell.edu

Cornell STEM and MBA Graduate Students Join CTL’s Practicum Program, Learn About Technology Transfer

The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) at Cornell University is proud to welcome the fall 2022 cohort for CTL’s Practicum program. The CTL Practicum is a program available to Cornell STEM and MBA graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that allows the practicants to gain valuable experience in commercializing university-based research. The practicants underwent an interview process and were selected for their competencies and willingness to learn new skills in technology commercialization. They will join a licensing team according to their field of expertise and work closely with the business development and licensing associates marketing up-and-coming Cornell technologies to potential licensees.  

Meet our practicants and join us in giving them a warm welcome!

Bailey Gong

Bailey Gong, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Food Science under the mentorship of Professor Carmen Moraru. When he is not in the lab, Bailey likes to cook, bake bread, do outdoor activities, and help at church.

Halle Redfearn, a Ph.D. candidate in Professor Julie Goddard’s research group in the Department of Food Science. Halle enjoys golfing, pickleball, baseball, and cooking in her spare time. She also loves anything outdoors – her dream is to one day be on Survivor!

Chase Webb, a Ph.D. student in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, advised by Professor Yadong Wang. Before coming to Cornell, Chase was an NCAA athlete and volunteer assistant coach for Carnegie Mellon University’s Swim Team. He still stays active by kayaking, biking, and hiking. 

Shalin Jayesh Dave is a Master of Engineering Student in the Engineering Management program. Shalin likes to take solitary hikes through forests to find spots where he can nestle among trees and revel in the sounds of brooks and birds while reading a nice book or writing poetry.

Jordan Johnson

Jordan Johnson, a Master of Engineering Student in the Biomedical Engineering program. For fun, Jordan likes to rock climb, spend time with her pets and friends, bake, and do crafts!

Eti Sinha

Eti Sinha, a Ph.D. candidate in the Biomedical Engineering program on the Ithaca campus under the mentorship of Dr. Olivier Elemento, based in the Weill Cornell campus in NYC. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and exploring new restaurants in the city. Eti is also an identical twin.

Lingwei Wan

Lingwei Wan is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology section under the mentorship of Professor Melanie Filiatrault. Lingwei enjoys reading and crocheting in her spare time. 

Shobhit Misra

Shobhit Misra is an MBA student at Cornell Johnson School of Management. Before coming to Cornell, Shobhit completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and subsequently worked at Air Products & Chemicals as Principal Data Scientist. Shobhit has a great collection of books he enjoys reading in his spare time.

Vrinda Khandelwal

Vrinda Khandelwal, a Master of Engineering Student in the Engineering Management program. In her spare time, Vrinda loves to read, annoy her brother, and eat spicy food (even though she cannot handle it).

Cindy Qiu

Cindy Qiu, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, working with Professor Nicholas L. Abbott. When she is not in the lab, Cindy enjoys running, hiking, and playing guitar and piano.

The CTL team has designed the Practicum Program to expose and engage the Practicants with technology commercialization activities such as technology evaluation, market analysis, and prior art search as early as possible in their careers. The program will leverage their unique research backgrounds while providing a view into career opportunities outside academia.

Visit the CTL Practicum website for more information about this program.

CTL Practicum Contact
Lynda Inséqué
Assistant Director, Technology Initiatives & Outreach
lci2@cornell.edu

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
vbt6@cornell.edu

Conference Features Insightful Advice, Stories From Entrepreneurs

Dr. Greeshma Gadikota, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, during her pitch presentation.

On Friday, Oct. 21, the Eclectic Convergence conference took place on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City, sponsored and hosted by Entrepreneurship at Cornell. The daylong event included talks from six entrepreneurs, business executives and venture capitalists, as well as a pitch competition among business founders from Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Cornell Tech and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Greeshma Gadikota, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Ithaca campus, won the top prize of $5,000 during the event’s pitch competition for her company, Carbon to Stone, which uses technology she invented to capture carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and convert it into solid calcium and magnesium carbonates.

“A lot of companies have reached out to us; they need help managing the vast amounts of CO2 they’re creating,” she said, adding that she’s already working on pilot projects with two New York state companies.

Get the Conference Features Insightful Advice, Stories From Entrepreneurs news on the Chronicle.

BioEntrepreneurship Initiative Helps D’Amato Transform Research to Reality

Among the promising group of life science researchers and business students in the inaugural cohort of the BioEntrepreneurship Initiative is Anthony D’Amato, a postdoctoral fellow in biomedical engineering at Cornell. D’Amato is taking advantage of several of Cornell’s resources for entrepreneurs as he translates his research into a new venture that hopes to significantly improve the quality of care in vascular health. 

D’Amato earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2018, focusing his research on regenerating the injured spinal cord during his time as a doctoral student. As a postdoc at Cornell, he has shifted his attention to the development of biomaterials to treat vascular disease.

D’Amato is also a member of the inaugural Ignite Postdoc for Ventures cohort. The program, which works to help postdocs commercialize their technology, is housed in the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL). The structure of the program allows D’Amato and his fellow cohort members to work with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) throughout the two phases of the program. 

“In phase one, the postdoc will work under the supervision of the faculty member. In phase two, they will work under the supervision of the incubator director,” explained Lynda Inséqué, Assistant Director of Technology Initiatives and Outreach for CTL.  

Through Ignite, D’Amato completed a National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Regional Course. He explained how the program, hosted by Cornell University and the UNY I-Corps Node, has encouraged him to expand his horizons. 

Learn more about BioEntrepreneurship Initiative Helps D’Amato Transform Research to Reality (Entrepreneurship at Cornell).

 

The Center for Technology Licensing, Cornell University’s Tech Transfer Office, Unveils a Modern, User-Friendly Website

The new site is mobile-responsive and ADA-compliant

The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) at Cornell University announced the launch of a new website providing a central resource for Cornell’s community and partners interested in intellectual property, translational funding, and new venture creation. With a fresh look and an improved user experience, the site is also mobile-responsive and accessible.

The new website places emphasis on innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporate partners, three of the office’s primary audiences, with the aim to provide clearer and easier navigation and a more organic flow.

Created with the user experience in mind, the site includes many new features to help them quickly and easily navigate and find the information they need.  New features include:

“At CTL, we are passionate about the work we do, and we want our stakeholders to have a satisfactory navigation experience when visiting our website and to highlight new resources and tools available to the community,” said Alice Li, Executive Director at CTL. “This new website helps us to achieve that.”

  • Quick access to Cornell’s portfolio of technologies
  • Search for licensed startups by industry area
  • A highlight of Ignite’s gap funding series for fast access to funding opportunities
  • A technology commercialization process chart to facilitate the understanding of the innovators’ journey
  • Programs, Events, and Outreach page, easy-to-navigate educational programming, additional funding opportunities, and the team’s outreach activities.

“With this new website, our goal is to reach more innovators and entrepreneurs and provide all the information they need to bring their innovations from the lab to the marketplace while attracting potential business partners to make this a reality,” said Lisa Placanica, Senior Managing Director at CTL@WCM.

CTL’s new website will regularly provide the latest information for the various stakeholders and CTL activities and milestones. Explore the new site today at https://www.ctl.cornell.edu.

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
CTL
vbt6@cornell.edu

Van Vliet named vice president for research and innovation

Photo of Krystyn Van VlietKrystyn J. Van Vliet, an internationally accomplished materials scientist and engineer now serving as associate provost and associate vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will join Cornell as vice president for research and innovation, the university announced on Aug. 25.

The Executive Committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees approved Van Vliet’s five-year appointment, which will start Feb. 1, 2023, and her appointment as a professor in the College of Engineering. She will succeed Emmanuel P. Giannelis, the Walter R. Read Professor of Engineering in the College of Engineering.

“Professor Van Vliet is a highly distinguished scientist and scholar with deep expertise in areas key to our research enterprise,” said President Martha E. Pollack. “She brings a stellar record of academic leadership and achievement, as well as the strategic vision to further expand the innovation, impact, and distinction of research at Cornell.”

Get the news from the Cornell Chronicle here.

Cornell Lab-Based Innovations Received Funding Toward Commercialization

Ignite Innovation Acceleration

The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) at Cornell University is proud to announce the Ignite Innovation Acceleration program recipients for the 2022 Spring cycle. On this occasion, three projects were selected. The innovators will receive grant funding to perform a 12-month project that will help them advance their innovation to the next inflection point for potential licensing, startup formation, or industry partnerships.

The selecting committee formed by seasoned business leaders, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists chose the promising technologies for their lab to market potential and competitiveness.

The projects are:

  • Prototype Microwave Annealer

James Hwang, Research Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department, College of Engineering 

 Abrupt, stable, and high-density doping of semiconductors is critical to scaling transistors to the single-nanometer size. Dr. Hwang’s invention solves the problem of efficient and stable dopant activation in heavily doped semiconductor wafers with abrupt dopant profiles. Compared to conventional thermal annealing, microwave annealing can directly interact with the dopant with minimal lattice heating to prevent the broadening of the dopant profile and the formation of unstable dopant-defect clusters.

  • Scaled Surface Patterned Omniphobic Tiles (SPOTs) for Growth and Inhibition Assays

Nate Cira, Assistant Professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering

 Manual and robotic pipetting are common for manipulating liquid solutions. Still, these techniques suffer from several drawbacks, including high capital cost, ongoing consumable costs, and, for some machines, limitations on the minimum volumes. Dr. Cira’s invention represents a new class of liquid handling devices, termed Surface Patterned Omniphobic Tiles, that offers vast improvements in cost, consumables, time, and volume versus conventional liquid handling methods.

  • Reconfigurable Radios for High Volume1Integrated Applications

Alyssa Apsel, Professor and Director, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, College of Engineering

Professor Apsel has developed a flexible IP block configured to meet various standards, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, at multiple frequencies and data rates. This will make the production of radio components for wireless systems easy to implement across different end-users, at a low cost, and more reliable to produce.

Ignite Innovation Acceleration is one of the four signature programs under the umbrella of Ignite Cornell Research: Lab to Market. The program is open to proposals related to inventions from Ithaca, Geneva, or Cornell Tech campuses that have been disclosed to CTL.

Are you developing a breakthrough technology with potential for commercialization and are interested in this program? Visit Ignite’s website here for more information.

About Ignite Cornell Research: Lab to Market

Ignite: Cornell Research Lab to Market gap funding series is overseen and managed by Center for Technology Licensing, Cornell’s tech transfer office, and supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (“OVPRI”). Its purpose is to accelerate technology commercialization, venture creation and growth, and corporate collaboration, create training and career opportunities for students and researchers for entrepreneurship and advance Cornell innovation for societal impact and university mission. With major expansion in FY2022, funding level for the Ignite series has been increased to $3 million per year with ambitious goals to grow innovation pipeline for success and impact. The gap funding series is supported by the Provost’s office and a generous donation from Peggy J. Koenig ’78.

Contact
Lynda Inséqué
Senior Program Manager, Technology Initiatives & Outreach
CTL
lci2@cornell.edu

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Digital Media & Marketing
CTL
vbt6@cornell.edu