CREATE-X

Tech Visionary Chris Klaus Empowers Georgia Tech Grads to Launch Startups

admin — Fri, 02 May 2025 13:35:41 +0000

Tech Visionary Chris Klaus Empowers Georgia Tech Grads to Launch Startups admin Fri, 05/02/2025 - 09:35

In a bold move to ignite Atlanta's entrepreneurial spirit, renowned tech entrepreneur and Georgia Tech alumnus Christopher W. Klaus announced during his Georgia Tech Commencement address on Friday, May 2 that he will personally cover the incorporation costs for any graduating student aspiring to launch a startup. "This is about more than just covering fees — it’s about lighting a spark,” said Klaus. “Every founder needs someone to believe in them early. Through this gift, we’re offering that belief and giving graduates the chance to start building with purpose and confidence.” Klaus is a driving force in Atlanta’s tech and startup community. While still a student at Georgia Tech, he founded Internet Security Systems, which went public and was later acquired by IBM for nearly $2 billion. Today, he leads Fusen, a startup accelerator that connects students with founders, mentors, investors, and early-stage funding to launch new ventures. In 2000, Klaus donated $15 million to help create Georgia Tech’s Christopher W. Klaus Advanced Computing Building, an innovation hub at the Institute. He also co-founded CREATE-X, Tech’s flagship entrepreneurship program, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 and has launched over 500 student startups. “We invited Chris Klaus to speak at Commencement because he embodies the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that has defined Georgia Tech for 140 years,” said President Ángel Cabrera, who will also bestow an honorary Ph.D. on Klaus during the ceremony. “Through his groundbreaking work, his message, and now his generous gift to this semester’s graduates, Chris continues to inspire a new generation to lead with imagination and creativity.” Klaus' commitment complements Atlanta's broader efforts to foster a robust tech ecosystem and aligns with Mayor Andre Dickens' ambitious goal of positioning Atlanta as a top five U.S. tech hub. Achieving this status necessitates the creation of approximately 2,000 startups annually by 2027 to attract significant venture capital, generate employment, and solidify the city's standing as a premier innovation center. "Chris Klaus' generosity and vision will help further Atlanta's position as one of the country’s leading tech hubs," said Mayor Dickens. "His support for emerging entrepreneurs exemplifies our city’s group project and what is needed to equip the next generation of job creators for success."

Summary sentence

Summary

Christopher W. Klaus, a renowned tech entrepreneur and Georgia Tech alumnus, announced during his Commencement address that he will personally cover the incorporation costs for any graduating student aspiring to launch a startup, aiming to ignite Atlanta's entrepreneurial spirit. His commitment complements Atlanta's broader efforts to foster a robust tech ecosystem and aligns with Mayor Andre Dickens' goal of positioning Atlanta as a top five U.S. tech hub.

Dateline

Fri, 05/02/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

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Georgia Tech Media Relations

Institute Communications

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Keywords

Christopher W. Klaus

Georgia Tech

Commencement address

incorporation costs

graduating student

startup

entrepreneurial spirit

Internet Security Systems

Fusen

Christopher W. Klaus Advanced Computing Building

CREATE-X

Atlanta tech ecosystem

Mayor Andre Dickens

top U.S. tech hub

yellow jackets

ramblin' wreck

Tech Square

innovation hub

Georgia Tech Research Institute

GTRI

News room topics

Business and Economic Development

Campus and Community

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Institute and Campus

Mercury ID

682185

Source updated

Fri, 05/02/2025 - 09:34

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream

dgivens8 — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:25:41 +0000

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream dgivens8 Fri, 03/28/2025 - 11:25

While Idea to Prototype (I2P) students gear up to demonstrate their innovations during this spring’s I2P Showcase, let's revisit the fall showcase with last semester’s third-place winning team, SuperStream.

Founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, SuperStream addresses companies’ audience engagement problem by enabling video previews through shared URLs.

Q&A With SuperStream's Sole Founder, John Wright Stanly

What made you want to pursue this idea?
Stanly: I did a startup three years ago, and we failed miserably. While doing that, I was trying to build in-house and share videos through links. I realized that nothing currently on the internet that I could find was actually solving this issue. Basically, the standard around sharing videos and links is very complicated, and we simplify that process for companies. Even though it's very small and particular, I wanted to be the first person that would solve this problem.

What surprised you about the I2P process?
I did I2P last semester, and I've already pivoted once in the idea. I don’t have all the answers. I’m just starting, and I think it's really cool that a course like this exists at George Tech, where you can be supported and figure things out in the first stages, maybe in three months.

What was your favorite part of I2P?

I think it's the meetups. We get to see what everyone else is working on.

What was the most challenging part of I2P?
I think the most challenging part was being a solo entrepreneur. Honestly, just finding the time in my day.

What advice would you give to other students considering entrepreneurship?
I think entrepreneurship is not as scary as it seems. We're really lucky that we go to a university where it’s supported. I think that Georgia Tech students take it for granted how enriched the ecosystem is here. My friends at other schools don't really have the same support. So, when you go to a school that is as supportive as that, I think you should totally take the leap of faith.

Want to be part of the next wave of technological advancements? Register for the Spring 2025 I2P Showcase to see our latest cohort of I2P inventors and their prototypes. The event takes place April 21, 5 p.m., in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium.

For those interested in taking I2P, course registration opens for the summer and fall semesters on April 14. The I2P course offers undergraduate students research credit, up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses, faculty mentorship, and the opportunity to compete in the I2P Showcase. Winners receive golden tickets to CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program, a summer accelerator that provides $5,000 in optional seed funding; $150,000 in in-kind services (including accounting and legal support); mentorship; entrepreneurial education; and more. Winners also advance directly to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize, a faculty-led innovation competition.

The I2P course opens three times a year: in the spring, summer, and fall. Both undergraduate and graduate students can take the course, and undergraduate students can take it up two times. For more information, visit the I2P program website.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

SuperStream, founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, won third place in last semester's Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase by tackling the challenge of audience engagement through video previews via shared URLs.

Summary

SuperStream, founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, won third place in last semester's Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase. SuperStream tackles the challenge of audience engagement by enabling video previews through shared URLs. Stanly's journey began with a failed startup, which inspired him to simplify the process of sharing videos and links.

Dateline

Fri, 03/28/2025 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

SuperStream

John-Wright Stanly

Computer Science

audience engagement

video previews

shared URLs

startup

Idea to Prototype Showcase

Georgia Tech

entrepreneurship

research credit

material reimbursement

faculty mentorship

I2P course

technological advancements

CREATE-X

startup launch

accelerator

seed funding

in-kind services

mentorship

entrepreneurial education

InVenture Prize

Competition

founders

Categories

Business

Exhibitions

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

681429

Source updated

Fri, 03/28/2025 - 11:25

College Expands Partnership with CREATE-X to Double Down on Entrepreneurship Curriculum

admin — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 01:20:41 +0000

College Expands Partnership with CREATE-X to Double Down on Entrepreneurship Curriculum admin Tue, 03/25/2025 - 21:20

Entrepreneurship is on the rise in the College of Computing, with student interest in startup-driven education hitting record highs.

To meet this demand, the College is doubling down on efforts to equip students with entrepreneurial skills, offering expanded course sections and deeper collaborations with CREATE-X. Faculty say the goal isn’t just to produce startups—it’s to teach students how to identify and tackle meaningful problems, a skill that’s increasingly vital in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Entrepreneurial Capstone Growth Through Cross-College CollaboratiThe College’s entrepreneurial capstone more than doubled in size within the same academic year, growing from 55 students in Fall 2023 to 126 this semester. Enrollment in the CREATE-X entrepreneurial capstone surged by 14% this semester, continuing its steady growth since launching in 2018. What began with just nine students has now expanded to 126 participants eager to transform their ideas into real-world ventures.

This growth can be traced back to the collaborative roots of the CREATE-X Capstone. In 2018, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Olufisayo Omojokun partnered with Mechanical Engineering Professor Craig Forest to co-teach the Institute's first multi-college capstone section.

This allowed engineering and computing students to work together in a dynamic learning environment.

"Right away, we saw how powerful this combination of engineers and computer scientists working together was. The College of Computing has always been a willing and eager partner to try experiments and boldly move toward this future direction. Every step of the way, they've risen to the challenge," Forest said.

Preparing Problem Seekers, Not Just Problem Solvers

This jump represents the College’s emphasis on creating the next generation of problem solvers who are also problem seekers.

“It’s not just about finding solutions but identifying the problems that must be solved. This emphasis is more important than ever given the changing landscape of computing,” Omojokun said.

He points to AI and automation as key drivers of this shift. While launching startups is an exciting outcome, the deeper focus is on preparing students for a future where the definition of a software engineer may evolve and the number of traditional roles in the market could shift. With the power of computing, students who can identify meaningful problems are better equipped than ever to solve them—often with fewer resources and smaller teams.

“Can our College lead in graduating such multifaceted students who know how to fix things and what to look for? Embedding entrepreneurship into our non-elective courses gives us that opportunity,” Omojokun said.

Building Confidence Through Entrepreneurship

While some students may go on to continue their projects after the course, others might revisit them after graduation, driven by personal motivation or market opportunities. Many will enter the workforce and, perhaps years later, draw on the confidence they built through this capstone to forge their paths in entrepreneurship.

“It’s not necessarily about launching the most successful startups right now. It’s about giving students the confidence to try—and even fail—while the stakes are low,” Omojokun said.

“Whether they pursue entrepreneurship immediately or later in their careers, my hope is that the confidence from this course sticks with them if they ever choose to do something different and forge their path.”

Inside the CREATE-X Capstone Experience

SCI faculty members Aaron Hillegass, Dan Forsyth, and Jennifer Whitlow co-mentor the College’s entrepreneurial capstone course. Whitlow describes the course as a hands-on, problem-driven environment where students are encouraged to tackle scalable, global challenges.

“We’re trying to treat it like a venture studio would work,” said Whitlow, who is familiar with executing such a model from her leadership role at a startup accelerator. “The first part of the class is focused on identifying scalable real-world problems and understanding actual pain points through customer discovery.”

Whitlow and Hillegass have startup experience and unique perspectives that they share with students. These insights help students understand the entrepreneurial process of identifying problems, designing solutions, and building products.

"This is the only course at Georgia Tech where they go from zero to 100. By the end of the semester, students have developed something entirely from scratch, giving them a unique skill set that sets them apart from their peers," said Whitlow, a Georgia Tech computational media alumna.

Based on enrollment growth this Spring, the College offered students the option to choose between the course’s two sections. Computing students seeking to work with engineering students on solutions incorporating hardware and software elements signed up for the multidisciplinary section. Students exclusively interested in software chose the section dedicated to software-based solutions.

Hillegass, who recently sold a midsized software company and spent years at different startups before his academic career, is mentoring thirteen software-only teams.

“The software-focused section gives me a chance to apply my knowledge and give students a perspective that can help them address the real-world challenges and opportunities specific to companies whose fate is determined primarily by software,” Hillegass said.

Forsyth, who has many years of industry experience building large software system, says the following about the process of guiding students through the problem finding phase of the course:

“The problem-finding phase requires balancing a passion for solving particular problems with the realities of customer preferences, technical limitations, team strengths, and financial sustainability. This phase is often the most challenging because teams must navigate ambitious ideas, practical constraints, and customer needs while making tough, objective decisions," he said.

"I can't make choices for them, and the future is uncertain, but I can challenge them with hard questions to determine whether they can make reasonable assumptions that plot a path to success. I see myself as a colleague to the students—offering my advice based on experience while also having the privilege of helping them tackle problems I've never encountered before. Watching bright, passionate students break through barriers to achieve their goals is incredibly rewarding.”

A Launchpad for Future Innovators

Unlike traditional capstone projects with predefined requirements, Computing’s entrepreneurial capstone course gives students full ownership of their ideas. Students finish with a product to showcase in job applications or with the foundation for a startup. They can pursue opportunities like CREATE-X Startup Launch or the Klaus Startup Challenge, with the added advantage of owning their intellectual property.

"It’s really the launching pad to additional opportunities to turn it into a business. Even if they fail, they’ve learned, pivoted, and now have a new place to launch from," Whitlow said.

Continuing the Momentum

With the continued success and growth of the CREATE-X Capstone, Omojokun is committed to sustaining this momentum and expanding the program further, especially given the endorsement of CREATE-X Director Rahul Saxena. He says this will require collaboration from more people, including experienced entrepreneurs from Atlanta’s vibrant ecosystem.

Interested in participating in or learning more about the College of Computing’s CREATE-X Capstone? Contact Omojokun at omojokun@cc.gatech.edu to explore opportunities for involvement.

Summary sentence

Entrepreneurship is on the rise in the College of Computing, with student interest in startup-driven education hitting record highs.

Summary

Entrepreneurship is on the rise in the College of Computing, with student interest in startup-driven education hitting record highs.

Dateline

Mon, 02/17/2025 - 12:00

emily.smith@cc.gatech.edu

Associated importer

Keywords

College of Computing

college of engineering

CREATE-X

CREATE-X Capstone

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Alumni

Business

Education

Engineering

Student and Faculty

Mercury ID

680538

Source updated

Tue, 03/25/2025 - 21:19

Leading the Charge in Additive Manufacturing: Team Convexity

dgivens8 — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 18:02:47 +0000

Leading the Charge in Additive Manufacturing: Team Convexity dgivens8 Mon, 03/03/2025 - 13:02

On April 21 at 5 p.m. in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium, dozens of teams will present prototypes at the Spring 2025 Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase. They will be vying for a chance to get a golden ticket in CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program, which gives participants $5,000 in optional seed funding and $150,000 in in-kind services like accounting and legal services, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education, among other benefits.

The I2P course, where these students develop their prototypes, offers research credit for undergraduate students up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses and faculty mentorship. It’s open three times a year, in the spring, summer, and fall. Both undergraduate and graduate students can take the course, and students can take it up two times.

Convexity Electronics finished in second place at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase. The company delivers smaller, faster, and more cost-effective circuit boards compared to traditional lithography-based methods. We delved into the team’s journey, challenges, and aspirations in this exclusive Q&A with one of its founders, Calla Scotch.

Q&A with Team Convexity's Calla Scotch

Team Members:

Calla Scotch, Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering

Atharva Lele, Sophomore, Engineering

Anuj Pandey, Junior, Mechanical Engineering

Why did you pursue your startup?

It’s so complex. There are so many routes, and it's so new in terms of how many people are working on it. One day I woke up and couldn't stop thinking about it, then I couldn't sleep about it, and then I couldn't stop working on it. It was one of those things where I couldn't stop.

Traditionally, circuit boards — the stuff that's in your phones, computers, cameras, cars, everything — are made entirely subtractively. You have your block of material and cut away the stuff you don't want. It's a well-thought-out manufacturing process, but it's mostly very expensive and very slow. The materials and electronics manufacturing industry hasn't changed in about 30 years because it's been optimized as much as it can be.

What is your goal with Convexity?

To take that subtractive process and, instead of doing that, build the same circuits additively. I'm working on 3D printing the insulative base material, then 3D printing the conductive material, then using an electrical process to take those conductive materials and convert them into copper. And then doing layer after layer after layer to make the same circuits that someone in a subtractive process would do.

If you have traditional manufacturing, it takes about two weeks to ship from China, and it takes about a week to make a lab. My goal would be to make them in about five hours and then courier them over the same day. You don't need a big serial manufacturing facility if someone needs 6,000 boards. You don't have 6,000 printers in one room; all your printers are connected to the cloud. You could even go from 2D electronics to three-dimensional electronics. We just want to make more, smaller, faster, and cheaper than traditional manufacturing.

What surprised you about I2P?
How much time it took out of my day and how much I didn't want to do as much homework anymore. It made me want to focus all of my time on this and on how many different avenues there were to do what I wanted to do. I probably went through 30 different iterations of completely different scientific topics. I think because of how many options there were and how crazy scientifically advanced each of them was, it is what keeps me going.

What was your favorite part about I2P?

I did I2P for two semesters, and the best thing about it is getting to work on your own project and your own research for class credit.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?

Sifting through all the research and development that has gone into this field. Electronics manufacturing has been around for a long time, and there's a lot of research and patents to work through and build on. I feel like I spent half my time coming up with ideas and the other half building the physical printer.

What would you say to students who are interested in entrepreneurship?
I can't tell you how much I've learned just by doing. Outside of that, talk to people. Just go out and talk to people. Ask people questions. Have your problem and get their input and insight on it, because how we make smart decisions and make startups that people want is by asking people what they want.

Cheer on Convexity as they pitch their prototype at the final round of the InVenture Prize, on March 12, at 7:30p.m., in the Ferst Theater of Arts. During this competition, the largest of its kind in the nation, a panel of celebrity judges and experts in science, technology, and venture capital will judge undergraduate teams competing for $35,000, including $5,000 for the People’s Choice award. Through audience voting, you get to advance the projects you support. Request your free InVenture Prize tickets today.

Want to be part of the next wave of technological advancements? Register for the Spring 2025 I2P Showcase to see our latest cohort of I2P inventors and their prototypes. Consider joining I2P for Summer or Fall 2025. For more information, visit the I2P program website.

Summary sentence

Convexity finished second in the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase and will now compete in the InVenture Prize for a chance to win $35,000.

Summary

Convexity Electronics, founded by Georgia Tech students Calla Scotch, Atharva Lele, and Anuj Pandey, aims to revolutionize circuit board manufacturing by using additive processes instead of traditional subtractive methods. Their approach involves 3D printing insulative and conductive materials to create faster, smaller, and more cost-effective circuit boards. The team has faced challenges in research and development but remains driven by their passion for innovation. Convexity finished second in the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase and will compete in the InVenture Prize for a chance to win $35,000.

Dateline

Mon, 03/03/2025 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

I2P Showcase

CREATE-X

startup launch

prototypes

entrepreneurial education

research credit

Convexity Electronics

InVenture Prize

innovation

startup

Competition

entrepreneurship

prototype development

go-commercializationnews

Categories

Business

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

680848

Source updated

Mon, 03/03/2025 - 13:02

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase

dgivens8 — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 21:49:37 +0000

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase dgivens8 Wed, 01/08/2025 - 16:49

Two teams tied for Best Overall projects of the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase. Over two hours, 49 teams displayed prototypes that they developed over the semester to hundreds of attendees, while judges circulated the room. The showcase is the last event of their Idea-to-Prototype (I2P) course, where Georgia Tech students earn research credit (for undergraduate students only), receive up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses, and build a working product with faculty mentorship. The course is held in the spring, summer, and fall. Graduate students can also take the course, and student can take it up two times.

As a part of the showcase, the winning team, or teams in this case, also receive a golden ticket into the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator, Startup Launch. This program provides founders with $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services like accounting and legal services, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education, among other benefits. At the end of that experience, startup teams can present their products to investors and industry partners at Demo Day, which attracts over a thousand attendees each year.

Additionally, winners of the showcase advance directly to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize, a faculty-led innovation competition for undergraduate students and recent BS graduates of Georgia Tech.

This semester, the first place teams were Allez Go and Soul. Team Allez Go’s founders, Adam Kulikowski and Jason Mo, created a real-time visualization system for fencing blades using infrared light and reflectors to accurately track positions during a bout. Team Soul, made up of Ashraf Mansour, Benjamin Wilson, and Michal Gregus, developed fitness-tracking soles and shoes, combining the functions of a smart scale, a workout tracker, and a diet tracker into a singular device.

Second place was awarded to Team Convexity Electronics, consisting of Calla Scotch, Levi Bloch, and Phi Cai. Convexity Electronics produces 3D-printed circuit boards that aim to be smaller, faster, and cheaper than lithography-based circuitry.

Team SuperStream, made up of solo-preneur John-Wright Stanly, took home third place. SuperStream adds video previews to URLs to increase engagement.

Read our Q&A with Team Allez Go and Soul below, and stay tuned for our interviews with the other winning teams!

Q&As

Team AllezGo

Adam Kulikowski, Sophomores, Computer Science

Jason Mo, Sophomores, Computer Science

Why did you pursue your startup?
Kulikowski: We're both fencers. I've been fencing for 10 years, and Jason's been fencing close to 10 as well. So, fencing as a sport is really hard to view for non-fencers, and so the idea that we wanted to do is use visualizations, animations, and replays in a similar way that other kinds of sport visualization companies did.

What was the I2P course like for you all?
Mo: So, this prototype actually started over the summer. I was in Startup Lab and just did a study abroad program. During that class, they mentioned that I2P is a great opportunity, and I had this prototype already in the works.

What surprised you about I2P?

Mo: I2P was very generous with funding; we never had any issues with using up our $500. It was just really helpful because our prototype was pretty heavy hardware.

What was your favorite part about I2P?
Mo: Our weekly meetings with Aaron Hillegass, our mentor, were always very, very insightful. I just shot him an email for I2P, hoping that we could work together on this. Sometimes we would talk about prototypes or updates. He had some really good insights, but our mentor also has a lot of industry experience and a lot of experience with his own startups. It was really fun to just ask him general questions and career advice. He was always very responsive, very supportive for us.

Kulikowski: In addition, I really liked seeing the iterations each week. I think the weekly updates kept us accountable to do at least one small thing every week. So, it was cool to see how the ideas slowly started to formulate each week, small steps and small progresses.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?
Mo: There's a lot of technical challenges. One of the things we did this semester is we changed from a 30 frames per second (FPS) camera to a camera that shoots at 120 FPS. And with that, we could detect a lot more processing power. The camera that we're using is only limited to Windows. I've been using a very old laptop, and that's sort of been a bit problematic when we're trying to do very compute intensive tasks.

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?
Kulikowski: There are a lot of people that came by our booth, and a lot of them were freshmen students. Every one of them we told, “If you have an idea, if you're really passionate about something, I2P is a fantastic opportunity.” This semester, with the hands-off approach, really felt like you could just work on this idea, and everything was there to support you working on it. That was fantastic because it's we could take full advantage of the time, the resources, and truly flesh out this idea. I really love the support we had and how we had the bonding with the other students.

Team Soul

Ashraf Mansour, Senior, Computer Science

Benjamin Wilson, Junior, Computer Science

Michal Gregus, Junior, Physics and Electrical Engineering

What’s the thought behind the name?
Mansour: We're kind of bringing life through our electronics, back into the shoe, and building a better fitness tracker and a more holistic picture of human health.

What was the showcase like for your team?
Wilson: It was a little nerve wracking. I have full faith in our ideas and concepts, but I feel personally like we still have a long way to go for our project. I’m still satisfied with where we are now, but we never really anticipated that we we're going to win anything.

Mansour: The showcase made me realize how much faster all this moves, even compared to my expectations. We came in with a very basic prototype that we wanted to improve on, but I think the potential was enough to sell the judges in this case. Now we have a big responsibility to deliver on that potential.

What was your favorite thing about I2P Showcase?

Mansour: It really reminds you how much of a tech hub Georgia Tech really is. Seeing how entrepreneurship boosts in real time, especially at the early stages, is something that’s really awe inspiring.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?

Mansour: There are a lot of unique engineering challenges with the product that we’re building, some we anticipated and others we didn’t, but I think that speaks to the true soul of engineering. That adaptability and sense of problem solving is really important.

Wilson: I’m very grateful to have the other people that were involved in this project for brainstorming and making the design better.

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?

Wilson: I definitely would encourage anyone that wants to pursue their own startup or has a new idea to just start. It’s far more efficient and far more rewarding to put your ideas out there and try. You’ll learn a lot more through that process of failing than you will contemplating.

A photo gallery from the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase can be viewed on the CREATE-X Flickr page.

CREATE-X is now accepting applications for the summer and fall semesters of the I2P course, and applications for their summer accelerator, Startup Launch. The deadline for I2P applications for Summer 2025 is May 12. The deadline for Startup Launch applications is March 19, 2025. For questions, please email create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

Summary sentence

Allez Go and Soul tied for Best Overall projects at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase, earning spots in the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator and advancing to the InVenture Prize semifinals.

Summary

Two teams, Allez Go and Soul, tied for Best Overall projects at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase, where 49 teams displayed their semester-long prototypes. The winners receive a golden ticket to the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator and advance to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize. Allez Go developed a real-time visualization system for fencing blades, while Soul created fitness-tracking soles and shoes. Second and third places went to Convexity Electronics and SuperStream, respectively.

Dateline

Wed, 01/08/2025 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

I2P Showcase

Georgia Tech

Best Overall projects

Allez Go

soul

CREATE-X

startup launch

InVenture Prize

prototypes

student innovation

entrepreneurship

Fencing visualization

Fitness-tracking shoes

Convexity Electronics

SuperStream

startups

Categories

Exhibitions

Special Events and Guest Speakers

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

679323

Source updated

Wed, 01/08/2025 - 16:47

Iterating Better Therapy Support: Electrosuit

dgivens8 — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 14:24:41 +0000

Iterating Better Therapy Support: Electrosuit dgivens8 Fri, 07/19/2024 - 10:24

CREATE-X is built to help students integrate entrepreneurship into their academic journey through courses, workshops, and a startup accelerator. This spring, a new set of students displayed their solutions to real-world problems at the I2P Showcase. It’s our privilege to shine a light on and celebrate those journeys. Today’s spotlight focuses on the spring I2P Showcase third-place winners.

Electrosuit

Aubrey Hall, a first-year biomedical student, and Sherya Chakraborty, a first-year computer science major, founded a startup to produce a garment that eases the use of at-home, prescribed electrical stimulation for people with chronic pain, stroke, and motor impairments.

What made you interested in building this solution?

“I did research at Northwestern for a couple of years before this, and some of the patients I worked with had severe stroke and spasticity in their arms,” Chakraborty said. “I found out that when they tried using at-home prescribed electrical stimulation, they had trouble setting it off themselves. So, we created a garment to ease pressure on that.”

What part of the course was most helpful to you?

“One of our mentors, Sun Mi Park, was the first person to patent printable wires on fabric, and that gave us some inspiration to make our garment even more compact, easier to use, and integrate some interesting ideas that we wouldn’t have been able to without our mentors. So, our mentors are honestly the best part of the program,” Chakraborty said.

“For me, you don’t get a lot of chances to apply these engineering courses outside of the classroom,” said Hall. “This course is a really interesting way to get firsthand experience building a prototype and really understand the engineering process.”

What’s so special about CREATE-X?

“I think these student projects are the future, and a lot of these projects make it out of college and become actual companies. Giving students that possibility to make a change just from a simple idea and fueling that with funding so we don’t have to take risks out of our own pockets is a, really big deal,” Chakraborty said.

“It’s helpful to have that safety net, knowing that you have your mentors to back you, and also the people of the program to back you. It brings a lot of security and opportunity to try different things out and not have to be so fearful of failure. Even if you fail a million times, you can get back up and try again,” Hall said.

What’s the best insight you’ve gained from doing this?

“I think one big misconception is that entrepreneurship has a lot to do with finance and business and just lucrative ideas, but it’s pretty important to understand that you can solve a seemingly everyday problem,” said Chakraborty. “If it affects you or your friends, it’s still worth trying to find a way to solve it, especially backed up with money and mentors from CREATE-X. What’s the harm in trying something out?”

“Don’t try to make it feel like it’s an all-or-nothing project,” Hall said. “You’re allowed to live your life as a college student but also pursue these interesting ideas and figure out if you enjoy entrepreneurship. It shouldn’t be this daunting task where if you don’t put everything in, you’re going to fail.”

“It’s also important to keep an open mind. We might come in with an idea and a very specific way of executing that idea, but we found out through talking with mentors, and with other students and people who gave us advice, that sometimes the idea you come in with is not going to be the same thing you end up with,” Chakraborty said.

Next Steps

“We’ve only done four or five prototypes so far,” she noted. “We want to do at least 12 of those prototypes and keep working with our mentors, keep making connections at Emory, and just constantly getting more and more feedback about our prototypes until we get to a state where we’re satisfied, and we can demo our product and work with physical therapists across Atlanta.”

If you’re a student interested in building your own product for college credit, apply for I2P. And join us for Demo Day, Aug. 29, at 5 p.m., in the Georgia Tech Exhibition Hall to see new CREATE-X founders launch products in a variety of industries. Tickets are free but limited. Register today to secure your spot.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

Electrosuit, a startup by Aubrey Hall and Sherya Chakraborty, secured third place in the Spring 2024 I2P Showcase, and their product, a garment for at-home electrical stimulation, targets individuals with chronic pain or motor impairments.

Summary

Electrosuit, a startup founded by first-year students Aubrey Hall and Sherya Chakraborty, won third place in the Spring 2024 I2P Showcase. Their product aims to develop a garment to facilitate at-home electrical stimulation for individuals with chronic pain or motor impairments. The founders speak about common misconceptions around entrepreneurship, pressure, and being open to feedback in a Q&A.

Dateline

Fri, 08/02/2024 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

female founders

entrepreneurship

startup

Business

CREATE-X

founders

Competition

Categories

Business

Community

Exhibitions

Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

675523

Source updated

Fri, 07/19/2024 - 10:24

CREATE-X: A Decade of Success

dgivens8 — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:32:37 +0000

CREATE-X: A Decade of Success dgivens8 Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:32

“People often say entrepreneurs are born, not made,” said Rahul Saxena, ME 1997, director of Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X program. “But we are showing that you can make them.”

CREATE-X, Georgia Tech’s initiative to promote entrepreneurial confidence in students and empower them to launch successful startups, celebrates 10 years of success this year. The mission of CREATE-X is to provide students with resources, coaching, and funding so that they develop the entrepreneurial confidence — the boldness — necessary to create real-world impact. Beginning with a cohort of 12 startup teams in the 2014-15 academic year, CREATE-X now produces more than 100 student-led ventures each year.

“Philanthropy has been the underpinning upon which CREATE-X was built, and it would not have been successful otherwise,” said Steve McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and CREATE-X co-founder. “CREATE-X is itself a startup, and we always said it should have to raise money and prove its value, just like the companies that come through the program.”

In the decade since its launch, CREATE-X has more than proven its value. To date, more than 17,000 students from across 38 majors have participated, and their companies have exceeded $2 billion in total valuation.

The idea for CREATE-X arose from a question posed to McLaughlin by a student team that had just won the InVenture Prize, Georgia Tech’s innovation competition: “What do we do next?”

McLaughlin realized that while Tech armed students with an exceptional education, it had not provided the infrastructure necessary for students to take their ideas to the marketplace.

According to CREATE-X co-founder and former director Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar, who now serves as Georgia Tech’s vice president of Commercialization, “The original vision was to enable our students to create their own jobs and create their own futures.” To that end, Sivakumar and McLaughlin along with others, including fellow faculty at the time Ray Vito and Ravi Bellamkonda, piloted a program in 2014 that laid the foundation for what was to become CREATE-X. Startup Summer, as it was then called, saw eight student teams launch their startups.

Startup Summer served as proof of concept, but it needed funding to take it to the next level. Tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Chris Klaus, Class of 1996, made a significant investment after seeing the fruits of the pilot project, the start of several gifts to the program.

Klaus was the first of several generous donors. “CREATE-X would not have been born without Chris Klaus’ original contribution,” Sivakumar said, “and it wouldn’t have gotten to the scale it is right now without Bernie Marcus.” The Marcus Foundation, Sivakumar noted, has directed essential funding to sustain and expand the program.

In addition to financial support, CREATE-X needed to bring on additional faculty to meet the growing demand for its sequence of courses. After conversations with McLaughlin about the vision for CREATE-X, James G. “Jim” Pope, EE 1965, and his wife Dee established the Pope Faculty Fellows initiative to support four early-career professors to teach and mentor the program’s budding entrepreneurs. After an initial outright commitment in 2019, the couple permanently endowed the faculty fellows the following year and increased the number of fellows to six.

For the Popes, it was the institutional alignment that convinced them to support CREATE-X. “Significant change does not happen without serious leadership at the top, and everyone at Georgia Tech, from the top down, was committed to making entrepreneurship a priority going forward,” said Jim.

But as some student-led companies began demonstrating early success and attracting venture capital, Michael E. Tennenbaum, IE 1958, HON Ph.D. 2016, sought a way to help the founders maintain their upward trajectory. In 2022 and in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Foundation, Tennenbaum established the Tennenbaum Family Investment Fund to invest in promising CREATE-X startups. After recouping its initial outlay, all earnings are deposited into the fund to support even more startups. The fund is a mechanism to help perpetuate the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Tech and Atlanta more broadly.

“We are now starting to see this ripple effect of Georgia Tech startups inspiring and helping other ventures succeed,” said Seth Radman, ME 2017. Since participating in CREATE-X, Radman has founded four startups and sold two of his companies. He has remained engaged with the program by coaching current students. “A lot of Atlanta startups have Georgia Tech connections somewhere. And we are beginning to see angel investments coming in from Georgia Tech founders. I have even written a few checks myself.”

For Klaus, one of the joys of supporting CREATE-X over the last decade is watching the network of Yellow Jacket entrepreneurs grow. “We are reproducing this every day with more and more founders and building a huge community of CREATE-X alums,” he said. “That piece is the multiplier. It begins to compound.”

A few of the notable startups that have come out of the program include supply chain logistics company Stord; habit-change app Reframe; online, project-based high school Sora; digital business card startup dot.card; and maker of automated beverage dispensing technology Sidework.

Another long-term success story is FIXD, the thriving auto diagnostic company that was launched by three Tech undergraduates from CREATE-X’s very first cohort. “CREATE-X is an amazing pipeline for the Atlanta tech ecosystem, not just because of the startups it helps launch but also because of the entrepreneurial talent it generates,” said John Gattuso, ME 2015, FIXD co-founder and CEO. “We have hired multiple CREATE-X founders, and they are some of our most valuable employees.”

Saxena, who came on board as an associate director in 2019 before taking the helm as director in 2023, sees the effects of the program beyond Atlanta. “Georgia Tech was already a top school, and it is increasingly getting national attention for the volume of students graduating with entrepreneurial experience,” he said.

With its rapid growth and success, CREATE-X is ahead of schedule. “Our original goal was to be the No. 1 startup campus in America by 2027,” Sivakumar said, “and in terms of the number of startups launched by students, we are already No. 1.” And other universities across the nation are taking note.

“CREATE-X is awakening the spirit of entrepreneurship in our younger generation at Georgia Tech,” said Bernie Marcus. “The Marcus Foundation is proud to support CREATE-X to grow and inspire a revolution of entrepreneurship on campuses across the country.”

“We are living in the best time ever to be in technology,” Klaus said. For Georgia Tech students, Klaus advises, “Go spend one summer betting on yourself. It’s probably the best bet you can ever make.”

John Lanza, EE 1987, M.S. EE 1988, a partner at the law firm Foley Hoag, has provided pro bono legal counsel to student founders since the launch of CREATE-X. He sees the program as a watershed moment in the Institute’s history. “People are going to look back at CREATE-X and say that this program was part of a transformation that propelled Georgia Tech to change the world.”

To make a gift to CREATE-X, contact Executive Director of Campaign Operations and Institute Strategic Priorities Meagan Burton-Krieger.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech's CREATE-X program, bolstered by generous philanthropic support, celebrates 10 years of building entrepreneurial confidence in students.

Summary

Georgia Tech's innovative CREATE-X program celebrates 10 years of building entrepreneurial confidence in students. CREATE-X has grown from a cohort of 12 student-led startups to more than 100 each year and over $2B in total valuation, making Georgia Tech one of the top entrepreneurial campuses in the country. And at every step along the way, generous philanthropical support helped make the program a success.

Dateline

Mon, 06/10/2024 - 12:00

justin.horton@dev.gatech.edu

Keywords

CREATE-X

gt-commercialization

innovation

alumni entrepreneurs

alumni philanthropy

philanthropy

Philanthropy at Tech

billionaire philanthropy

Campaign

CREATE-X; startups; entrepreneurship; business; exhibition; showcase; tech

Categories

Alumni

Campaign Stories

Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

675072

Source updated

Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:31

Students Win Klaus Startup Challenge, Dive into $5B Market with AI-driven Teaching Tool

dgivens8 — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:57:39 +0000

Students Win Klaus Startup Challenge, Dive into $5B Market with AI-driven Teaching Tool dgivens8 Tue, 04/30/2024 - 10:57

A student startup company that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to teach individuals the latest programming languages has earned a potential seven-figure initial valuation.

As winners of the 2024 Klaus Startup Challenge at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, the founders of InstructAI have been offered $100,000 in seed funding for a 10% equity stake in their company. If the team accepts the offer, the valuation of the company would be $1,000,000.

The investment offer is from Fusen, a nonprofit organization founded by philanthropist and Georgia Tech alumnus Christopher W. Klaus in 2022 to empower student entrepreneurs.

InstructAI is an AI-powered tutoring platform offering customized lessons in NumPy Basics, Python Data Structures, React, and other coding and programming resources. The platform lets users tailor courses based on their schedule, skill level, and learning objectives.

The team, computer science (CS) majors and entrepreneurs Arnav Chintawar, Dhruv Roongta, and Sahibpreet Singh, says online programming instruction is a $5 billion global business opportunity.

However, its research finds that current learning models for self-instruction are ineffective and that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for most students.

“Our surveys revealed that only 10% of students successfully learn programming from YouTube while other online platforms have a completion rate between 20 to 30%,” says Roongta.

“Nearly 80% of students complain about a lack of guidance and help on other platforms.”

InstructAI has a student completion rate of 62%. It achieves this by offering a personalized learning experience with an AI-based instructor available 24 hours daily for guidance and review. The platform features self-adaptive content for students, which the founders call “automated pill-sized course generation.”

“Our platform ensures that students learn from real-world coding tasks that challenge them to apply what they have learned while reinforcing their knowledge and building their skill sets,” said Roongta.

The InstructAI team sees opportunities for its platform in business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets. It personalizes introductory programming courses, including Georgia Tech’s CS 1301: Intro to Computing, for individual students. It can also help prepare students for internships with leading tech companies.

The platform’s ability to generate courses of varying lengths and skill levels, coupled with an AI-powered teaching assistant, makes InstructAI ideal for universities and other school systems.

“We also think it’s a great way for businesses to upskill their employees through customized courses. InstructAI could help to bring new employees up to speed quickly on the latest programming languages,” said Roongta.

He adds that the team is seeking feedback from its customers and prospects so they can continue to update and improve the product.

“In the short term, we aim to sell to more educational institutions and businesses so they can create better courses. In the long term, our goal is to create the best method to learn programming,” said Roongta.

Winning the Klaus Startup Challenge was not the team’s first taste of entrepreneurial success.

The team won multiple awards, including Best Hack for Health, Best Use of Zilliz, and Best Use of GitHub at Cal Hacks 10.0, a hackathon organized by a University of California Berkeley student group. The team won for JARVIS, an AI-powered app that empowers visually impaired people to lead more independent lives.

Summary sentence

These CS majors are best friends and have won several top prizes in student entrepreneurial competitions.

Summary

Three CS majors have earned a $100,000 investment offer for winning the 2024 Klaus Startup Challenge, an annual student entrepreneurial competition sponsored each year by the College of Computing, for its AI-powered programming tutorial platform, InstructAI.

Dateline

Tue, 04/30/2024 - 12:00

Contact

Ben Snedeker, Communications Manager
Georgia Tech College of Computing

albert.snedeker@cc.gatech.edu

Associated importer

Keywords

Daily Digest

Georgia Tech News Center

CREATE-X

CREATE-X; computer science

Christopher Klaus

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

674438

Source updated

Tue, 04/30/2024 - 10:55

Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon

dgivens8 — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:23:41 +0000

Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon dgivens8 Fri, 03/22/2024 - 11:23

Students tackled climate change in the Fall 2023 Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) /Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) Global Health Hackathon, Nov. 11, at Tech Square ATL Social. Competing for cash prizes and a spot in GT Startup Launch, first place went to Team iManhole. The team created an integrated system that gathers real-time data from manholes and uses machine learning algorithms to predict flooding to manage traffic and evacuation routes.

“The effects of climate change are felt in every country with the brunt and burden of an unmanaged climate crises threatening to set back global health progress by eroding decades of poverty eradication and health equity efforts worldwide,” said Dr. Rebecca Martin, EGHI director of Emory Global Health Institute. “Students are an important partner in our work as a global community to mitigate the impacts of climate change on health, safety, and security.”

The EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon is a partner event between EGHI and CREATE-X. It provides multidisciplinary student teams from Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology an opportunity to create technology-based product solutions for global health problems. The target for this fall’s event was creating solutions that address urban flooding, urban heat, or global sea level rise in densely populated, low-resource urban settings. Prizes included $4,000 and a golden ticket into CREATE-X Startup Launch for first place winners, $3,000 for second place winners, $2,000 for third place winners, and $500 each for two honorable mention winners.

“This hackathon continues to be a wonderful partnership between our two institutions that gives these talented students the platform and support to put forward solutions to the most pressing issues we face today,” Rahul Saxena, director of CREATE-X, said. “Each hackathon, I’m increasingly impressed with their ingenuity and their dedication to build something of impact.”

Check out the event program on the EGHI website and see photos from the event on the CREATE-X Flickr account. The full list of the winners of this year’s event includes:

1st Place: iManhole

An integrated system that gathers real-time data from manholes and uses machine learning algorithms to predict flooding to manage traffic and evacuation routes

Team Members: Imran Shah, Leonardo Molinari, and Jiaqi Yang

2nd Place: Canopy

A climate-tech software platform for democratizing climate analytics using machine learning for urban development planning.

Team Members: Deesha Panchal, Kruthik Ravikanti, Vaibhav Mishra, Nicholas Swanson, Jennifer Samuel, and Vaishnavi Sanjeev

3rd Place: Floodwise

A package of effective simulations and an informed chatbot that help facilitate wise decisions during floods.

Team Members: Ansh Gupta, Dimi Deju, Mukund Chidambaram, and Sahit Mamidipaka

Honorable Mention

Conquering Heat Islands

Process and hardware that uses excess solar power to mine crypto

Team Members: Rida Akbar, DJ Louis, Edward Zheng, Dmitri Kalinin, and Jade Bondy

Real-Time Computational Modeling of Urban Flooding and Evacuation in Local Atlanta Communities

Integrated system to gather real-time data from manholes and use machine learning algorithms to predict flooding and optimize traffic/evacuation.

Team Members: Imran Shah, Leonardo Molinari, and Jiaqi Yang

Subtitle

Summary sentence

Students tackled climate change in the Fall 2023 Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) /Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) Global Health Hackathon, Nov. 11, at Tech Square ATL Social.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 12/07/2023 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Keywords

Hackathon

entrepreneurship

startup

CREATE-X

Business

sustainability

climate change

Competition

EGHI

Emory

Categories

Business

Environment

Exhibitions

Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

671463

Source updated

Fri, 03/22/2024 - 11:22

Fall 2023 I2P Showcase Teams Debut Prototypes

dgivens8 — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:49:20 +0000

Fall 2023 I2P Showcase Teams Debut Prototypes dgivens8 Wed, 03/20/2024 - 12:49

Over 40 student teams showcased products at the Fall 2023 I2P Showcase. The event was the final piece of the Idea-to-Prototype (I2P) course, a CREATE-X Make class where both undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to advance an invention idea toward a real product by performing basic research, analysis, building, and testing. Teams accepted into I2P receive a $500 reimbursement for physical expenses, course credit (undergraduate students only), and mentorship from a Georgia Tech faculty member.

The winners for this semester’s competition include:

1st Place: NueroChamp

2nd Place: QTACK

3rd Place: BloodSight.AI

Q&A With the Winning Teams

Team BloodSight.AI

A personalized AI medical application enhancing insight by providing analytics-driven reports for patients and physicians featuring medical insights such as vulnerabilities to diseases and lifestyle recommendations based on current blood work.

Founder: Adhira Choudhury, computer science, undergraduate student

How has CREATE-X helped you?

Working with CREATE-X, I had the privilege of being mentored by Melissa Heffner [co-director of Female Founders]. From my first Idea-to-Prototype experience as a freshman last fall, Melissa has been an invaluable guide. She has not only helped me brainstorm and refine my ideas but also supported me in understanding the intricate process of transforming a product concept into a viable startup.

What made you pursue entrepreneurship?

Since I was a kid, I’ve been interested in the intersection between business and computer science. To me, entrepreneurship is a gateway to the intersection by leveraging technology to solve people-centric issues. And at the end of the day, I want to know I've had a true impact on the world.

What was the best interaction you had at I2P?

I got to have a one-on-one with a physician at the showcase, which helped provide invaluable insights to BloodSight.AI. It was incredible to get end-user feedback on the spot.

What should students know about I2P or entrepreneurship?

Don’t give up. I did this exact program as a first-year student in the Fall 2022 Idea-to-Prototype program and learned firsthand the power of hands-on experience. Working live on a prototype doesn't just spark ideas; it reveals the precise steps needed to evolve them into a minimum viable product.

Entrepreneurship is within reach—just a leap of faith away. At Georgia Tech, you're never alone. There's always a community ready to support and guide you through the journey of idea creation.

QTACK

Developing intuitive and affordable analytics solutions for logistics companies, empowering them to compete effectively without the need for in-house data science expertise.

Founders: Pranav Devarinti, undergraduate student, computer science; William “Bryce” Pardo, undergraduate student, computer science

What made you all pursue entrepreneurship?

Devarinti: We both have extensive backgrounds in data science and a shared interest in entrepreneurship. My interest came from my mom, who has her own business.

How did you learn about CREATE-X?

Pardo: For me, it was Demo Day during freshman year. Looking at all the different companies there, I was so amazed. I started talking to founders, figuring out how they got started, and one recommended the Klaus Startup Challenge. In the spring, I participated and then took Startup Lab over the summer, which is where I met Pranav, my partner.

We’re so thankful for our mentor Greg Mihalik. He’s been such a huge help.

What was the best advice you received in I2P?

Pardo: How to negotiate a deal, or how to convert them from people you’re working with to people who are paying, and also how to discover that product market fit. The advice he gave us was to cast a wide net. He advised working with companies in different areas, and then narrowing in on where we could provide the most value.

What was your biggest take away?

Pardo: Go to a lot of these events, at least to I2P Showcase. You don’t know what can come of it.

What should students know about I2P or entrepreneurship?

Pardo: A lot of it has to be very self-driven. You need to be able to motivate yourself to do the work. You won’t have someone to tell you to do all these things. Some people will tell you what you should do, but you need to be the one to take the initiative and do it.

Devarinti: With a lot of things in life, you put in X amount of effort and get Y amount of return. However, especially with startup stuff, you can put in a ton of effort, and get nothing in return, and other times you work for half a day, and things work out. You have to keep going. It’s not fair, but it’s fun.

NueroChamp

A concealed and comfortable non-invasive EEG monitoring device for effective long-term pediatric seizure detection to improve the quality and health of children with epilepsy.

Founders: Caitlin Van Zyl, undergraduate, biomedical engineering; Jacqueline “Jacqui” Van Zyl, undergraduate student, mechanical engineering; and, Meg Weaver, undergraduate student biomedical engineering

What was the best interaction you had at I2P?

Caitlin Van Zyl: One of the first [people who] came up to us was a chemical researcher, and he was just looking at our project. He loved it. He was giving us a bunch of other applications where we could apply our device for epileptic seizures.

What made you all pursue entrepreneurship?

Caitlin Van Zyl: We joined Tech knowing that we would want to do entrepreneurship and CREATE-X was the biggest entrepreneurship program on campus. I’ve been loving all of this mentorship with other teams and getting to see all these cool projects. Professor [Craig] Forest has been an incredible mentor and energizer. Seeing his passion brought out this attitude of We Can Do It.

Jacqui Van Zyl: I’m a huge researcher, and over the years I’ve recognized the real way to have an impact is being able to translate research into practical prototypes.

Meg Weaver: Being a student at Tech and working on projects and completing internships, I’ve seen where there can be gaps in the medical device field. There’s so much research to be done, and so having the opportunity to be a part of that and moving it forward is exciting.

What was your biggest take away?

Jacqui Van Zyl: Being able to iteratively prototype and being OK with failing, being OK with people coming back and saying, "That’s flawed” — that’s been a good experience for learning.

Caitlin Van Zyl: We’ve been under the mentorship of doctors. It kind of blew my mind how excited they were about our technology and how willing they were to advance it.

What should students know about I2P or entrepreneurship?

Meg Weaver: Go for it! Do I2P, at least to start learning the process. It’s going to be a great experience to learn what goes all into this.

Jacqui Van Zyl: It’s more than OK to fail and have these sets backs. You don’t really have a robust product or a successful product until you have quite a few failures, and I think that’s something that people should embrace.

Caitlin Van Zyl: No idea is too small. Any idea, take it and go into I2P, and see how it goes. One semester can mean so much.

Applications for I2P are accepted each semester and are now open for Spring 2024.

This semester’s winners earned a golden ticket to directly advance to the semifinal round of the Inventure Prize, an innovation competition for undergraduate students. The top team also earned a spot in the 2024 GT Startup Launch program, a 12-week summer accelerator that takes startups from the idea to market stage.

Interested in building your own startup to solve real-world problems while you’re still in college? Apply for GT Startup Launch today an get the support you need to make a viable product. Applications close March 19,2024.

Summary sentence

CREATE-X hosted its fall I2P Showcase, highlighting 40 student teams with products they made during the semester.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 12/07/2023 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Associated importer

Keywords

showcase

entrepreneurship

startups

Business

exhibition

i2p

idea to prototype

CREATE-X

Categories

Business

Exhibitions

Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Mercury ID

671466

Source updated

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 12:49

CREATE-X

Tech Visionary Chris Klaus Empowers Georgia Tech Grads to Launch Startups

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream

Q&A With SuperStream's Sole Founder, John Wright Stanly

Related links

Keywords

Categories

College Expands Partnership with CREATE-X to Double Down on Entrepreneurship Curriculum

Preparing Problem Seekers, Not Just Problem Solvers

Building Confidence Through Entrepreneurship

Inside the CREATE-X Capstone Experience

A Launchpad for Future Innovators

Continuing the Momentum

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Leading the Charge in Additive Manufacturing: Team Convexity

Q&A with Team Convexity's Calla Scotch

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase

Q&As

Team AllezGo

Team Soul

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Iterating Better Therapy Support: Electrosuit

Electrosuit

What made you interested in building this solution?

What part of the course was most helpful to you?

What’s so special about CREATE-X?

What’s the best insight you’ve gained from doing this?

Next Steps

Related links

Keywords

Categories

CREATE-X: A Decade of Success

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Students Win Klaus Startup Challenge, Dive into $5B Market with AI-driven Teaching Tool

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Fall 2023 I2P Showcase Teams Debut Prototypes

Team BloodSight.AI

QTACK

NueroChamp

Keywords

Categories