2019 Chat and Chew Focuses on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
March 12, 2019
by Manish Kumar and Christina Moazed
A special Chat and Chew event focused on innovation and entrepreneurship hosted by the Women in Engineering Science Technology and Math (WEST-M) took place in Makerspace at Tandon. Professor Jin Montclare started by talking about the Convergence of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Institute at NYU. She shared all the programs the CIE Institute supports starting with the Pre-Capstone Innovation course open to undergrads, followed by the Capstone Competition to be held this May for all seniors at Tandon. Information about the upcoming 2019 Summer Sprints was also presented. The e-Inclusion Network was highlighted as a group of informal advisors that support women and other students from traditionally underrepresented groups on their journey in STEM and entrepreneurship.
Above: Professor Jin Montclare, Director of the Convergence for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Institute
Afterwards, four alumni of the summer I-Corps, summer and J-term startup Sprint supported by the CIE Institute came up to share their experiences about the program and their ventures. The panel consisted of Deniz Vurmas (Tandon, CBE PhD student) founder of Digistrips a provider of digitized home use test for quick diagnosis of urinary tract infection, who participated in the 2018 Summer Startup Sprint, Daniela Blanco (Tandon, CBE PhD student) co-founder of Sunthetics, developer of an emission-free precursor for nylon, creating a platform for green reactions within the chemical industry, who is an alumni of the 2018 J-Sprint, Andrew Olsen (Tandon, CBE PhD student) co-founder of Brooklyn BioScience, which focuses on detoxifying pesticides in an environmentally friendly way and participant of the first 2017 Summer I-Corps, and Jonas Guenther (Tandon, MS Technology Management 2018) founder of We are the New Farmers, which is an urban farm growing sustainable produce for specialty markets lacking year-round local supply and alumni of the 2018 Summer Sprint.
Above (left to right): Deniz Vurmaz (Digistrips), Daniela Blanco (Sunthetics), Andrew Olsen (Brooklyn BioScience), Jonas Guenther (We are the New Farmers)
Deniz Vurmaz of Digistrips discussed her goal to be a bridge between academia and industry. She shared her experience working on renewable energy projects and was awarded the NYU Green Grant and an award from the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). Daniela Blanco of Sunthetics described her focus in the areas of electrochemistry and clean energy. Her participation in the J-term Startup Sprint, 300K Competition, and InnoVention Competition helped her grow as an entrepreneur. Andrew Olsen described how Brooklyn BioScience was focused on creating a low-cost and ecologically friendly enzyme for the remediation and detoxification of a class of common pesticides for farmers, vintners, and waste management companies. After participating in the summer I-Corps program, his team received a PowerBridge New York award in the amount of $150,000. Jonas Guenther of We are the New Farmers talked about how the startup got its start at NYU Tandon with a group of students in 2016. The team developed a prototype of a fully enclosed tabletop environment that could house 20 plants. The project’s goal is to promote community engagement and sustainability. A refrigerator-sized prototype was housed in the Tandon MakerSpace. They continue to innovate and through participation in 2018 Summer Sprint and the Summer Launchpad, realized he needed to pivot, leading the company to focus on Spirulina. The team also engaged in multiple entrepreneurship competitions and received several grants, including a $20,000 NYU Green grant.
Above: Lise Hanssen talks about Mei Messaging, the first-ever messaging app with a built-in relationship AI
Finally, Lise Hanssen shared her experience with starting the Mei app and some of its key features. Mei, a message app that includes artificial intelligence (AI) designed to help with texting relationships. The app analyzes existing relationships and is capable of detecting personality, mood, and behavior over time.