In 2010, the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute collaborated with the W.R. Berkley Innovation Lab to create the third track of the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge: The NYU Technology Venture Competition (TVC). We created the TVC to support students, faculty and researchers from across all NYU schools and colleges in their efforts to commercialize their inventions/research and to create new startup ventures. In recent years, winning teams have included Oculogica (School of Medicine), Physiclo (School of Medicine), Ephemeral Tattoos (Tandon School of Engineering), Redesign Science (Graduate School of Arts & Science), Geopipe (Courant Institute), among others.

Entrants to this year’s competition drew faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and researchers from 12 NYU schools/colleges including Courant, Steinhardt, CUSP, Tandon, CAS, Wagner, Dentistry, Gallatin, Liberal Studies, GSAS, Tisch, and Medicine/Langone Health. In recent years, the winners have received prize money of up to $100,000!

This past Friday, the 15 quarter-finalists pitched to a panel of distinguished judges from leading venture capital funds in NYC including Flybridge Capital, FirstMark Capital, Rough Draft Ventures, Lux Capital, Amzak Health, Digitalis Ventures, Techstars, Primary Venture Partners, Osage University Partners, and RRE Ventures.

Each team was afforded six minutes to deliver their pitch, and then 15 minutes for questions and feedback from the judges. After extensive deliberations, the judges have selected the following nine teams as semi-finalists in the 2017-18 $100,000 NYU TVC:

• Deepmagic: Deepmagic is redefining mobile commerce and physical retail by using AI in retail operations to enhance the customer experience, prevent shrinkage, facilitate omni-channel operations, and enable autonomous stores. (Davi Geiger, Courant faculty)
• DeepSense: An AI-enabled sensor that listens to manufacturing machinery and automatically identifies malfunctions, providing early alert and optimized maintenance scheduling. (Juan Bello, Steinhardt/Tandon faculty; Charlie Mydlarz, CUSP/Steinhardt postdoc; Justin Salamon, CUSP/Steinhardt postdoc)
• Mighty Motors: A new type of electric motor to facilitate the world’s transition to electrical energy. (Nader Ahmed, Tandon ‘19; Anna Kotyza, Gallatin ‘19)
• MRTechnologies: A new diagnostic tool for blood cancers that quickly and effectively identifies complex biomarkers, resulting in faster, more precise and more detailed results. (Bud Mishra, Courant faculty; Jason Reed, Courant PhD ‘98)
• Multicorder Science: An educational platform to teach experimental sciences such as biology, physics, and chemistry at the K-12 levels by offering both a hardware sensor at the companion desktop, smartphone, or web application. (Shiva Duraisamy, Tandon ‘18; Theodore Kim, Tandon ‘20)
• qMind: A device that will track brain activity during meditation, provide guidance and feedback, and connect with others to improve mental well-being. (Dino Dvorak, GSAS postdoc; Andre Fention, GSAS faculty)
• Rezonn Biosystems: A portable fiber-optic biosensor for high-throughput screening of drug candidates, diagnosis of infectious diseases, and academic research in biology, biochemistry, and medicine. (Min Dai, Tandon PhD ‘13; Natalie Luo, Tandon postdoc; Iwao Teraoka, Tandon faculty)
• Sunthetics: Making the fashion industry green by manufacturing nylon using environmentally safe techniques. (Daniela Blanco, Tandon PhD ‘21; Kyle Ireland, Tandon ‘18; Miguel Modestino, Tandon faculty; Myriam Sbeiti, Tandon ‘18)
• Sympal: Developing a new class of clear orthodontic aligners that are not only invisible but also allergen-free and infused with antimicrobial and cavity-preventing properties. (John Capozzolo, Tandon ‘20; Cheryl Shao, Dentistry DDS ‘18/Tisch ‘09; Cindy Wong, Tandon ‘17)

Over the next four months, all teams will participate in additional bootcamps, workshops, coaching, and practice presentations as they continue to validate and develop their business models, culminating on the semi-final judging on Friday, April 6, 2018 in front of a new panel of venture capital investor judges.