Agenda:

9:00AM: Doors Open & Breakfast
​9:30AM: Welcome & Opening Remarks

​9:45AM: Keynote Fireside Chat with Wayne Mackey, PhD (GSAS ’16), Founder and CEO of Statespace (Aimlabs)

Wayne Mackey, PhD (GSAS ’16), founder & CEO of Statespace (Aimlabs)

Bio: Wayne Mackey, PhD is the founder & CEO of Statespace, a platform which provides tools, analytics, and training for both casual and professional gamers to maximize their potential by leveraging neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Statespace has successfully raised over $100M in VC funding to date. Their first product, Aimlabs, has over 50 million players. Mackey received his B.A. in Psychology from Temple University and his PhD in Cognition and Perception from NYU. His scientific work focuses on how the brain supports flexible behavior and decision-making, and he has published several peer-reviewed articles on human cognitive, perceptual, and motor abilities. His most recent work focuses on creating a new computational framework for short-term memory in both humans and machines. Mackey has won multiple awards and fellowships from various institutions, including NYU, the National Science Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.

10:45AM: Panel on Leveraging Your Scientific/Clinical Expertise to Solve Unmet Needs for Societal Impact

Panelists:

Nyamitse-Calvin Mahinda (Tandon ’23), Co-Founder & CEO of Vital Audio

Bio: Nyamitse-Calvin Mahinda is the co-founder & CEO of Vital Audio, a company reshaping remote health monitoring through AI-driven vocal biomarkers. Vital Audio’s proprietary over-the-counter (OTC) software captures vital signs — including heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and rhythm regularity — through a simple voice recording, making advanced health monitoring more accessible than ever. Mahinda’s journey in healthcare spans over a decade, beginning as a first responder before advancing into clinical research and management. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the Mobile Integrated Care team from its infancy at Cityblock Health, building in-home care systems to deliver essential medical services at scale.

​Gregory Lemberskiy, PhD, (Grossman ’19), Co-Founder & CEO of MICSI

Bio: Gregory Lemberskiy earned his PhD in Biomedical Imaging from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is the co-founder and CEO of MICSI, an NYU spinoff backed by Y Combinator. MICSI’s flagship product, MICSI-RMT, is an FDA-cleared software-as-a-medical device that enhances MRI image quality, enabling shorter scan times and improving performance on lower-end MRI systems. By refining image acquisition and processing, MICSI aims to expand MRI’s diagnostic capabilities, providing deeper insights into the cellular microenvironment for earlier and more precise interventions.

​Prabodh Panindre, PhD, (Tandon Faculty), Scientific Advisor for Novel AI

Bio: Prabodh Panindre, PhD, from the Mechanical Engineering Department at NYU Tandon, serves as a scientific advisor for Novel AI — a startup founded by his students Tanmay Mandal and Praneeth Kumar. Over the past 18 years, Panindre’s Fire Research Group has received more than $8.5 million in research grants and conducted prominent fire prevention studies with major fire departments nationwide. Leveraging this extensive experience with the U.S. fire service, Panindre is enabling Novel AI to develop an innovative customized product to enhance the health and safety of firefighters and other first responders.

​Minh Tran, PhD, (Tandon ’23), Co-Founder & CTO of Heliotrope Photonics

​Bio: Minh Tran, PhD, is the co-founder & CTO of Heliotrope Photonics, a company pioneering innovative solar coatings to enhance panel efficiency. Originally from Vietnam, Minh pursued a PhD in Chemical Engineering at NYU Tandon, where her research led to the founding of Heliotrope. The company has won multiple awards, including 1st prize at DOE EnergyTech UP and the MassCEC DICES grant, while Minh was recognized as a 2024 Activate Fellow and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree for her contributions to solar innovation.

Moderator:

Azade Hosseini, PhD, Venture Associate, NYU Innovation Venture Fund

Bio: Azade Hosseini, PhD leads investments in life sciences and healthcare on behalf of the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, and provides startup coaching. Hosseini has worked in business development and operations for a number of venture-backed health and climate tech startups. Previously, she was Head of Business Development at the public-private accelerator Innouvo, where she built global innovation ecosystems, sourced deals for pharma companies, and helped scale >30 pre-seed to Series A stage startups. Prior to that, Hosseini was Senior Scientist at BioNTech (previously Neon Therapeutics). She completed her postdoctoral training at MIT, and earned her PhD in Chemistry from Boston College.

11:35AM: Lunch and Poster Session Featuring NYU Faculty’s Research Commercialization Projects

​12:35PM: NYU Startup Demo Day, featuring the NYU Technology Venture Accelerator teams pitching to VC investors.

Judges:

Parsa Amiri (Tandon ’23), Head of Outreach at IndieBio/SOSV

Bio: Parsa Amiri is Head of Outreach at IndieBio New York. Amiri contributes to sourcing and conducting due diligence for new investments at IndieBio NY, while also supporting cohort companies in shaping their business and fundraising strategies. Previously, Amiri led the Life Sciences track at Endless Frontier Labs at NYU Stern, where he collaborated with early-stage biotech startups, guiding them through fundraising, go-to-market, and regulatory strategies. His experience at NYU’s tech transfer office further honed his expertise in the commercialization of biomedical inventions, with a strong focus on intellectual property landscapes. Amiri holds a master’s degree in Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship from NYU Tandon and a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Tehran. He is passionate about connecting with founders and learning about their groundbreaking innovations.

Craig Wilson (Stern ’14), Venture Partner at Collaborative Fund

Bio: Craig Wilson is a Venture Partner at Collaborative Fund, a NYC-based fund backing entrepreneurs pushing the world forward. For 10 years, he was the Executive Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and a Managing Director at the Tandon Future Labs. Wilson was the founding CEO of the Climate Collective. He also co-founded a company called The Crop Project, a regenerative agricultural processing company focused on kelp.

Nahir Patel, MD, (CAS ’11), Founder of Kurbside Partners

Dr. Nihir Patel is the founder of Kurbside Partners, an intellectual capital firm that works with startups, venture firms, and investors to align clinical strategy with product development and commercialization. He advises ATOMS VC, a life sciences venture firm, and helped launch Elementa Labs, a healthcare and biotech accelerator at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. An NYU alum (CAS ’11), Dr. Patel brings a unique dual perspective as a practicing anesthesiologist and healthcare innovator — focused on building solutions that actually work in the real world.

​1:50PM: Best Pitch: Judges and Audience Choice Announcement & Closing Remarks

​2:00PM: Event Concludes