Entrepreneurship
From July 2023 to June 2024, CU Boulder helped to launch 35 new companies based on research at the university—a big tick up from the previous record of 20 companies in fiscal year 2021. Two of these startups were spun by ME professors Chunmei Ban and Gregory Whiting. Take a look at how our faculty are using discoveries from the lab to make a difference in peoples’ lives.
Watch Jacob Segil, CEO of Afference and research professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, showcase a new piece of haptic technology in an episode of Freethink's Hard Reset docuseries that will "redraw the borders of reality."
Research Professor Jacob Segil is also the CEO of Boulder startup Afference. The company traveled to Las Vegas for this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to showcase what's being called "the new frontier" of spatial computing: a neural haptic ring that allows users to feel something even when touching nothing.
In a study conducted by Assistant Teaching Professor James Harper and his consultation company Realize Research, LLC, it was found that regions where heavy storms and floods are more prevalent cause households in those areas to stop using and maintaining their toilets. Toilet dysfunction is a huge source of pollution, can increase the burden on water treatment systems and is a major risk of human health.
Greg Rieker, associate professor of mechanical engineering and co-founder of LongPath Technologies, gathered with others on the CU Boulder campus to celebrate a $162.4 million loan package from the U.S. Department of Energy. The loan will help Rieker and LongPath expand methane detection using laser-based quantum devices that scan the atmosphere in real time.
Five of the winning teams include students or faculty from the Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. LVC grants are funded by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade Advanced Industries Program, as well as Venture Partners at CU Boulder and the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund.
Embark aims to connect business minds outside the university with breakthrough inventions emerging from CU Boulder’s research labs to bring them to market and unleash the full impact of CU Boulder’s research into the world.
The Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator matches business minds outside the university with breakthrough inventions created within its walls—and provide those ventures with funding.
The Engineering Partnership Program was recently awarded a VentureWell Grant that will help make innovation and entrepreneurship a key feature of the program, which allows students to earn a CU Boulder degree while living and going to school in Gunnison, CO.
When Connor Winter (MechEngr’16) decided to pursue a Certificate in Engineering Management in conjunction with his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, it put him on a path that would lead to the founding of his own startup company, ShoeSense.