Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Texas A&M University:

The Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC) recently hosted 20 rising start-up companies from across Texas to compete for more than $450,000 in cash and prizes. After a rigorous process of presentations reviewed by panels of commercialization experts, a Houston-based company, Taurus Vascular, took home the grand prize.

The competition played out in multiple rounds, with six companies ultimately competing as finalists. Taurus Vascular, a pioneer in aortic aneurysm technology, is led by Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Kuhn. In the last 10 years, TNVC has awarded nearly $4M in prize money, with many participating businesses still thriving or having exited successfully, showcasing the event’s significant impact.

In addition to the prizes that we awarded, participating in TNVC offers valuable experience to start-up companies through its four-month long vetting, coaching, and competition process that provides insightful feedback to all applicants on both technical and business merit.

“As we celebrate the 10^th year of the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition, we recognize the significant economic impact these startups have across Texas and their worldwide societal contributions,” said Chris Scotti, TNVC Chair. “Looking ahead, we are excited to continue fostering innovation and supporting science and engineering-based companies that drive progress and create lasting change.”

From the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa:

The University is setting a new standard for artificial intelligence (AI) research and education with the opening of the Alabama Center for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (ALA-AI), housed within the College of Engineering. The new research center, recently approved by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, is supported in part through a $2 million donation in honor of Dr. Marvin A. Griffin, former Chair of the Department of Computer Science. It will unify new and existing work across campus, greatly expanding research, education, and outreach activities related to the development and application of artificial intelligence.

Serving as a pivotal hub for the study of AI’s core mechanisms and its myriad applications, ALA-AI will focus on five fundamental themes:

• Advancing the science of AI and its machine-learning methodologies;
• Promoting human-centered applications of AI that benefit society;
• Ensuring the ethical development, dissemination, and utilization of AI technologies;
• Cultivating a workforce and society that is proficient in AI through lifelong learning initiatives ; and
• Fostering a vibrant AI research and education community, nurturing unique collaborations between academia and industry.

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

Thanks to a student-led organization named Student-Made UNC, makers at the Chapel Hill institution are finding support for their efforts. The University was  one of the first five to join Student-Made, a national network of student-run businesses begun in 2019 and now active on 11 campuses.

The platform supports student entrepreneurs with systems to help with marketing, shipping, promotion, strategy and more. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Student-Made UNC also gets support from Innovate Carolina’s 1789 venture lab, with workshops, classes and networking opportunities.

A team of six student managers handles the website, social media, events, finance and strategy so creators can focus on making handcrafted fashions, jewelry, artwork, stickers, prints and other décor.

To learn more, click here.

From the Medical University of South Carolina:

There’s a unique program in Charleston, SC that encourages early-career women in science to become entrepreneurs, in part by reimagining what that means. Known as the Coaching & Resources for Entrepreneurial Women (CREW) program, its was founded in 2022 and is led by Carol Feghali-Bostwick, the Kitty Trask Holt Endowed Chair for Scleroderma Research at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is an entrepreneur herself, having identified an anti-fibrotic peptide that has been licensed by a company. More important, Feghali-Bostwick has experienced firsthand the challenges women entrepreneurs face.

“When I started on my entrepreneurship journey, I felt I was entering a black box. I had no training or background to guide me through the process,” she said. “The CREW program is designed to overcome this gap in knowledge for women. It leverages a unique combination of mentoring and professional coaching, which renders the mentoring more effective and positively impacts the participants professionally and personally.”

Click here to learn more.

From the University of Chicago:

Aspiring social entrepreneurs looking to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems face challenges every step of the way — from developing an idea to sourcing funding and beyond. A new course at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business is helping the next generation of social enterprise leaders hone the skills they need to successfully overcome these challenges.

In the Global Social Entrepreneurship Lab, students work with founders of social ventures on mission-critical projects, while designing and developing their own ventures at the same time.

“The aim is for students to first understand what most makes them ‘come alive’—what they feel their deeper purpose is,” says Andrew Leon Hanna, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Management. “Then, as they learn from and accelerate the impact of their partner social ventures, that inspires ideas for their own social entrepreneurship journeys.”

From the University of South Florida:

The University has partnered with the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) to acquire a powerful new remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can reach depths of up to 2.5 miles, allowing for exploration of some of the most remote areas of the ocean and the potential discovery of new species.

The vehicle, designed and built by Pelagic Research Services (PRS), will be housed aboard the Research Vessel Western Flyer, a 117-foot twin-hulled ship that was granted to the University of South Florida (USF) and FIO last year. Western Flyer is the most technologically advanced vessel in the FIO fleet and offers interdisciplinary research expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and Caribbean waters as well as transformative opportunities for students to explore the field of ocean science.

The ROV, which is named Taurus, is envisioned to be used in several different ways aboard the vessel, from conducting new research in deep-sea environments to programs that train the next generation of marine scientists to public education initiatives.

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