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Rice College has introduced its newest cohort of fellows who intention to translate analysis into real-world startups.
The 2024 cohort of Rice Innovation Fellows is the third of its form for the reason that college’s Workplace of Innovation and The Liu Thought Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (or Lilie) launched this system in 2022. The group contains 10 Ph.D. and postdoctoral college students working in engineering and supplies science fields.
This system supplies customized mentorship and as much as $20,000 equity-free funding.
In keeping with Lilie, the ten members of the 2024 cohort are:
- Barclay Jumet, a Ph.D. candidate within the division of mechanical engineering, working underneath Dan Preston and specializing in mechanics, thermal programs and wearable applied sciences. InnovationMap coated his latest know-how right here.
- Tianshu Zhai, a Ph.D. scholar finding out supplies science specializing in hexagonal boron nitride-based thermal interface supplies
- Zachary Kingston, a postdoctoral analysis affiliate and lab supervisor for the Kavraki Lab within the Pc Science division at Rice, working underneath the path of Dr. Lydia Kavraki, a pioneer within the discipline of robotic movement planning. Kingston is growing a novel method to high-performance, low-cost robotic movement planning with Wil Thomason.
- Soobin Cho, a Ph.D. scholar and co-founder of Duromem, which created the Twin-Function Electrically Conductive Membrane to enhance current water remedy programs
- Sara Abouelniaj, a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Nanoengineering and founding father of Graphene Grids LLC, which is exploring alternatives to diversify its vary of grid sorts providers provided
- Alisha Menon, is founding a medical machine startup that’s growing wi-fi, AI-enabled affected person monitoring units for infants within the NICU. Her work is being performed in collaboration with the Texas Medical Heart and Rice, with help from NSF and the Southwest Pediatric Machine Consortium.
- Wil Thomason, a CRA Computing Innovation postdoctoral fellow within the Kavraki Lab at Rice College who’s growing low-cost robotic movement planning with Kingston
- Jeremy Daum, a Ph.D. candidate at Rice within the Supplies Science division engaged on a a novel manufacturing technique to create photocatalysts
- Jonathan Montes, a Ph.D. candidate in Bioengineering centered on combating neurodegenerative illnesses with extremely selective neuromodulation
- Andrew (AJ) Walters, a Ph.D. scholar in Bioengineering working within the labs of Dr. Caleb Bashor (Rice) and Dr. Scott Olson (UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical College) who’s constructing an accessible allogeneic cell remedy to deal with irritation issues and probably most cancers. He was awarded a three-year NSF Graduate Analysis Fellowship in 2022. During the last three years, Innovation Fellows have introduced in additional than $6 million in funding for his or her ventures, in keeping with Rice.
Final yr, the cohort of 10 included doctoral and postdoctoral college students working in fields from bioengineering and chemistry to civil and environmental engineering.
Late final yr, Lilie additionally introduced its new entrepreneurship council often known as Lilie’s Management Council. The group is made up of 11 profitable enterprise leaders with ties to Houston from the likes of co-founder Frank Liu to former Houston Mayor Annise Parker and several other different CEOs and board members of profitable firms. The council members agreed to donate money and time to the college’s entrepreneurship packages.
