McGinnis Venture Competition Final Round Celebration
The McGinnis Venture Competition, a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon University's community of student entrepreneurs, brings together Carnegie Mellon's best and brightest student entrepreneurs to compete for $60K in investments.
Help cheer the final round teams to victory by attending our in person event.
The McGinnis Venture Competition is made possible by a generous endowment from Gerald E. McGinnis, founder of Respironics.
Congratulations to our 2022 winners!
Graduate Division
First Place: NiFTy is a platform for blockchain based games where gamers can access games and buy, sell or trade their in-game assets as NFTs. Team members include Pranjal Chavarkar, Adithiyajothiram L and Kyle Snyder.
Graduate Division
Second Place: Advanced Optronics is developing flexible, biocompatible electronic and optical systems to enable smarter, less invasive surgery for a variety of medical applications. Their first product provides real-time feedback to reduce surgical trauma during cochlear implant surgery. Team members include Jay Reddy and Ruth Segall.
Graduate Division
Third Place: E-Carebetics is an AI-Powered Diagnostic Solution on Mobile Device for Diabetic Retinopathy. Team members include Bingda Li, Devansh Parikh and Mukunthan Tharmakulasingam.
Undergraduate Division
First Place: Flurry's tagline is never slide on slick roads again. Team members include Miguel Brandao, Jack Winters and Steven Wu.
Undergraduate Division
Second Place: BAM! Bottle is for those everyday moments where you need a little BAM! The team includes Kaitlyn Chow.
The McGinnis Venture Competition is made possible by a generous endowment from Gerald E. McGinnis, founder of Respironics.
Thank you to our patrons!
Schedule of Events
Undergraduate Team Pitches
Undergraduate Teams: 5 min pitch and 5 min Q&A
2 min break between presentations
| 1:00 p.m. | BAM! Bottle |
| 1:12 p.m. | Flurry |
| 1:24 p.m. | Mycelium |
| 1:34 p.m. | Judges Deliberation Undergraduate Teams |
Graduate Team Pitches
Graduate Teams: 7 min pitch and 6 min Q&A
2 min break between presentations
| 2:05 p.m. | Acuity Dx |
| 2:20 p.m. | Advanced Optronics, LLC |
| 2:35 p.m. | Agni |
| 2:50 p.m. | BAS |
| 3:05 p.m. | Castle Applied Science |
| 3:18 p.m. | 10 Minute Break |
| 3:28 p.m. | Cerebral Aneurysm Test 7 (CAT – 7) |
| 3:43 p.m. | E-Carebetics |
| 3:58 p.m. | FlowCellutions |
| 4:13 p.m. | ImageRx |
| 4:28 p.m. | IndiVisual |
| 4:43 p.m | NiFTY |
| 5:00 p.m. | Judges Deliberation Graduate Teams |
Networking Reception + Awards Ceremony
5:30 - 7:00 p.m. EST
Join us as we announce the winners of the 2022 McGinnis Venture Competition.
Awards to be announced between 6:10 - 6:30 p.m. EST.
2022 Final Round Teams
Acuity Diagnostics, Inc.
Graduate Track
Glenn Gershon, Syd Finkelstein, Yongxin (Leon) Zhao and Feifei Fu
Acuity Diagnostics, Inc, a clinical diagnostic laboratory startup, has developed a platform technology that brings together tissue expansion, cellular visual fluorescent imaging and deep learning to extract more clinically actionable information and cellular biology understanding from
pathology specimens.
Acuity extends pathologist view from the microscopic to the nanoscale level delivering improved diagnosis, treatment response response prediction and superior healthcare outcomes with major economic savings.
Advanced Optronics, LLC
Graduate Track
Jay Reddy and Ruth Segall
Advanced Optronics is developing flexible, biocompatible electronic and optical systems to enable smarter, less invasive surgery for a variety of medical applications. Their first product provides real-time feedback to reduce surgical trauma during cochlear implant surgery.
Agni
Graduate Track
Manish Agnihotri, Aditya Rathod and Karthik Ganesan
AI-driven Contract Review.
BAM! Bottle
Undergraduate Track
Kaitlyn Chow
For those everyday moments where you need a little BAM!
BAS
Graduate Track
Shashank Sripad, Prof. Venkat Viswanathan, Alexander Bills and Dr. Valentin Sulzer
Powering the future of electric aviation.
Castle Applied Science
Graduate Track
James Howard and Joshua Nowak
Castle is building the only advanced water treatment appliance with cloud-connected 24/7 quality monitoring. Through ease-of-use and value-affirming feedback we encourage good user practices, improve health with better water quality and empower every person with the knowledge that their water is safe.
Cerebral Aneurysm Test 7 (CAT-7)
Graduate Track
Aditya M. Mittal, Kamil W. Nowicki, Ali Alattar and Robert M. Friedlander
CAT-7 is a blood-based diagnostic test that uses a combination of seven different cytokines to provide a yes/no answer if you have an aneurysm, provides risk stratification and probability of rupture if an aneurysm is detected. This test avoids the risks and invasiveness of traditional diagnostic imaging for cerebral aneurysms.
E-Carebetics
Graduate Track
Bingda Li, Devansh Parikh and Mukunthan Tharmakulasingam
An AI-Powered Diagnostic Solution on Mobile Device for Diabetic Retinopathy.
FlowCellutions
Graduate Track
Salem Elmisurati, Maya Bhat, Becca Segel and Priscilla Prem
Shovel for the Battery Materials Gold Rush.
Flurry
Undergraduate Track
Miguel Brandao, Jack Winters and Steven Wu
Never slide on slick roads again.
ImageRx
Graduate Track
Sage Betko, Anish Salvi and Prahlad G. Menon
A Novel Platform for Rare Disease Discovery and Characterization.
Mycelium
Undergraduate Track
Coleman Isner, Melina Castillo, Khushi Wadhwa, Malcolm Ehlers and Jason Perez
Mycelium creates constant connection without constant attention. Their intelligent system functions like a digital chief of staff that enables users to focus on the conversations that matter while it handles the rest.
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