Biomedical engineering undergraduate students participated in the Longhorn Startup Program's Demo Day on December 5 at the LBJ Auditorium.
Biomedical engineering undergraduate students participated in the Longhorn Startup Program's Demo Day on December 5 at the LBJ Auditorium.
The event featured entrepreneur, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank-er Mark Cuban, RetailMeNot CEO Cotter Cunningham and presentations by 14 UT Austin student startups, including two full teams of biomedical engineering undergraduates.
Teams presented their business idea to an audience of nearly 1000 and were able to network with entrepreneurs and experts.
The MicroMulsion team consists of biomedical engineering undergraduates Suraj Makhija, Nishu Mehta, Daniel Min, and Anirudh Sharma. They're working on a functionalized microgel that increases the half life of growth factors in cell cultures. Their microgel adds efficiency to scientific research by increasing the viability of cell cultures used in experiments.
Ashvin Bashyam, Zi-on Cheung, George Netscher, and Emmanuel Nuñez make up the startup Austin Thermal. Their product is a thermal regulation device for hyperthermia prevention and recovery. Hyperthermia can be an issue during surgeries and Austin Thermal's device, an IV fluid warmer that uses copper wire and electricity to heat the body, improves on existing devices in its accuracy, portability, and faster initialization time.
Other biomedical engineering students who participated included Vincent Liao, Lindsey Renken, and Jane Vinogradova whose startup Aurality Studios is working on an interface software for multiple new platforms for people who, due to injury or illness, have limited use of their limbs and/or difficulties with fine motor control of their fingers and want to interact with everyday technologies.
Demo Day is a culmination of the semester Longhorn Startup Lab class taught by Cockrell School professor of innovation and Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe, Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ben Dyer and Capital Founder Josh Baer. The lab focuses on the business side of new technology. Team members of MicroMulsion and Austin Thermal have used the Biomedical Engineering Senior Design lab to work on the design and engineering of their product prototypes.
Both teams have plans to turn their ideas into startup realities. MicroMulsion is in the process gathering more data to ensure their product works and will follow up with a marketing plan. Austin Thermal is working with Texas Medical Accelerator on a commercialization plan to have a new prototype tested and assembled with the ultimate goal of seeking regulatory approval.
View a Storify of the Dec. 5 Longhorn Startup Demo Day.
View photos from the event by the Center for Lifelong Engineering Education.
