The Innovation Institute's Big Idea Center for student innovation and entrepreneurship recently concluded its annual Randall Family Big Idea Competition. This year's competition was interrupted by the pandemic in mid-stream, but the center's staff and the students forged ahead to complete it virtually and awarded the $100,000 in prize money on April 22. We caught up with Noah Pyles of the grand prize winning team, Polycarbin, to discuss how three medical school students became entrepreneurs and what their next steps are to bring to life their idea to reduce the amount of biomedical waste that ends up in landfills or incinerated.
The Pittsburgh region recently received a ray of sunshine amid the COVID-19 clouds when Innovation Works and partner Ernst & Young released their annual regional investment report and analysis. Innovation Works (IW) is part of the statewide network that provides seed investment and expert assistance. It also operates the AlphaLab and AlphaLab Gear startup accelerators. IW also interacts in numerous ways with the University of Pittsburgh as a mentor and partner for Pitt innovation projects as they mature and spin out of the University. The region set a new record for startup funding attracting nearly $3 billion in investment in 2019, a staggering 500 percent increase over the previous year. Although the number of startups funded dipped slightly to 139 from 147 in 2018, that only meant that the funding rounds on average were larger.
We are regularly checking in with Pitt spinout companies to get an update on their progress in developing their products, acquiring customers and adding employees. Today we catch up with John Cordier (pictured on right) co-founder of Epistemix Inc., whose technology could not be more relevant to the current global public health challenge.
Small businesses in Western Pennsylvania are dealing with the massive economic upheaval caused by the closings and social distancing measures put in place to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. And with events unfolding rapidly regarding the government’s proposed relief packages, they are struggling to make decisions on whether or not to furlough employees and to determine what access to emergency financing may be available.
On Tuesday, May 14, the Innovation Institute will host a panel on Human Performance Innovation as part of Pittsburgh Life Sciences Week.