By Brandon Davis ’23 (PhD)

On Wednesday March 2^nd, 2022, the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, MyHub, Alumni Relations and the newly-formed student organization for entrepreneurial trainees at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, SMD Entrepreneurs, hosted the first annual SMD Big Ideas in Science and Medicine Pitch Competition.

As a 5^th year biochemistry PhD Candidate, co-founder of RHM Innovations Inc., and founder and president of SMD Entrepreneurs, I designed this competition as a preview of the entrepreneurial opportunities SMD Entrepreneurs will bring to trainees at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and I was thrilled to serve as the competition’s emcee.  SMD Entrepreneurs aim to show that entrepreneurship is a career path that trainees should consider. Although we’re excited about business development, SMD Entrepreneurs has something for everyone, whether it’s learning about investing or making connections with distinguished scientists and industry leaders.

With the help of our Alumni Relations team, we were able to assemble a panel of distinguished alumni judges for the competition, including Dr. Paul Bleichard, executive partner at Ardan Equity; Dr. Jeff Goater, venture partner at The Column Group; Dr. Sullafa Kadura, assistant professor of clinical medicine at URMC; and Sharon Samjitsingh, co-founder of Healthcare Originals and the 2020 TechRochester’s Technology Woman of the Year. Nine teams competed, giving a three-minute pitch of their venture or idea, followed by Q&A with the judges. The judges critically evaluated each team, and selected first and second place winners.

The first-place prize of $500 was awarded to STIMedical. Team members Hadi Wehbe ’22 (MS), Lucas Lassinger ’22 (MS), and Stephen Well ‘22 (MS), all of biomedical engineering, proposed a medical device to improve laparoscopic surgery procedures.

Second place and $250 went to Abbi Miller ’22 (MS), Allison Coon ’22 (MS), Sylvia Zhong ’22 (MS) of biomedical engineering and Haotian Li ’22 (MS) of the Technical Entreprenuership and Management MS program for their proposal of a medical device to assist with the accurate insertion of surgical screws during open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) surgery.

This event would not have been possible without the help and support from many key collaborators: Eric Vaughn and Elaine Smolok of MyHub for their continued support and financial contribution to the competition; Kathy Driscoll, Heidi Mergenthaler, Meghan Plate, and Annette Durnack at the Ain Center for sharing their resources and enthusiasm of bringing entrepreneurship to URMC; and Stephanie Ripley, Kerri Mertz, and Michael Dermody from Alumni Relations for helping us connect with our judges through the UR alumni network. The collaboration of everyone involved allowed us to showcase some of the innovative research happening on our campus.

Congratulations to the winning teams! You can watch the full video of the competition on Vimeo.

Brandon Davis ’23 is a 5^th year biochemistry PhD Candidate and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, co-founder of RHM Innovations Inc., and founder and president of student organization SMD Entrepreneurs.

By Emily Bingham

I like to say that I was a child business prodigy, but of course that’s not entirely true. What is more accurate is that I like to experience new things and do cool stuff, so when I see opportunities come my way, I almost always say yes. I was really lucky to have a couple of those opportunities presented to me when I was fairly young.

In the summer of 2016 after my freshman year of high-school, I was asked to travel to Manila, Philippines to film a documentary in conjunction with the SAGE (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship) World Cup. I had never filmed a documentary; I hadn’t even done anything close. I had minimal print journalism experience that led me there, but it sounded like something that would be fun and that I probably wouldn’t ever get to do again, so I went. We had full creative control over the documentary, and after a week of talking to teens from all over the world running small businesses that were literally changing lives, we knew what it had to be about: the power of youth entrepreneurship.

I was so inspired by the incredible, motivated young people that we were around, I decided I had to do it for myself. The next year, I formed a group and created a small business, Business Buzz, which was in essence a small marketing firm that specialized in community activation: a form of audience activation that focused on community-based projects and charitable causes. For about eight or nine months, we worked on a few projects, built a pitch, and decided to compete with our business nationally. At 16 years old after less than a year of entering the entrepreneurship world in any capacity, we placed first in the country. We were then able to attend the 2017 World Cup in Odessa, Ukraine where this time I would be competing with my peers instead of watching from afar. We finished fourth internationally. I learned I loved being my own boss, I loved building things from scratch, and I loved public speaking.

After we got back from Ukraine, I felt like I still had so much more to do, if not with Business Buzz, then for myself. I applied to give a Tedx talk in Buffalo (I was unsuccessful though that did not deter me from applying two more times after, neither of which worked out in the end). I attended a two-week intensive entrepreneurship conference in Toronto (which is not as far and exotic as it seems when you’re a Western New York native). There, I dipped my toes into technical entrepreneurship by working on a MedTech based project with a handful of Canadian teens. I attended angel investor pitches at country clubs to see the behind the scenes. I spoke on stage as a 16-year-old to business executives at the 43N Million Dollar Pitch Competition. I loved the new world I had discovered and couldn’t get enough of it, but as Business Buzz died down and college applications piled up, I found myself slowly having less of a foot in the door.

Once I came to college, I forgot about that part of my life altogether. Instead, it was just a fun fact I could share with my new friends and something that lingered on my resume. That was until my sister gifted me a Cricut machine for Christmas in 2020 with the thought, “maybe you could monetize this?” “Yeah,” I thought, “I probably could.” And so, I did. As someone who has always loved crafts, making things was right up my alley and as a college kid, I could use some extra money. So I threw a couple listings up on Etsy and there ShopEmilyEvelyne was born (fun fact: the name was supposed to just be a place holder while I set up the page but I couldn’t figure out how to change it, so it stuck!).

I began getting a handful of orders in February 2021, and then a couple more in March and April, and then quite a few in May, and it continued on. I never thought of it as the type of entrepreneurship I was accustomed to. Consumer goods were completely different, and making things out of my dorm room wasn’t exactly the customer validation and revenue projections I had spent my high school years learning about. Even after I developed a line for the Op Shop in downtown Rochester and started selling at markets like the Lucky Flea, I hadn’t quite thought of it as an entrepreneurial venture. It wasn’t until very recently that I started to pitch the products as a brand instead of an Etsy shop that I realized I was able to funnel my passion for entrepreneurship into this small business, and that I had been using those skills all along.

Now as I venture into selling my products wholesale and in retail spaces, I am thankful for the resources I had as a teen and the ones I continue to find, like the Ain Center, now. Entrepreneurship isn’t reserved for startups or fancy tech, simply having an entrepreneurial spirit can lend itself to any endeavor, and I’m excited to keep finding out what those look like for me.

Emily Bingham ’23 is a junior at the University of Rochester. She is pursuing a BA in political science and is taking full advantage of the ability to explore classes and interests across many disciplines. She is originally from Buffalo, New York, where she lives with her mom, sister Sara, and two dogs Buster and Moose. She is the owner and founder of ShopEmilyEvelyne, an apparel and accessories brand designed to inspire joy. You can find out more about the brand on Instagram @ShopEmilyEvelyne or on the website, ShopEmilyEvelyne.com.

By Abbey Kampel

In summer 2021, Arizona State University (ASU) hosted forty students from across the nation to participate in the 2021 GCSP Entrepreneurial Experience to explore the theme of health from the perspective of the grand challenges scholars program. Fifteen institutions were awarded spots for undergraduate engineering students participating in the GCSP program. As a biomedical engineering and GCSP student, I was honored to be offered a spot in the summer program.

I had little experience in the fields of business and entrepreneurship before this summer. During this program, I collaborated with students from several other institutions to research and design a novel solution and a business plan for a company in need of a prototype. The unique entrepreneurial experience focused on applications in the healthcare field and allowed for project-based learning. I was able to delve into the world of entrepreneurship starting from the very basics of understanding the problem, to the final stretch of designing a prototype solution for our client.

Abbey Kampel ’23 double majors in Biomedical Engineering and Psychology. Her entrepreneurship component for the Grand Challenges Scholars Program focuses on designing and developing a prototype to address a work-life balance problem for the company Allstate, alongside a team of mentors and fellow engineering students.

By Ain Center Staff

We are thrilled to welcome Annette Durnack, the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship’s new Executive Director. As Executive Director, Annette will lead Ain Center programs and initiatives, as well as oversee the MS in TEAM Program. 

Annette Durnack has joined the University of Rochester in the newly-created position of Executive Director of the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship. Annette will oversee all programs and initiatives at the Ain Center, as well as the master of science in Technical Entrepreneurship and Management (TEAM) program. She assumed the position on April 30, 2021.

Annette has over 25 years of experience building and leading successful sales and marketing businesses across various segments of the energy industry.   She has worked for several Fortune 500 energy companies during the early stages of energy deregulation where she was responsible for developing and launching the business plan and strategy for bringing energy supply products and services to businesses and consumers across the northeast.  She has also worked in the software industry where she led a team focused on providing energy management solutions to large commercial real estate owners to assist them in achieving their operational and sustainability objectives.

After an extensive career in the energy industry, she decided to transition to a role where she could assist others in building their plans to launch successful and scalable businesses. Most recently, she was the director of the Penn State Lehigh Valley LaunchBox, a business accelerator and economic development initiative, where she was responsible for developing programs to support the needs of early-stage entrepreneurs and strengthening the capabilities of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the region.

Over the course of Annette’s career, she has been involved in and served on the board of directors for various philanthropic organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Girls on the Run, and the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. Annette has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Want to send Annette a note of welcome? Feel free to reach out via AinCFE@rochester.edu!

Making impact one cafecito at a time

By Fernanda Sesto, student Program Assistant

To continue with the Student Entrepreneur Series, I am super excited to share the story of Hector Castillo Carvajal.

I came across Hector’s profile a year ago when I was researching about the experience of minority entrepreneurs. As someone who considers herself a “coffee addict”, I was amazed by the idea of a fellow Yellowjacket (University of Rochester) starting a coffee brand. Moreover, as a proud Latina myself 🇺🇾, it was great to see a young Latino 🇩🇴 making his way into the coffee industry.

Hector is the founder of Don Carvajal Cafe, a specialty coffee brand based in South Bronx that brings the flavor of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil while being environmentally friendly and community oriented. He is a Business Marketing student at the University of Rochester who decided to take a leave of absence to focus on his business.

“In 2019, I was interning at an office in the Bronx and at that office there was a guy who used to brew coffee every morning and offer. It was really good coffee so one day I asked the guy “where can I buy this coffee? it’s really good and I want to bring some back home.” He said that it was a brand that the office used to work with but they didn’t sell it anymore. It was the first time I was having specialty coffee, I’d never had it before and you could taste the difference. So out of curiosity, I started researching the coffee industry. I was very intrigued, I looked at the numbers and they were huge. To me, it wasn’t about the money but it was about the opportunity.”

During the school year, Hector was taking Marketing 203: Principles of Marketing where he was assigned to work on a semester-long group project. The professor told the class to work on the creation of a business and marketing plan of either a company they come up with or one that already exists. Hector asked the professor if he could work on his coffee idea and once the professor was good with it, he pitched it to his group partners. The group didn’t have any other ideas in mind so they decided to move forward with it. Similarly to Shelley’s story, Hector’s classmates saw the project as an assignment only. However, he was serious about it.

“We researched the coffee industry, the demographics, how the market looked like and how we were gonna get out there. The strategy, what product we were gonna offer, what the pricing is and why we were gonna price it that way. We did all that. While I was doing all that (for the class), I was also doing personal stuff. I was going to the Ain Center and work on the Business Model Canvas. Also Simon (Business School) and the Center were having workshops on how to raise capital and how to pitch your idea. I would always go to those. I was also part of the Rochester Business Association and would learn about financial literacy too.”

Hector was going above and beyond for the class project. He wanted to make it a reality so he and the team applied to the Ain Center’s grant to build a prototype. That grant allowed them to buy some coffee beans, bags, and get them locally roasted. On top of that, the collaborative space at the University of Rochester “iZone” was hosting an event called “What’s your Big Idea?”

“I pitched my idea. No logo, no presentation, just 2 minutes of the idea. I pitched it, people loved it, judges had great feedback and they connected me with people who roast and are in the coffee game. Some people mentored me. That’s kind of how I started. It was the class, the Ain Center, and the iZone that took me to develop the idea and process it.”

After all the work Hector and the team put into the assignment, they got the highest grade and the best business plan. Impressively, after they presented the project, the class was eager to buy some coffee bags from them.

“Somebody was like “You guys have real coffee at the table, can I buy one of those?” and I was like What!? That’s crazy, she just wants to buy a bag. She asked me how much and I said “Well, the presentation said 17.95, that’s how much it costs.” So she gave me 20 and I didn’t have any change because I wasn’t expecting that but then she told me to keep it. And then other people started buying for 20 too. After that presentation, I went to my dorm and checked if the name Don Carvajal Cafe was available. I literally reserved it and then I did it; I started selling coffee.”

After reserving the company name Don Carvajal Cafe, Hector started advertising his coffee bags on Instagram. He encouraged his friends and acquaintances to support him and also get good quality coffee. As people started buying, Hector was able to save enough to build a website and expand the outreach. His goal? Supermarkets.

“During the summer, when I was interning for the College Board, I came down to the City. I was interning from 9–5 and then from 5–10, I was literally working on my coffee business. I would spend every weekend pitching to supermarkets and coffee shops. Coffee shops didn’t go too well but then when I got my first supermarket, it went really good. Then I got another one, and another one, and like that. Then it was the week before classes started again and I decided I was just gonna stay.”

Starting and managing any business is a lot. Particularly, for the coffee industry, the roasting, packaging, and distribution is very tied to the physical labor and it is very intense. Given that Hector didn’t raise capital to hire a full team, he knew that coming back to Rochester would make it impossible for him to continue running Don Carvajal Cafe. In his words, “when you are bootstrapping, you don’t get that luxury.”

Advice for students

“Properly do your research. Do something that you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about what you do, if you are just doing it for the money and not for the passion, as soon as something like COVID-19 happens, you are gonna give up. When something wrong happens, you might quit because you are not thinking about the passion and the long-term. It’s the idea of leading with passion and actually researching your industry very well, make sure there’s an opportunity out there too. It might be crazy to a lot of people but the idea is that if you really think it’s worth it, and you believe in yourself and your passion then that’s it.”

Hector is a wonderful young man. Every time I talk to him, I learn a new perspective and a new way of looking at entrepreneurship. I hope you enjoy his story and I hope you get to try his coffee at some point!

Want to be featured in our entrepreneur series? Sign up here!

Fernanda Sesto ’23 is majoring in business analytics at the University of Rochester. She is a student founder and works as a program assistant in the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship.

Bringing job shadowing opportunities to young professionals

By Fernanda Sesto, student Program Assistant

As a Program Assistant at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, I often come across a variety of entrepreneur profiles. From local founders of small businesses in Rochester, to UR researchers who started their own companies. I always find myself amazed by the incredible ventures these people are leading. However, I have to admit that the entrepreneur profile that intrigues me the most is the student one: how can someone manage to get a product or service to market successfully while taking college courses and not having tons of experience?

To answer this question, I’ve decided to write a series of student entrepreneurs spotlights. The purpose is to share the story of these passionate and ambitious students who are making an impact while pursuing their own studies. I hope this series can help other students who are leading their ventures or those who are thinking of starting a new business.

To launch the series, I interviewed Shelley Chen (‘20), a recent graduate at the University of Rochester who majored in International Relations and Business Entrepreneurship. She also participated in the e-5 Program which is a tuition-free program at the University of Rochester for graduates who propose to start a business or a project.

Shelley is the founder of Yolo Shadow, a shadowing marketplace that connects local organizations and businesses with travelers who look for authentic work experiences.

“I started Yolo Shadow two years ago as a class project when I was taking a very general entrepreneurship class. We were asked to do a group project to try to launch a business. By that time, I had just taken a trip to Hawaii where I got to job shadow a Ukelele instrument maker. So I got to see how a Ukelele was made in the most traditional way possible, using the local wood material. I learned how to use those materials to construct a Ukelele. I got to shadow this Ukelele maker for half a day and it was the best thing that happened during my trip.”

Later, Shelley realized that when she travels she prefers to really get to know the local culture of the places and that she doesn’t like going to the most touristic places. That’s how she got inspired to develop Yolo Shadow.

“Yolo Shadow is a marketplace where you can try any jobs in the world. At least that’s how we started, but then we realized this mission is kind of too big. So we toned it down to job shadowing with small business owners who actually started a craft store, an art shop, etc. I find those stories more personal, and it’s the art and visual aspect that makes the experience more interesting.”

Yolo Shadow currently has a team of eight students, Shelley included. They are split between the business team and the tech team in which UX/UI designers and developers work together. On the business side, they mainly focused on doing customer discovery so they interviewed a wide range of small business owners from photographers, artists, manufacturing companies, architects, and even henna tattoo artists. The purpose was to gain an understanding of what type of experiences could work best for Yolo Shadow. On the tech side, Shelley mentions that she didn’t bring anyone on board until she was sure the platform could actually bring value to the market. The first tech person to join was the UX/UI designer and by now they already have their MVP.

“I noticed at the end of the class that most of my classmates took the project just as a class project; they didn’t do any interview, they didn’t talk to any customer, they did some research online, put together a Power Point and submit it for a grade. I didn’t want Yolo Shadow to just be a letter grade. Actually, the people I worked on this for the class decided to not continue with it after so I had to recruit again. It took a lot of convincing, I had to talk to a lot friends and think “who can I bring on board?”, “who has the skills to make this a real thing?” . It was very hectic of course but it’s something I feel really passionate about so I would feel very comfortable just pitching it to my friends in the cafeteria.”

Shelley found the first developer while having lunch at one of the dining halls. She saw a lot of students asking him very technical questions and she thought he could be a very good person to be the technical lead. Then, she decided to pitch the idea to him right away and fortunately he agreed to join the team.

“Finding a team was definitely one of the most challenging things. Time management and scheduling was not a problem because I feel really passionate about this project so it comes natural to me.”

Yolo Shadow received funding from University of Rochester grants. They also participated in the Innov8 program in which they got a $3,000 grant, the Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition in which they were awarded $1,000, and the Regional Economic Development grant which was $1,000 as well. Shelley mentions that she decided to not raise venture capital because she’s working on Yolo Shadow part-time, thus as long as everyone on the team feels comfortable bootstrapping, they will continue like that.

Advice for students

“If you are looking to start a small business or a tech startup, I would say the most important thing is to identify a problem to solve. There is a lot of cool technology but if that piece of technology doesn’t solve a problem, you are not gonna be able to build a sustainable solution. When I started this project, I didn’t put all the resources into building something. Even though building something is very cool and exciting, you wanna make sure you’re building something that solves a problem. Customer discovery is something you have to be very patient with, listen to what your customers are saying, always get feedback right away so that you know you are building something customers really want.”

I had a wonderful talk with Shelley. She was very open and genuine with her story. I hope you enjoyed the reading and it inspired you as much as it inspired me!

Want to be featured in our entrepreneur series? Sign up here!

Fernanda Sesto ’23 is majoring in business analytics at the University of Rochester. She is a student founder and works as a program assistant in the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship.

By Ain Center Staff

Pre-pandemic, the Ain Center would host in-person lunches each month, convening faculty, staff and students to explore different topics in entrepreneurship. Because gathering on campus currently is a no-go, the Ain Center has created Startup Bytes – a digital brown bag lunch series open to students, faculty, staff, and anyone else who would like to join. Each month, a different speaker or group shares their entrepreneurial experience via Zoom, with time for Q&A with attendees.

The second Startup Bytes event featured the three community organizers of the Roc the Business of Art workshop series: Amanda Chestnut (owner of A Lynn Ceramics, adjunct faculty at St. John Fisher College, and member of the Roc Arts United Steering Committee), Annette Jimenez Gleason (Program Officer/Vitality for the Rochester Area Community Foundation), and Annette Ramos (teaching artist and founder of Rochester Latino Theatre Co.). Amanda, Annette, and Annette worked with staff at Eastman’s Institute for Music Leadership, ROC Arts United, and the Ain Center to organize the webinars, which were designed to teach artists important business skills and how to thrive even during a pandemic. During Startup Bytes, they discussed the importance of entrepreneurial resources for artists and ensuring that all offerings are accessible and inclusive.

In 2017, the Eastman School of Music received a grant allowing them to explore cities with vibrant arts communities, with the intention of applying their learnings to the revitalization of the greater Rochester area. The project – originally titled Music on Main – became Arts in the Loop, complete with a broader strategy and more inclusive vision.

As Arts in the Loop grew throughout 2018, the leadership team based at Eastman created a steering committee comprised of University, corporate, and community representatives, though not without struggle. Amanda, Annette, and Annette shared that there was friction at first; leaders in the artist communities saw gaps in offerings or noted that the proposed programs wouldn’t speak to the needs of Rochester artists and creative entrepreneurs. Artist engagement committees were created to address these issues and to amplify the voices, particularly of BIPOC folks, of those who are too often left out of strategic conversations.

One pain point identified by the committees was a lack of entrepreneurial training for artists, which has since become a key aspect of the Arts in the Loop initiative. Throughout 2019 and into 2020, the community leaders created a survey and gathered information from artists to understand their needs and who they wanted to learn from, both pivotal to developing trust and legitimacy within existing artist spaces in Rochester. Following the conversations with potential participants, Amanda, Annette, and Annette worked with University of Rochester staff at Eastman’s Institute for Music Leadership and the Ain Center to develop a robust series of professional development workshops (originally intended to be held in-person, but moved online for safety reasons).

Roc the Business of Art has seen great interest and engagement throughout the past two months. Workshop leaders have shared best practices and tips on topics ranging from website development to sharing your work in a COVID world. Annette Ramos said it well: when you’re an entrepreneurial artist, “your hustle is your art and your art is your hustle.” Learning these skills allows artists to build their brand, grow their networks, and, ultimately, expand their impact.

The final Roc the Business of Art workshop will take place this weekend, but that doesn’t appear to be the end of the partnership between these community leaders and the U of R. In fact, Amanda, Annette, and Annette envision an even more robust system of support for artists who wish to develop entrepreneurial skills and networks. In the meantime, they recommend supporting local artists/small business owners, building community, and encouraging creative thinking – all valuable insights for artists and entrepreneurs alike.

We’d like to again offer our thanks to Amanda, Annette, and Annette for sharing their time and expertise with us this month.

Though shared above, the full recording of the October 16 event can also be found on our Vimeo page. Be sure to tune in on November 20 for the next edition of Startup Bytes, which will feature Kate Cartini, Partner at Chloe Capital, a VC firm that invests in women-led companies. If you have any questions, contact AinCFE@rochester.edu.

By Ain Center Staff

On Tuesday, October 6, the Ain Center hosted the first webinar in the Buzz Lab Special Edition: Managing through Uncertainty series. Designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners operate under the uncertainty of our current public health crisis, these workshops run from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays from October 6 through November 3. This program is supported by a University Center grant from the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The first workshop featured Gemma Sole ’09 and Jason Barrett, who shared their experiences of pivoting business models during times of crisis. Though their businesses are quite different (Gemma’s company, N.A.bld is a design-to-delivery production platform for digital brands of the future; Jason’s Black Button Distilling is a distillery in Rochester), Gemma and Jason both had to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in unexpected ways.

The remaining workshops in the series will explore similarly important topics:

• Financial Resources with Baye Muhammad (CEO, Rochester Economic Development Corporation)
• Adapting Operations with Janine Caschette (Owner, AVVINO Restaurant) and Kim Gaylord (Executive Director, TechRochester)
• eCommerce & Digital Marketing with Matt Weaver (Director of Digital Marketing, Mason Digital)
• Self-Care & Work/Life Balance with Melissa Mueller-Douglas (Founder, MYRetreat)

Those interested in participating in the upcoming webinars can register online, browse the schedule, and learn more about the presenters on our Buzz Lab Special Edition webpage. Once you register, you’ll also receive links to any workshops you miss, including Tuesday’s session featuring Gemma and Jason.

Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner looking for additional resources through the Ain Center? Explore our website and be sure to check out the Buzz Lab Boot Camp program, as well as our Experts-in-Residence, who provide free 30-minute advising sessions. If you have any questions, please contact AinCFE@rochester.edu!

By Ain Center Staff

Are you a researcher in a STEM-related field? Interested in applying your technologies to solve real-world problems? If yes, the upcoming NSF I-Corps Regional Course at the University of Rochester may be just what you need.

NSF I-Corps Regional Courses enable graduate students, doctoral candidates, post-docs, and faculty in STEM-related fields to “get out of the lab” and learn from potential customers; in addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps researchers identify new ways to apply their current or future research to solve real-life challenges.

Regional Courses run for 3.5 weeks (ours will begin on Monday, October 19 and wrap up Wednesday, November11) and include 8 online meetings/training sessions. They are free to participate in and those who complete the training will have the opportunity to be recommended for the NSF I-Corps National Teams program, which offers grant awards of up to $50,000. Previous NSF funding is NOT required to apply.

Interesting in applying? Visit the UNY I-Corps Node website for details. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Matthew Spielmann.

By Ain Center Staff

Pre-pandemic, the Ain Center would host in-person lunches each month, convening faculty, staff and students to explore different topics in entrepreneurship. Because gathering on campus currently is a no-go, the Ain Center has created Startup Bytes – a digital brown bag lunch series open to students, faculty, staff, and anyone else who would like to join. Each month, a different speaker or group shares their entrepreneurial experience via Zoom, with time for Q&A with attendees. September 18 marked the first Startup Bytes event, featuring UR Health Lab.

The UR Health Lab exists at the intersection of data science and medicine, where clinicians and researchers work alongside data scientists, computer scientists and electrical and computer engineers. A collaboration between the UR Medical Center and the College of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, they devise breakthrough systems that incorporate the most advanced technological practices to develop precision medicine that improves the lives of patients. Co-Director Michael Hasselberg and Lead Data Scientist Jack Teitel joined us on September 18 to speak about their role in the current public health crisis.

As a digital health incubator, the UR Health Lab team is used to testing various solutions to issues in the medical industry. In pre-pandemic times, leaders at URMC would identify a gap in the healthcare system that could be solved with technology. Once identified, the individual or department would be referred to the Health Lab and, if selected, interdisciplinary teams would tackle the problem using a powerful combination of medical expertise and data prowess. The overarching goal of their work is often to connect the ends of the value chain, according to Michael, directly linking clinicians and caregivers to patients. While this usually involves the calculated use of technology and plenty of iteration, the pandemic provided a new challenge of responding quickly while still producing the high-quality solution that is characteristic of the Health Lab’s work.

When the situation became dire in March, URMC wanted to provide a way for concerned employees to talk with experienced healthcare providers, both to provide guidance on testing and to assuage concerns for the “worried well” (people not experiencing symptoms but concerned about their wellbeing). The first measure enacted was a call hotline – Med Center employees could call in, report symptoms, and speak with a health professional if needed. Though effective, the hotline was quickly overwhelmed and so UR Health Lab was tapped to create a tech-based solution that could handle more users and still collect the same information. Just a few days later came Dr. Chatbot, a tool that would ask questions about symptoms and travel, while providing healthcare professionals with a way to follow up if needed. Over 7,000 individuals used Dr. Chatbot within the first week and call volume dropped by 50%, relieving the pressure on clinicians running the phones.

Once the tech had been created and adapted to fit the needs of the institution (including the broader University of Rochester community), UR Health Lab worked with Rochester Regional Health, Monroe County, the City of Rochester, and Common Ground Health to increase their reach and track COVID data throughout the greater Rochester area with ROC Covid-19. Over 52,000 individuals have since signed up to share their symptoms (or lack thereof), allowing data scientists and healthcare professionals to track the virus’s spread in our region. UR Health Lab also made the software code available to other entities as open source software, enabling tracking in other areas or by other employers.

Within their story are threads of collaboration, scalability, and, of course, entrepreneurial thinking. The agility of both the tech and the team behind it enabled a local solution to create reliable datasets and, ergo, the evidence for public health leaders to make informed decisions for the area. Further, acclaim for ROC Covid-19 has come from throughout the region and the nation: UR Health Lab has since been asked to work with the prestigious XPrize Foundation leadership to find unconventional solutions to pandemic threats.

Though there was an all-hands-on-deck urgency for their pandemic response, UR Health Lab also has other ongoing projects and goals. In addition to their specific projects, the Health Lab provides training for providers, works with students (largely from the U of R and RIT), and spreads the word about the benefits of connecting medicine and data science.

Individuals who are prepared to think creatively and bring those ideas to fruition are called to action in times of crisis, especially when they can synthesize skillsets and utilize the talents of their team. We’d like to again offer our thanks to Michael and Jack for exemplifying how to effectively tackle a pressing problem, and for sharing the impressive and innovative work of UR Health Lab.

Though shared above, the full recording of the September 16 event can also be found on our Vimeo page. Be sure to tune in on October 16 for the next edition of Startup Bytes, which will feature a discussion with the community organizers of the Roc the Business of Art program. If you have any questions, contact AinCFE@rochester.edu.