2020 Cohort Teams

Table of Contents

Career Lines – Cleveland State University

The Technology

When recruiting for entry-level job openings, our competency matching algorithm enables talent acquisition specialists to rapidly screen large applicant pools based on the “quality of fit” between the applicants’ competencies and the skills required for the job, reducing recruiting time and increasing retention rates.

Career Lines is a web-based interface that allows the user to navigate the connection between the competencies (attitudes, behaviors, skills, and abilities) that entry-level job applicants gain through their academic majors, previous employment and volunteer experiences, and the competencies needed for 315 distinct occupations based on their common association with pre-defined career pathways or “Career Lines.”

The Team

Principal Investigator

Jessica Colombi

Entrepreneurial Lead

Byron White

Mentors

Andre Williams
Helen Austin

Clean Earth Rovers - Xavier University

The Technology

The Ocean Rover Cleaning Apparatus (O.R.C.A.) Piranha is an electric ASV (Autonomous Surface Vessel) that uses software to identify pollutants in near shore waterways, around the world. The Piranha will first be applied in the United States coastal marina and harbor industry. The Piranha is a 4 ft. wide by 5 ft. long and 5 ft. tall machine that is capable of holding up to 350 lbs of plastics in one machine trip. The Piranha has an estimated run time of 16 hours. The machine is capable of cleaning dead fish, trash, oil, and natural debris off of the surface of the water.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Mike Halloran

Entrepreneurial Leads

Michael Arens 
David Constantine

Mentor

Dennis Reinersman

DriveMate – Ohio University

The Technology

Our Integrated ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) product – DriveMate™, a co-pilot rather than an autopilot – unifies independent features in a platform that delivers reduced development cost and time for automakers and increased safety and enjoyment for drivers.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Jim Zhu

Entrepreneurial Leads

Drew Jones
Zackery Kelly

Mentor

Paul Benedict
Yang Liu

Embodied Therapeutix – Cleveland Clinic

The Technology

Our product is an interactive, reusable, pain-reducing tabletop system for patients undergoing blood draws, vaccinations, or any type of needle-stick procedure. This stand-alone system uses patient-initiated games with an artificial/virtual hand, which fools the brain into cognitively transferring expected pain signals to the artificial arm and away from their own arm. This dulling effect, through cognitive disassociation, reduces both pain and anxiety for patients therefore making procedures a more positive experience for both patients and practitioners.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Paul Marasco

Entrepreneurial Leads

Roshan Sivakumar
Blake Russell Alston
Nicole Byram

Mentor

Jonathan Sakai

EnteroQuant – Case Western Reserve University

The Technology

EnteroQuant, is an artificial intelligence risk scoring tool that combines image analysis, clinical measures and cutting-edge machine learning techniques to predict if a patient with Crohn’s disease will enter clinical remission on first-line anti-inflammatory biologic therapy or would see greater benefit from an alternative biologic or combination therapy.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Satish Viswanath

Entrepreneurial Leads

Prathyush Chirra
Pavithran Giriprakash

Mentor

Andrew Cornwell

GPN Therapeutics– Northeast Ohio Medical University

The Technology

The target product is a biomarker for rare complex lymphatic anomalies. Presently, there are no FDA approved biomarkers for the identification of complex lymphatic anomalies. Our final marketed product will be a new ELISA-based biomarker assay kit to aid in the diagnosis of lymphatic anomalies and assess disease progression.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Fayez Safadi
Michael Kelly

Entrepreneurial Lead

Ernesto Solorzano Zepeda

Mentor

Elliot Reed

hBN Sunscreen – Cleveland State University

The Technology

We have developed a UV filter from a common cosmetic additive with novel surface modifications. This water-soluble UV filter is more efficacious and cost effective than current sunscreens and addresses the numerous problems with current sunscreens including skin absorption, skin feel and appearance, as well as being an environmentally safe chemical alternative.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Geyou Ao

Entrepreneurial Leads

Cameron Tolbert
Brandon Heppe
Jacob Vitale
Tanner Larson

Mentors

Jack Kraszewski
Scott Fisher

Nano-T-Lytic– Cleveland Clinic

The Technology

Nano-T-Lytic is an effective and safer treatment for acute stroke patients. Benefits are reduced risk of hemorrhage, greater thrombolytic efficacy, and longer window for treatment that may especially benefit patients who can’t be treated with tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) due to its very short time window for treatment.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Vinod Labhasetwar, Ph.D.

Entrepreneurial Lead

Suhail Andrabi

Mentor

Marwan Berrada-Sounni

Pocket MUSE– Case Western Reserve University

The Technology

Pocket MUSE is a cost-effective, smartphone-based microscope solution that can be used in a broad range of disease diagnostic applications. The core device provides functionalities similar to a professional benchtop fluorescent microscope but is more affordable and simpler to operate as a consumer product.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Michael Jenkins

Entrepreneurial Leads

Yehe Liu
Junwoo Suh

Mentor

Stephen Fening

ProstaCAD – Case Western Reserve University

The Technology

ProstaCAD™ is an AI screening tool which automatically detects prostate cancer (PCa) lesions on multi-parametric MRI (“mpMRI”), predict aggressiveness and help clinicians identify patients who need biopsies and/or definitive treatment.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Rakesh Shiradkar

Entrepreneurial Leads

Lin Li
Amogh Hiremath

Mentor

Rob Toth

The GRIC – Case Western Reserve University

The Technology

The GRIC is a rapid stool test and consultation dietary program to help digestive disease patients monitor their intestinal inflammation at home.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Alexander Rodriguez-Palacios

Entrepreneurial Leads

Abigail Basson
Jessica Ezeji
Austin Hopperton
Filip Sagl
Christy Chen

Mentor

Walid Jabali

Universal Gripper – Ohio State University

The Technology

We recently invented a variable stiffness compliant robotic gripper (VSCRG) that is flexible enough for adapting to irregular shapes and can be switched to the high stiffness mode for picking up heavy objects in real-time. VSCRG can be applied to applications such as loading dirty dishes in various shapes which have decent weights for commercial dishwashers, which is estimated to decrease the operation expense by $63,200 to $85,200 per year incurred by slow and unstable human loading.

The Team

Principal Investigator

Haijun Su

Entrepreneurial Leads

Xianpai Zeng
Yuan Gao

Mentor

Mike Downing

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