Venture Lab NEXT

Founded by Grace Shorter (Mechanical Engineering). The Culture Connection is a networking and business development platform for Black professionals to connect with mentors, career opportunities, vendors and more without the burden of code-switching. Impassioned by her experiences building her early career as a Black woman in mechanical engineering, Grace is on a mission to create a culturally-competent digital environment where African American-owned businesses and Black professionals can connect.

Founded by Andrew Lewis & Donovan Rinderle (Aerospace & Electrical Engineering). In a triathlon, participants typically wear cycling shorts with a padded insert called a chamois to protect from friction and impact with the bike seat. The TriDry Print team has identified several pain points that triathletes experience with currently available chamois shorts, particularly waterlogging that leads to chafing and bacterial growth. Andrew and Donovan are developing a 3D printed adhesive alternative – a stick-on chamois that can be applied on the outside of the shorts before the bike section of the race, and easily removed before the run.

Founded by Devansh Saxena & Siddique Korakottil (Mechanical Engineering). Veiss is an IoT solution that equips gyms and athletic facilities with a sensor system that magnetically attaches to weight stacks, automatically recording essential metrics such as reps, sets, and weights. This data syncs in real-time with users’ mobile devices, simplifying the tracking process and providing personalized insights that enhance their fitness journey. Devansh and Siddique are workout junkies and tech nerds who want to help gyms and gym-goers level up their experience.

Founded by Gavin Weiss (Industrial Design). Woove is a 3D-printed shoe startup that makes stylish, custom-fit, and renewable shoes using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). Gavin’s goal is to change the way shoes are made by making the process faster, less wasteful, and more personal to consumers. His team has built and tested 35 prototype pairs, and are excited to begin small-batch production and pilot sales.

Founded by Rune Featherston & Khang Nguyen (Computer Engineering & Computer Science). Wordova is a bilingual e-reader that turns passive reading into an effortless learning experience. As opposed to an independent app like Duolingo, Wordova uses a web browser plugin to integrate the user’s target language into content such as social media, news articles, and other content that the user already accesses. For example,instead of seeing a social media post that says: “New local café opening downtown next month” on their phone, Wordova users learning Mandarin Chinese would see “New local 咖啡店 opening downtown next month.”

Founded by Wesley Wynn (Mechanical Engineering). The WynBrace is a harness system for paramedics and EMTs to secure themselves inside the main cabin of an ambulance while maintaining freedom of movement to treat patients. Wesley learned about the high casualty rate of first responders in ambulance accidents, and put his engineering knowledge to the task of creating a user-friendly, cost efficient solution.