Startups: May the Most Innovative Ideas Win!

Four student startups, focused on everything from neuroprosthetics to a digital family organizer, were awarded up to $100,000 and co-working space to pursue their inventions. Their work represents the capstone of Cornell Tech’s Studio curriculum (opens in a new tab), in which student entrepreneurs in the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute and Cornell Tech develop solutions for real-world problems, culminating in startup prototypes.

“I’m incredibly proud of this year’s Startup Awards winners, who will join our roster of companies that have gone on to make an impact in New York City and beyond,” said Thatcher Bell, head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech. Startups spun out of Startup Studio and the Runway Startup Postdocs Program at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute have employed nearly 300 people, realizing Cornell Tech’s mission to turn New York City into a tech hub.

Forty-six teams participated in the sixth annual Startup Awards Competition, where students vie for the opportunity to bring cutting-edge tech ideas to the marketplace. A panel of industry and Cornell Tech leaders selected the winners at the first-ever virtual Open Studio in March 2020.

The winning startups are:

• InvictusBCI: technology that uses a proprietary machine learning algorithm to decode brainwave and muscle signals, giving amputees natural control over their prosthetic hands.
• Enroute: a patient transportation platform that allows nurses, with a few taps on their phone, to set the pickup and drop-off details for hospital patients seamlessly.
• OnePlace: a secure operating system that families can use to organize their healthcare, finances, property, passports and the like.
• Buzr: a smart-home device connecting your cell phone and apartment intercom to buzz in visitors and deliveries remotely. Buzr is also developing virtual keys for trusted parties.