‘Hard Tech’ Start-ups Compete in First-Ever Stony Brook Venture Challenge

The Long Island High Technology Incubator (LIHTI) is a mixed technology incubator assisting Long Island hard tech companies since 1992. As a non-profit organization dedicated to helping new technologically innovative companies and strong ties to Stony Brook University, LIHTI is now working with SBU on a comprehensive strategy for building an inclusive, thriving and dynamic startup ecosystem. LIHTI’s close proximity on the Stony Brook University campus creates a supportive environment to transfer cutting-edge ideas from the University to the private sector.  

With the long-term goal of filling a major regional innovation ecosystem gap by focusing on intentional hard tech venture building on Long Island, LIHTI has launched Stony Brook Venture (SBV) Champions Initiative. A critical component of SBV, the SBV Challenge is designed to identify high-potential, impactful cutting-edge technologies and accelerate their commercialization journey through mentorship and curated support.

On October 10, LIHTI held its first-ever SBV Challenge Pitch Competition. Twelve start-up companies were tasked with creating a ten-minute presentation describing their business to a panel of judges, then answering a round of questions to conclude their pitch. True to serving the Long Island and greater New York ecosystem, ten Stony Brook-based ventures, one SBU/NYIT-based venture and one Columbia University-based company competed in three tracks:  Energy, Information, or Health. 

“This is our first of this variant of the challenge,” said Andrew Wooten, executive director for LIHTI. “We’ve had other pitch competitions in the past, but with this one we wanted to put a ‘hard tech’ spin on it. I think that’s one of the real competencies of Stony Brook University, and this ecosystem with our depth in science and engineering as opposed to what you could do down on Main Street. We are trying to be the place where these hard tech entrepreneurs can build ventures, and this challenge is a great start.” 

These advances are consistent with the University’s commitment to regional innovation and translational sciences. “LIHTI’s new entrepreneurship competition is the first of a series of innovation and entrepreneurship training, leadership and financial incentives that Stony Brook University will offer to the community and the region,” according to Michael Kinch, the newly hired inaugural Chief Innovation Officer at Stony Brook University.

“In preparation for the SBV Challenge Pitch Day, all participants received access to professional coaching to draft and refine their business strategy and pitches,” said Shruti Sharma, associate director, venture development for LIHTI. “Through the generous support of our sponsor Vineyard Wind and campus partners at Economic Development, winners of the SBV Challenge Pitch Competition will receive a $5,000 award each to support the next step in their commercialization journey – doing customer discovery through completing the regional I-Corps program and/or prototype development.” 

After judging, for 2024 SBV Challenge, CurrentEdge Power Semiconductor LLC was named the winner in the Energy Track, 12bit AI won in the Information Track, and VascuTek Solutions and Tropocan, Inc. were named co-winners in the Health Track.

“CurrentEdge is a brand new company, we only set up a month ago,” said Fang Luo, founder of CurrentEdge and Empire Innovation associate professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook. “Our focus is on power semiconductor manufacturing as well as packaging. We have the capability to make advanced power modules for different energy-demanding sectors, from defense to green energy. We’re exploring a new operation mode, and we look forward to working together to make something important. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.”

“It’s quite apparent that medical images are hard to come by,” said Eric Papenhausen ’17, Computer Science, and co-founder of 12bit AI. “What we’re doing is generating those images synthetically. They can then be used by other AI models to train on, which will help cancer detection, segmentation, clinical planning and more. This will evolve into more of a foundational model where we can do things like AI-based diagnosis, treatment planning, and surgical planning. We look forward to working with LIHTI to further that mission.”

“VascuTek is a biotechnology venture focused on revolutionizing the treatment of severe skin injuries through the development of advanced skin grafts,” said Shi Fu, co-founder of VascuTek and graduate student in Materials Science and Chemical Engineering. Gurtej Singh, co-founder and Associate Professor of Surgery emphasized “Winning the Venture Champions Challenge highlights the unique interdisciplinary collaboration at Stony Brook, with support from the Surgery and Basic Sciences departments, the Division of Laboratory Animal Resources (DLAR), and funding from the Department of Surgery Small Grants program, the Feldstein Medical Foundation (FMF), and TRO Clinical Research Awards. Together with mentorship from LIHTI, this comprehensive backing has empowered us to merge clinical insights with scientific and preclinical innovation to drive our venture forward.”

“At Tropocan, where we are developing a new therapy to treat primary brain tumors and brain metastases from breast cancer. The brain is traditionally considered a challenging environment for anticancer treatment, but we have developed a way to deliver therapy into the brain and treat cancer effectively,” said Evgenii Boriushkin, founder of Tropocan. “Participating in the VC challenge competition gave us invaluable insights into business development, market opportunities, and potential customers. Additionally, being part of LIHTI and the Stony Brook University network has provided the support needed to bring our vision to life.”

Meanwhile, all participants of the 2024 SBV Challenge, are now in LIHTI’s innovation portfolio pipeline, making them part of the Long Island Innovation Ecosystem, opening new doors and opportunities through LIHTI’s network as they further develop their ventures. “Developing hard-tech ventures takes time, a lot of resources in addition to money, and we are here to support these entrepreneurs and technologies in the long run,” said Sharma. 

“There’s truly nobody in this competition today that we wouldn’t love to continue working with,” said Wooten. “I didn’t expect the caliber and turnout we got. The next generation of hard tech leaders need to be inclusive, inventive, and innovative. This challenge can open a path for these entrepreneurs to build a venture and gain training, mentorship, resources and community.”