Last week the UNM Lobo Rainforest I-Corps program completed their training of nine teams during the spring 2021 cohort. The 10-week program trains entrepreneurial-minded faculty and students from the University of New Mexico on how to transition their STEM-related technologies to the marketplace.
During the program, teams learn how to determine value propositions, customers, size of market, and market trends for their respective technologies. Each team consists of an academic lead (typically a UNM faculty or staff member), an entrepreneurial lead (a UNM student or post-doc), and an external industry mentor provided by the I-Corps program. The program also provides $3,000 in seed funding to each team to fund their customer discovery efforts and proof-of-concept prototyping.
The University of New Mexico became an I-Corps (Innovation Corps) site in fall 2017 and has now completed its eighth cohort. The program is offered during the fall and spring semesters and is open to faculty and students at UNM and its branch campuses. The NSF-funded I-corps program is a partnership between UNM Rainforest Innovations and the Innovations Academy.
Read about the teams from the spring 2021 cohort below:
- sunn scientific – Sweatbionics, a precise performance wearable system
- CalFor – a new generation of forceps that we call Calibrated Forceps (CalFor) to prevent biological experiments’ failure.
- IMS-Pro LLC (Innovative Microwave System Prototypes) – a novel technology for pathogen sterilization using High Power Microwaves (HPM)
- Killer Yeast UI – promising alternatives to existing antifungal drugs are “killer toxin” (KT) proteins produced by many different species of killer yeasts (University of Idaho team)
- Thuvia Systems, LLC – real-time monitoring, fully integrated, smart inhaler to allow for objective measures, such as spirometry and peak flow to give patients and physicians a clearer understanding of each patient’s disease.
- Parental Values, LLC – machine learning to impact Human Trafficking.
- LM1 – a novel liquid metal alloy that has better rheological characterizes (lower viscosity and higher penetrability), higher electrical conductivity, higher density, and lower viscosity, compared to existing metal alloys.
- Faena – gamifying language immersion – a second-language acquisition video game organized through the innovative pedagogical technique of task-based learning (TBL).
- SignApp – a sign language app for indigenous African Sign Languages to teach indigenous sign languages to signers and non-signers and to preserve the indigenous sign languages.
To learn more and apply to participate in the Lobo Rainforest I-Corps program in Fall 2021, complete the online application at http://loborainforest.com/icorps/.