The Rainforest Accelerator Program wrapped up its spring cohort Monday night with teams of entrepreneurial researchers presenting their innovative projects.
The Rainforest Accelerator Program is administered by UNM Rainforest Innovations and supports teams of University of New Mexico faculty and/or post-doctoral or graduate students to go outside of their laboratories and into the marketplace where they can learn first-hand about entrepreneurship. They are also encouraged to explore and validate the commercial landscape surrounding their innovation with the support of $3,000 to fund their market discovery efforts and proof-of-concept prototyping.
The outcomes of program projects include a recommendation based on an assessment of the viability of the overall business model and substantial first-hand evidence for or against product-market fit, with a definition of the customer segments and corresponding value propositions.
This cohort’s projects included:
- Portable Automated Uterine Manipulator for Laparoscopic Hysterectomies by Ben Spangler
- iVrCv (Immersive Virtual Reality Clinical Video) by Matthew Garret and James Michael
- EtchTech Pioneers by Zadid Shifat and Tito Busani
- Self-Assembled Helices by Divya Prakash
- Nature and Us by Tohid Khalili
- BowelSense by Ahmed Eltelbany
Learn more about the program and stay tuned for the launch of the fall 2024 cohort: https://innovations.unm.edu/program-activities/rainforest-accelerator/