Success Stories
UNIVERSITY PARK – SlammedU, a startup founded by Smeal College of Business student Niklas Restrepo, won first place and $15,000 in the 2026 Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition. As a kickoff to Penn State Startup Week, six student teams pitched their startups to a panel of judges, competing for prizes totaling $35,500 in funding. SlammedU connects incoming college students before they…
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NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — Penn State is strengthening western Pennsylvania’s innovation, manufacturing and workforce ecosystem — which includes collaborative research, education, training and production efforts — by aligning the Penn State Digital Foundry and the New Kensington LaunchBox powered by Penn State more directly within its central research and innovation…
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UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State Startup Week will return March 23–27, offering five days of hands-on workshops, honest conversations, and meaningful networking opportunities for students across all majors. Startup Week invites every Penn State student to explore new ideas, build real-world skills, and connect with Penn Staters who were once…
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) at Penn State is establishing partnerships with State Correctional Institutions (SCIs) across the Commonwealth to help build, grow, and enhance entrepreneurial education programming for incarcerated veterans. Over the past year, VBOC has begun collaborating with SCIs to support and strengthen entrepreneurship programming within Veterans Service Units (VSUs). The work reflects Invent Penn State’s broader…
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UNIVERSITY PARK – Community members across Centre, Clinton, Lycoming and Mifflin counties are invited to celebrate National SBDC Day with the Penn State Small Business Development Center (SBDC) on March 18 from 1 – 3 p.m. SBDC Day is a nationally recognized commemoration of America's SBDCs and their impact on the success of small businesses across the country. This SBDC Day, the Penn State SBDC will highlight Nittany…
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UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State students are encouraged to apply for the Dare to Disrupt Design & Build Challenge – a hands-on, team-based experience for students to turn ideas into real, physical builds using professional prototyping tools at OriginLabs. Over two guided build sessions, selected students will design, prototype, and fabricate a visually striking…
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UNIVERSITY PARK – Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to attend the 2026 Invent Penn State Inc.U pitch competition on Saturday, March 21 from 1 – 3 pm. Six undergraduate student teams will compete for cash prizes of up to $15,000. Attendees will also have the opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice Award, which comes with…
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Two Penn State staff members working in different disciplines saw a similar opportunity for themselves: to turn years of professional and academic expertise into consulting businesses they could build alongside their university roles. Both knew what they wanted to do, but not how to navigate the legal steps of making a business official. They turned to the Penn…
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UNIVERSITY PARK — David Huff, professor of turfgrass breeding and genetics at Penn State, recently earned the Research Innovator Award through the College of Agricultural Sciences for the research and entrepreneurial leadership that led to the founding of his startup, PennPoa. PennPoa aims to transform the turfgrass industry through the commercialization of highly cultivated Poa annua, or annual bluegrass, seed varieties for the golf…
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