Success Stories
To most people, improving antireflection coatings (ARCs) usually doesn’t hit the “to-do list.” Good thing the world has folks like Chris Giebink, associate professor of electrical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering. His work, with the assistance of current and former post-doctoral researchers, J.P. Murphy, Baomin Wang and graduate student…
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Penn State student and faculty research innovations and discoveries with potential to have a significant impact on the world might begin in the lab or a classroom, but they don’t stay there. The work continues to advance and be strengthened by Invent Penn State’s unyielding commitment to a robust startup…
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On September 19, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 16-stop road tour across the U.S. came to Penn State University Park to connect tech entrepreneurs to the country’s largest source of early-stage funding – the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Also known as America’s…
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Phospholutions, a Penn State sustainable fertilizer startup, has raised up to $1.5 million in an investment round to support the full commercial launch of Phospholutions’ Rhizosorb product. The investment round was co-led by State College-based 1855 Capital and Maumee Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of The Andersons, Inc., a diversified…
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Several new and exciting startups launched by community and student entrepreneurs recently graduated from the Happy Valley LaunchBox Powered by PNC Bank FastTrack Accelerator. Their ideas spanned acne treatment, a better way to find a tech dream job or sublet an apartment, and a Smoke Shield System that increases the amount of time…
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When Penn State students Michael Miller and Jack Quinn applied for the Summer Founders Program in February, they thought they would spend the summer working on their idea LineHopper—a way for patrons to skip long fast food lines. However, when they went through Happy Valley LaunchBox Idea TestLab in the…
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spotLESS Materials LLC, a start-up company developed from research conducted in the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering, won third place and $367,500 at the 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) on April 6. Birgitt Boschitsch, former doctoral student and spotLESS CEO, Jing Wang, PhD graduate and technical advisor, Nan…
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The Summer Founders Program (SFP) awarded five student teams $10,000 each to work on their startup, nonprofit or social good venture full-time over the summer in State College. Of the 27 teams that applied to the program, nine semi-finalist teams were interviewed by the selection committee, and five finalist teams were invited…
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Close to 10 years ago, three Penn State students envisioned a space to bring community members, entrepreneurs, students, startups and small business owners together. Today New Leaf Initiative, a 5013C Non Profit, has become a vital coworking and collaboration space in the heart of State College. And in 2104 expanded…
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