News

Ben Ford ’23 is changing philanthropy for good

young man looking into the camera

Many first forays into the frustrating ordeal of fundraising, perhaps for some school project or trip, involve asking scores of people with little success, only to fall back on the donations of kind family members. Anyone whose raised funds for a social campaign, college club, or charitable organization knows how time consuming and frustrating it can be to pour energy into advertising with resulting minimum contributions. What if there were a more effective form of fundraising, a way to spread the word not just across your immediate social network but to those around the world who cared about your work?

Ben Ford ’23, studying marketing in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and data analytics in the School of Information Studies, hopes to create a system of fundraising that maximizes both financial and social impact. Ford’s company, Fundwurx, is a multi-service platform that works to accelerate impact driven projects by using data, algorithms, and AI

to pair donors with funding needs according to one’s social passions, skills, and interests.

Built on the knowledge that 80% of crowdfunding campaigns fail, Ford is committed to creating a new platform in the fundraising space, by adhering to this underserved market in order to better connect people and projects.

Ford’s inspiration comes from his own disheartening experiences raising funds for meaningful social projects. Committed to philanthropy and doing good wherever he is, Ford in high school had a legacy for the number of social projects he was involved with. From raising money for pediatric cancer research, to selling reusable bags in his community to reduce single-use plastic bags, Ford cared about bettering the world around him and valued making a difference in his community. 

When he was asked to lead a project designing a sustainable study space for his school filled with upcycled furniture and live moss walls, Ford immediately took on the challenge. There was just one problem — the school didn’t have funding for the project. Challenged to raise funding  on his own, Ford endeavored to find the means for a $15,000 dollar project through community funding. “We expected this thing to blow up in no time,” Ford recalled their fundraising efforts. Yet they were not as successful as hoped. “There are so many people who care about the environment and a project like this would be so attractive to people all over the world- but they had no idea of knowing who we are.”

Hoping to forge a way for impact projects to connect with passionate donors all around the world, Ford stuck the idea of an online algorithm-driven fundraising platform in his back pocket. This past year at Syracuse, Ford’s idea surfaced through competition in a business competition at the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University.

Ford had always been an entrepreneur. In addition to the multitude of social projects he worked tirelessly on, he started his own company in high school for tailgate apparel: Jersey Boy Apparel. After successfully growing and running Jersey Boy Apparel from high school into college, the LaunchPad competition CuseTank caught his eye in fall 2020 to generate funding for scaling his company. Ford had never competed in a business competition before but brought his pitch and vision, and won. Impressed by his talent, others urged him to compete in the next LaunchPad competition: The Impact Prize. Yet Jersey Boy Apparel was not an impact-driven business and could not qualify to compete in the competition. So, Ford, intrigued and excited by the possible prospects of business competitions, decided to enter the competition on a whim with his idea for impact fundraising, and in short notice threw together a full pitch deck and presented in merely a week, and won. Again.

After this, Ford knew he wanted to pursue his fundraising idea. Starting in January, in the past few months he has defined his company vision and model, placed in several other business pitch competitions, incorporated as an LLC, created a clickable prototype, built a board of advisors, and is now working with software developers to create the MVP for his company. By summer he hopes to have secured angel investors to fund further development for launching Fundwurx.

Ford is being mentored by many, including LaunchPad alumni Matt Shumer who is his AI expert and is providing strategic insight into building a scalable company.

Ford’s vision to transform the landscape of giving for good is on a swift trajectory towards success. Philanthropy is evolving and as Ford has mentioned, there is a need for a service like this to reshape fundraising and create the new era of giving. Fundwurx strive to build an environment where donors can become mentors and provide the help and support projects need to succeed. Ford cares about fostering strong relationships and constructing greatness through the help of others.

Ford’s story of an idea carried around for years in the hope to impact society for better inspires action for individual ideas of helping make the world a better, more generous place.

In Ford’s own words, “We are at the forefront of the rise in social impact, which is led by a generation of do-ers, with a care to do good that will last forever in the world and help lay the groundwork for a better future.”

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23; photo supplied

Jon Templeton ‘23 launches his first application, Skosh!, on the App Store

student in a blue shirt

Python, MATLAB and Swift — For people who are not coding enthusiasts, all these programming languages may sound like something that will never be their cup of tea. For Jon Templeton, however, he is a passionate explorer and problem-solver in the field of computer science.

Templeton, a computer science sophomore at the College of Engineering and Computer Science of Syracuse University, just launched his first application, Skosh!, via App Store in April. This is the project that he has spent much of his time over the past year designing and developing. He is the type of person who eventually found his real interests after immerging in and practicing in the world.

Back in his high school time, Templeton is part of Team USA, a competitive drone racing team of the Drone Champions League. He served as a drone pilot and designer and won sixth place in several national competitions. Because of his outstanding performances, he also received sponsorships from several companies in the droning industry. This experience, more importantly, led him to his major of aerospace engineering.

“I really enjoyed the MATLAB class that I took in school, but I wanted to do more because that was kind of limited in what I can do [in class],” Templeton said. “Then, I went ahead to learn Python over the summer [of 2020] and started getting pretty interested in it.”

Because of his passion for learning more about coding, Templeton decided to switch his major to computer science, which focuses more on coding, starting in the spring of 2021. As this is the first semester in the new major, he took a few introductory classes that serve to build up his base for further engineering.

Besides normal coursework, however, Templeton is an eager learner and explorer in the field that he always wants to figure out something more by himself to develop some projects.

“I wanted to do different projects that were more mainstream, so I was just kind of motivated by what we learned in the classroom and wanting to dive deeper,” Templeton said. Skosh! is what he created during his spare time.

The idea of Skosh! came from Templeton’s thought of designing a good way for couples to talk and give one another a love note, and this note can be shown on the home screen by using widgets on an iPhone. Therefore, Templeton started in December 2020 to teach himself how to code and design an application like this.

It is not an easy process for Templeton to develop this application because he is not an experienced developer and, more importantly, knew no one to reach out to when he encountered problems except using tutorials.

“I had been working, which took me a long time, to fix all the bugs [for the application] because there’s just a lot of different test cases that it’s hard to do all of them,” Templeton said, adding that he ultimately found a couple of friends to help beta test.

Fixing bugs took Templeton plenty of time because he has been the only developer so far for the application. When he was the only one writing and designing the program, he was aware of all the “ins and outs” that he might not encounter any inconvenience during his using process. Nevertheless, as soon as he introduced the app to more new users, they provided various feedback that was not something Templeton expected during the designing process.

“I have to make sure that the application runs smoothly for every single user,” Templeton said. “Some of the issues I ran into with it were in development or the lack of documentation, especially with widgets because they’re still beta on the Apple documentation, so it was really difficult to get help from anyone.”

The documentation that Templeton referred to is that for all coding languages, whenever they implement a new feature or a language in general, they will give developers instructions and tools — documentation and exemplar cases of how a certain function should be used with a description of what it exactly does.

“A lot of the apple documentation, however, it gives you a good description of what it is, but there aren’t a lot of examples of somebody using it,” Templeton said, which caused him more problems during the developing process.

The whole developing and pre-launching process took Templeton around four months, and he finally got the approval and launched his application on the App Store in April. Right now, instead of fully focusing on polishing the application, Templeton also hopes to spread the word to more people for getting a wider user base.

Recalling back his long process of developing Skosh!, Templeton is satisfied with and proud of his achievement so far.

“I’m happy that I got it on the App Store, and that was the goal of this project,” Templeton said. “I also don’t have any bugs [so far,] so I’m really happy that people can use it smoothly.”

Download the five-star rated app and give it a try this summer:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skosh/id1549767246

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Kaizhao Zero Lin ’21; Photos supplied

Insights: How mentors can help your entrepreneurial journey

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Imagine learning calculus without a professor or Tae Kwon Do without an instructor. It’s doable, perhaps, but you’ll learn more slowly, experience a more mistakes along the way, and miss out on some valuable tips and tricks that would help you better understand the process.

Or, consider this situation: You have been banging your head against the wall trying to figure out the best bookkeeping platform to use for your small business. Maybe you’re looking to develop an app but don’t know what tech platform to use to create a Minimum Viable Product.

Or maybe you have a bigger decision you need to make: What if you aren’t sure how many shares of your startup to give up for investment funding? Or don’t know how to select the right people for your team? Perhaps you don’t understand the patent process or how to develop a customer acquisition model to develop and manage potential client leads.

But who do you turn to with these questions? How do you find a Sherpa for life, business, and entrepreneurship?

The answer is a mentor.

A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who you can turn to for questions, feedback, and guidance. An entrepreneur can have multiple mentors for different purposes. For instance, you may have a knowledgeable CEO answer your questions about developing a strong business model in your industry, but you may also be in contact with a software programmer who could help you identify technical flaws in your program.

Where do you find these mentors? Often times, they are within your very own network. It’s important to take time and reflect on who you know that could be a valuable connection in starting your business. Friends? Relatives? Past employers? Co-workers? Fellow students? Past speakers from networking events?

If there is still a certain subject matter expert you lack within your own network, begin to ask whether those around you know someone they can connect you directly with. Do you have  friends or advisors who have an extensive network of their own? They can introduce you to exactly who you need.

Otherwise, it’s time to do some proactive networking anew. With a few LinkedIn messages and phone calls, you could very well be on your way to forming a mentorship relationship with someone you previously thought was out of reach.

Here are some tips to get started on reaching out to a potential mentor on LinkedIn or over email:

  • Make sure your message is personalized. Do not send the same cold message to every person you reach out to. Do some research on why this connection would be a good fit and make sure to add a personal touch with a note about work of theirs you admire or similarities you share.
  • Come prepared with a question (or several) and any materials relevant to the questions you need answered. This will demonstrate that you are dedicated, organized and engaged, making you someone a mentor would be more eager to work with.
  • If you ask for a phone call, ask for a brief one. If your new connection chooses to spend an hour talking with you once you get them on the phone, that’s great! But to start, ask for just 10 minutes of their time, and they will be more open to hopping on a call with you. Once you’re on call, stick to the promised time unless they offer to speak longer. 
  • Follow up with a thank you email and continue to build your relationship with the potential mentor. If they are open to answering more questions, include another in your email or schedule check-in phone calls to touch base and provide updates.

Once you have a mentor, it’s imperative that you offer them the sincere gratitude and recognition they deserve. When you pitch your business, make sure you have a slide or section that highlights your advisors.

Unsure where to start looking for a mentor? Syracuse University’s Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars has on-line resources for mentoring, along with an extensive network of seasoned alumni experts and successful entrepreneurs.  It also offers a peer-to-peer Rubin Family Innovation network staffed by successful student founders.  Additionally it hosts an Entrepreneur in Residence Program with top notch alumni and faculty advisors. 

Interested in becoming a LaunchPad mentor? Apply here.

Want to find a mentor? Start connecting with LaunchPad mentors by joining here and requesting a mentor here, or email us at launchpad@syr.edu.

Story by Sasha Temerte ’23, LaunchPad Orange Ambassador

Student startups win Panasci Business Plan Competition

students holding a prize check
Jack Lyons (left) and Sam Hollander

Congratulations to Syracuse University student startups who captured $35,000 in prize funding in the annual The Panasci Business Plan Competition hosted by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.  Winners wrote compelling business plans for new products, services or technology platforms they created as student entrepreneurs. 

Capturing first place was Samuel Hollander ‘21 and Jack Lyons ‘21, who secured $20,000 to help grow FSCL, a technology-driven solution to catalyze the use of Income Share Agreements (ISAs) to finance higher education.

Ambassadoor Technologies won second place, with Bruno Gonzalez Hauger ‘21 and Marco Gonzalez Hauger ’22 (ECS) winning $7,500 to scale its mobile platform that automates digital campaigns for both brands and micro-influencers. Third place went to Sice-Me, led by Alexander Rolinski ’24, with a $2,500 award for its mobile platform that creates insular marketplaces for college and high school populations. 

In addition, Sice-Me and Rolinski won the $4,000 were presented with the Gilded Social Rising Entrepreneur Award.

Read the full story in Whitman Voices here.

Two Syracuse student teams win New York Business Plan Competition

Bruno Gonzalez Hauger (left) and Alexander Rolinski

Two Syracuse University LaunchPad student teams received first and second place in the 12th annual New York Business Plan Competition hosted by the Upstate Capital Association of New York on May 7. Ambassadoor Technologies placed first in the Software and Services category and Sice-Me placed second in the Consumer and Business Products category.  Teams received cash prizes and ongoing mentorship to advance their student-led ventures.

Overall, this year’s state competition involved 55 colleges and universities, 269 startup teams and 607 students competing for top honors.

Ambassadoor Technologies, founded by Bruno Andres Gonzalez Hauger ’21 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), connects small businesses to nano-influencers on Instagram through innovative iOS mobile applications.  The company created a business app and an influencer app to streamline the entire influencing process on both ends of a deal.  

Sice-Me, founded by Alexander Peter Rolinksi ’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), is a mobile application available for download that creates insular marketplaces for college and high school campuses and their students.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the innovation and effort of these two teams,” said David Seaman, Dean of Syracuse University Libraries. “They demonstrated professionalism and an entrepreneurial spirit, utilizing technology and platforms, to provide a solution that has the potential to impact college students and businesses across campuses everywhere.”

Virtual technology commercialization series with the CNYBAC

Our innovation colleagues at the Central New York Biotech Accelerator and Upstate Medical University are sponsoring a series of commercialization workshops from May 12 – July 20, open to ecosystem partners including Syracuse University faculty researchers and student innovators.  Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from experts about technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and commercialization. 

CNYBAC Concept to Commercialization Virtual Series events are free, although registration is required. 

May 12:  How SUNY Can Support Your Technology or Startup with Michael Krenicky, Patent Attorney and Nicholas Querques, Director of New Ventures, SUNY Research Foundation — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0rduCgqzooHNWOPoPNI-9_3TrYalgq3Nxf

May 26: Qualified Emerging Technology, Research and Development Tax Credits, Cyber Liability/First Party Coverage — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItcu6oqDsiHtd1Zig-aLLeY5RTZcfIzDh6

June 2:  Insurance for Clinical Trials: Product Liability & Recall — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrd-morTstE9G7X75CGTRb8GUZv8RrVmC4 

June 16: NY Ventures – Providing Capital to Grow and Support Early Stage/High-growth Startups — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqf-mrqT4rG92nmWJ4M6P0m0iaQOXL5XMS

June 30:  Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Process
https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrde6rqDwqG9X9kIaeg539LIrV0LqUw_EA

July 8:  MeetUp with Business Incubator Association of NYS (BIANYS) — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0oc-2hqTwqGdK6_4Lzzy4GLLVVX0w0cV9L

July 20:  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and HubSpot — https://upstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIuduCuqjosHtB7dnqIfh4LnIFU7F498m57

Learn more about ecosystem partner events:  www.cnybac.com/events/

Become a Schwarzman Scholar. Learn more on Friday, April 23.

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Christian Tanja (purple tie) with a group of Schwarzman Scholars — photo taken pre-pandemic

Christian Tanja, a representative from the Schwarzman Scholars program, will be hosting an information session via Zoom for students about the program on Friday, April 23rd from noon to 1 pm.We encourage Syracuse University student scholars to consider applying to join another outstanding group of talented young leaders from all corners of the world.  Schwarzman Scholars is a competitive program that funds students to attend a one-year master’s degree program in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Schwarzman Scholars is especially looking for applicants with a demonstrated history of leadership on and off campus and clear academic and professional goals.

Kyle Rosenblum ’20 and Mallie Prytherch ‘G19 – Scholars for Schwarzman’s class of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 respectively – will also be discussing their experiences applying for and participating in the program.

Students from any discipline are encouraged to apply.  Interested students should register here for the information session. For questions and to request accommodations, please email cfsa@syr.edu.

With a front row seat to global leadership and practical opportunities to construct interdisciplinary solutions, Schwarzman Scholars are better positioned to succeed and more in demand around the world than ever before.

The program is open to candidates between the ages of 18 and 28 years old, regardless of nationality, who are proficient in English and have obtained an undergraduate degree or its equivalent.

To access the U.S./Global application and learn more about requirements please visit the Schwarzman Scholars website.

The Schwarzman Scholars U.S./Global application deadline is September 21, 2021 – 11:59PM, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Click here to view the full Application Instructions.

Join us for virtual panels on April 21 and April 30 to jumpstart your summer

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Join us for two great Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars meetups with panels of great speakers on how you can leverage entrepreneurship as a side hustle, and how to invent your summer internship.  As the end of the semester approaches, we know you’re looking for the best use of your time this summer.  These two panels will jumpstart your thinking.

Entrepreneurship as a Side Hustle — Wednesday, April 21, 1:00 p.m.

How can you balance entrepreneurship with other priorities? Patrick McGinnis, author of “The 10% Entrepreneur” and “Fear of Missing Out: Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice” will share the stories of successful entrepreneurs who engage in entrepreneurship outside of their day jobs. Patrick will explain how it is possible to have the stability of a day job with the excitement of a startup.  Register here 

Invent Your Internship: How to Pitch For a Role — Friday, April 30, 1:00 p.m.

Justin Lokitz, Innovation Mentor & Co-founder at Accelab will speak with a group of student panelists (Diego Espanola Ramirez, Luísa Andrade, and JB Brathwaite) about college internships, diving into questions about applying for your dream position, making the most of a summer job, and working in a startup environment.  Register here.

Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars virtual programming is a great way to meet other founders, share ideas, and hear from fantastic experts.  Don’t miss these meetups.

Applications close April 27 for LaunchPad Summer Fellowships

Applications are closing April 27 for a unique LaunchPad Summer Startup Fellowship that offers stipends from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation for the most inspiring student startups across the global LaunchPad & Techstars network. The eight-week Fellowship will make 50 awards of $5,000 in grant funding to support founders working on advancing their startup companies.

The Fellowship is open to all current students and recent graduates in the LaunchPad Network.  Applicants will be judged based on the quality of their video pitch, articulation of realistic goals and milestones, quality and detail of the proposal narrative, description of next steps following the Fellowship, and need statement. Special consideration will also be given to ensure selected companies represent the diversity of the LaunchPad Network.

As with a typical Fellowship, this initiative is largely self-directed and independent of a strict curriculum. Because of this, it is critical that applicants have demonstrated the ability to work independently with little guidance or structure.

Applicants must:

  • Be a current student (undergraduate level, graduate-level) or a recent graduate (2020) and active participant in LaunchPad programming on campus
  • Have an existing startup company
  • Be self-motivated and driven to complete work independently and with minimal oversight
  • Have well-defined goals and milestones to be completed within the eight-week period of the fellowship
  • Be past the idea-stage and already have a pitch deck, executive summary, a logo, a website, LinkedIn account, Twitter account, and ideally, a prototype
  • Have traction such as early sales, MOUs, funding raised, customer interest, etc.
  • Have demonstrated leadership in both executing the business and galvanizing support
  • Have experience working with mentors, integrating feedback into their venture, and show coachability

It is strong advised that you reach out to the LaunchPad at Syracuse University to discuss this opportunity if you are applying.  Contact us by at LaunchPad@syr.edu so we can help track Syracuse University applicants.

Application link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DZ65Q2C

Key Dates:

  • Applications close: April 27
  • Students notified of selection: May 10
  • External team announcement: May 17
  • Fellowship runs June 14 -August 6

Workshop Topics and Tentative Dates:

  • Onboarding: June 15
  • Workshop 1: June 22
  • Social 1: June 24
  • Workshop 2: June 29
  • Workshop 3: July 6
  • Trivia: July 8
  • Workshop 4: July 13
  • Workshop 5: July 20
  • Social 3: July 22
  • Workshop 6: July 27
  • Completion Call: August 3

Upon receipt of final report, program deliverables, and completed financial documentation, payments will be issued in August 2021

Winners announced of inaugural Intelligence ++ Competition

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MeetCute won the $15,000 gold prize, HG Sensory won the $10,000 silver prize and Fundwurx won the $5,000 bronze prize at the first ever Intelligence ++ Competition. Ten interdisciplinary teams from Syracuse University were selected to present proposals for products, services or technologies that enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. Supported by a generous gift to SU Libraries by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 and the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence (Intelligence++), the challenge was a partnership between the LaunchPad at SU Libraries, the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education (InclusiveU) and the  College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA). 

Students came from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Whitman School of Management, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Newhouse School of Public Communications and the School of Information Studies.  Interdisciplinary teams included Syracuse University students studying industrial and interaction design, communications design, fashion design, finance, marketing, data analytics, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprise, mechanical engineering, bioengineering, digital media, advertising, television, radio and film, and information technology.  InclusiveU students also participated on the teams and provided important input on design, accessibility and user feedback.

Teams and members included:

  • Attainable Accessibility with team members Shravani Jadhav, Assul Larancuent, Elizabeth Fatade and Robert Howes
  • CENTRE with team members Noah Hollander and Natalie Liu
  • Drum Flower with team members James Ruhlman and Noah Johnson
  • Fundwurx (Bronze prize) with Ben Ford
  • HG Sensory (Silver prize) with team members Sam Hollander, Grace McDonald, Hannah Woodruff, Kaitlyn Brach, Morgan McMinn and Hannah Frankel
  • inclusiv with team members Emiri Vitoontien and Gokul Beeda
  • MeetCute (Gold prize) with team members Madison Worden and Natalie Liu
  • SmartSupport with team members Patrick McGrath and Cynthia Garcia
  • UrMentor with team members Ricardo Sanchez, Ramya Swaminathan and Maya Gupta
  • Wo-Manly with team members Kelly Davis and Patrick Prioletti

The flagship Intelligence ++ program spanned an entire academic year, supported by the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence, which was founded by Gianfranco Zaccai. The foundation seeks to develop, stimulate and leverage technological, educational and organizational innovation to enable and empower individuals with intellectual disability, their families and their communities to improve quality of life, enhance independence and productivity, lower cost and benefit society. 

The April 16 event featured remarks by:  David Seaman, Dean of Syracuse University Libraries; Gianfranco Zaccai, Founder, Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence; Emily Stokes-Rees, Director, School of Design, College of Visual & Performing Arts; Joanna Masingila, Dean of the School of Education; Beth Myers, Executive Director, The Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education; Don Carr, Program Coordinator, M.F.A. in Design and Industrial and Interaction Design; and Linda Dickerson Hartsock, Executive Director, Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars, Syracuse University

Judges for the competition included:

  • Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09, a renowned global innovator and designer who was co-founder of Continuum, now EPAM Continuum, a global innovation by design consultancy with offices in Boston, Milan, Seoul and Shanghai. Zaccai is a champion of holistic and interdisciplinary innovation research, design and development. His vision has resulted in many highly successful category-defining products, including the Reebok Pump, P&G’s Swiffer and the Omnipod Insulin Delivery System. He is former chair of the Design Management Institute and past president of the Aspen Conference.
  • Doug Cramer ‘87, managing principal of Alternative Access Capital, LLC (“AAC”), an independent broker-dealer and alternative investments advisory firm, who is also an Advisory Board member of both the Whitman School of Management Advisory Board and the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education;
  • Leo Sarkissian, Executive Director of The Arc of Massachusetts which enhances the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The Arc fulfills this through advocacy for community supports and services that foster social inclusion, self-determination and equity across all aspects of society.
  • Emily Stokes-Rees, associate professor of museum studies and interim director of the School of Design at Syracuse University.  Stokes Rees is a material anthropologist whose research centers on evolving ideas around cultural citizenship, and she also has worked on a wide variety of museum projects and exhibitions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.

The event also featured a panel discussion with Jill Rothstein and Quinn King.

Rothstein is an award-winning accessibility, inclusion and innovation advocate at The New York Public Library, and chief librarian of the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library.  She co-led the committee for serving children with special needs, and co-led inclusion and advocacy training for New York Public Library and is the winner of the NYC Mayor’s Office Sapolin Accessibility Award for Communication and Technology.  She is also the winner of the Kennedy Center LEAD Emerging Leader Award. 

King ’20, won 11 competitions as a VPA industrial and interaction student and co-founder of MedUX, a user centered medical device design company.  King served as an alumni mentor for the Intelligence ++ program.

Descriptions of the venture ideas are below:

  • Attainable Accessibility is making accessibility more attainable for power chair users using innovative technology identified by Inclusive U student Robert Howes. “Accessibility should promote equity. We believe every person should be able to be in control of their own mobility. Having this control promotes confidence and independence. People with a lack of mobility should not have to sacrifice this. Attainable accessibility will bring inclusivity by giving those who aren’t mobile independence through smart technology that utilizes voice control.”
  • CENTRE is a device that uses sensors designed to assist students with disabilities by limiting the effects of distractions and helping to regain focus and concentration. “CENTRE provides wearable devices with a connected network of touch points where the user can monitor their levels of distraction.  The device tracks eye movements through EEG and a Bluetooth enabled app that connects to phones and smart watches to monitor, record and help resolve distraction with a goal of improving overall lifestyle and wellbeing.”
  • Drum Flower is an interactive sculpture for public spaces that serves as a place for congregation and community bonding. This installation is designed specifically so people with disabilities can also access and engage the community. “The project addresses the marginalization of people with disabilities, specifically with inclusion and connection to their community. Our project’s purpose is to give people a means of communicating and interacting nonverbally with others in a public space.”
  • Fundwurx is multi-service platform that works to accelerate impact driven projects and better connect them with donors, while also providing resources and tools to create an impact further than a donation.  “My company addresses the themes of Intelligence ++ for numerous reasons. The Zaccai Foundation seeks to develop technological, educational, and organizational innovation to enable and empower individuals. Similarly, Fundwurx focuses directly on these core values, using technological tools to create personalized philanthropy at scale.”
  • HG Sensory Enclosure is the world’s first sensory deprivation cocoon, enabling an easier dining experience for individuals with sensory disabilities. “Together, we have the power to enhance the dining experience for thousands of people across the world living with sensory disabilities.”
  • inclusiv is an Inclusive learning management system that increases the scope of learning and accommodate students with disabilities.  “There are 7 million students with disabilities in the American education system, and most of them are deprived of a seamless learning experience due to outdated learning management systems.  We are building an accessible platform from the ground up with tools and features like electronic braille, voice assistance, and content assistance.”
  • MeetCute is a dating and friendship app built with principles of universal design that is accessible to everyone.  “MeetCute is a safe and inclusive app for everyone looking to meet compatible people for companionship and dating.  The top dating apps on the app store are not compatible with the most common accessibility features such as voice-over, text to speech, and changing color contrast. MeetCute will change dating in an image-obsessed culture and provide genuine people a way to meet in a safe digital environment.”
  • Smart Support is an interface that allows people with disabilities to stay connected with their support network. “This app is targeted towards students or individuals who are living away from home and their support network for the first time.  This application focusses on empowering individuals and giving them full and complete control over their network.”
  • UrMentor is a mentorship program for InclusiveU students.  “The program would partner InclusiveU students with high schoolers from the local area as well as provide means of communication, goal-oriented activities, and workshops. The goal of the program is to help foster community, to motivate, and to create positive impact on youth with disabilities.”
  • Wo-manly is an on-line platform for women who are both neurotypical and neurodivergent, to build their own spaces and share their strengths in nontraditional spaces. “Wo-manly is an online platform for women to be empowered, empower others and make lifelong friendships. Wo-manly addresses the themes of Intelligence++ through inclusive design and entrepreneurship by creating an accessible platform for all women to join and build community spaces. Women can interact each other in a multitude of ways: text conversations, video and voice chats, coworking and hangout spaces, private messaging, and in-person meet ups. They can explore communities, and start their own, to make life long, supportive friendships.”