Trinity Coates ’24 has a love for math and chemistry for as long she can remember. Since Coates was about seven years old, she fell in love with math, showing off her multiplication skills to her first-grade teacher.  Coates went to Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), a top rated, public, magnet, high school where she was part of a maker’s space working with 3D printers. One of her most exciting projects was making prosthetic hands and donating them to people who needed them.

This passion for making things was what prompted her to join Invent@SU, a summer accelerator program that would give her an opportunity to design, fabricate and get back into a maker’s space.

Coates had no idea what she was going to be inventing when she first came into the program.  She was there to contribute her knowledge and skills as a Chemical Engineering student at the College of Engineering and Computer Science.  She soon teamed up with a computer engineer and a bioengineer, together, they started their brainstorming process.

After thinking through a few ideas for inventions, Coates and her team decided on Ambiflux, an asthma monitoring and treatment device.  At first it seemed a bit intimidating but as they started, they quickly gained traction.  By the end of the accelerator program Ambiflux won second place with a prize of $4,500 in the final competition.

Ambiflux uses diagnostic technology to indicate whether your condition is worsening or improving after an asthma attack. A spirometry with a FEV1 unit and pressure sensors are integrated into the device to help detect how well a person can breathe and to detect air pressure and volume of air coming out of the lungs after an asthmatic episode.

This idea was solidified in a 3D printed prototype. Coates explains that the invention also tackled the delivery system because the teams feel medication in most inhalers do not get properly delivered to the lungs because of their design. Ambiflux’s design has a compact and transportable spacer built in which the teams say can help deliver medication to the lungs more effectively.

Coates and her team faced a few difficulties during the design process, such as calibrating the sensors. It was trial and error programming it, but they were successful.

Coates and the team saw a real use to the product and were grateful that the judges did as well.

Although Coates does not have future plans to further develop Ambiflux, she is interested in a few upcoming competitions at the Blackstone LaunchPad at Bird Library.

Coates loves chemical engineering and is considering graduate school as a next step.  She feels chemical engineering is a path where she can build an interesting career and make a positive impact on the environment with her knowledge.

Outside of math and chemistry, Coates also plays the guitar and the ukulele. Metal and rock music has been her music of choice lately. Hiking, nature and landscapes really speak to Coates as well. Whether it is photographing it, conserving it or helping it, Coates is ready for the adventure. 

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied

Before being interviewed for this story, Marcus Webb G’22 was in a three-hour long meeting about the Syracuse Surge Learning Community Program that Webb is putting together in his role as Economic Inclusion Fellow at CenterState CEO.  Webb is educating community members about opportunities in the tech workforce in Central Upstate New York through programs such as this and Generation Next, an initiative around equity, inclusion and racial justice. His goal is to develop collaborative ways to integrate the next generation’s ideas and talents into solving these challenges.

Webb graduated from Syracuse University in 2019 with a degree in economics and is now a graduate student at the Whitman School of Management, getting his Master of Business Administration.  After working for On Point for College, mentoring students and helping them connect for opportunities, he joined CenterState CEO which is focused on diverse talent development strategies. Webb is supporting that effort by shaping research projects and creating programming to support community engagement and economic development by underrepresented and diverse groups and individuals.  

Webb’s personal goal is to help young people from diverse backgrounds launch a career in the tech industry and succeed, working under the Tech and Culture initiative of CenterState CEO, which is sponsored by JP Morgan Chase.  He wants area college students at Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, LeMoyne, Onondaga Community College, SUNY Oswego and other regional campuses to connect to these resources to help them succeed in finding a rewarding job the tech industry. These opportunities include the Tech and Culture speaker series that Webb manages, which spotlights leaders in the tech industry while promoting diversity and inclusion in tech. The program helps students build a mental bridge between their college life and their future career.  Webb says it is meaningful for students to listen to someone who is successful in the tech industry, who also looks like them. 

Students can learn more about the events by visiting the CenterState CEO website or the Generation Next social media page.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied

Madison Worden ‘21 grew up on a farm in Binghamton and was in and out of the hospital a lot during her childhood. She found solace in making art. The fact that she could make something that was an extension of herself but was not attached to her life in anyway was cathartic. Her parents say that she has always been creative and see things in a way that other people don’t.

However, Worden was not only interested in arts. Being interested in both arts and design, as well as engineering and research, studying Industrial Design in the School of Design, at the College of Visual and Performing Arts was a natural choice for Worden. Industrial design was a line between design and engineering. A field where she could learn about a lot of different topics and focus on how products are made. Worden says that most designers design without knowing much about how things work.

“I am really interested in knowing how things work and feel like it helps me design better”, says Worden.

When Worden was a 3rd and 4th year student at SU, she was a research assistant working with  Dr. Louise Manfredi. The experience taught her how to merge design and engineering.

Over time, she became interested in researching how different technologies – both hardware and software — can be more accessible to people with disabilities.

“At this point, every industry needs to be looking at how their products will either help or hinder people with disabilities,” says Worden. “Most people will be disabled temporarily or permanently some time in their life. Keeping that in mind, will help companies innovate further.”

Accessible design has always been something Worden was interested in. Being very involved with the disability community throughout her whole life, Worden sees how inaccessible the world is to a lot of disabled people. This makes her passionate about accessible designs.

During her first year at Syracuse University, Worden was part of the Invent@SU. She designed a writing aid for people with limited hand function. She learnt that designers need to really recognize whether their inventions are actually helping or handicapping people with disabilities.

How can designers improve people’s lives instead of fixing them? Accessible design isn’t designing things for people with disabilities to adapt to a world built for able bodied people, but is designing for a better quality of life for people with disabilities.

Worden loves designing with that user experience in mind.

“At the end of the day, products are generally forgettable, but experience is memorable.”

Currently, Worden is working on an inclusive card game that can bring people together. The card will have a braille version, and colors and branding will work with vision impairments and more.

There has been a surge of popularity of card games, but Worden thinks there hasn’t been one that have been focusing on accessibility. Card games bring people together generally, not if they aren’t inclusive.

Many neurodiverse people have a problem with creating or maintaining friendships. A lot of non-disabled people also have the problem. This card game aims to help with this. Worden is in the stage of testing and developing a card game and hopes to launch by next year.

Winning the Intelligence ++ competition for the inclusive dating app MeetCute with her partner Natalie Lui, Worden said the experience opened her eyes into the startup world.

“We were designing a fully accessible dating app. We faced some difficulties like raising funds. We were trying to do something that we were not necessarily equipped for yet. We decided we needed to revisit our skills and our original concept, so we let our idea evolve into something that focus on accessibility and bringing people together in a fun and innovative way – the card game.”

The competition introduced her to the Blackstone LaunchPad, located in the Bird Library. Worden says that the LaunchPad definitely gave her confidence to pursue her passions and her only regret is that she didn’t join sooner.

When Worden isn’t busy designing and starting a business, she is busy baking, cooking, working out, motorbikes and watching the Formula 1 races. She hopes to get her very own motorcycle on day – maybe even the 1942 Harley Davidson Knucklehead.         

Story by Todd B. Rubin Diversity and Inclusion Scholar Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied

Edward Shao ’19 is an international man. From growing up with immigrant parents from Shanghai, China, to being raised in New York City, to now starting ProjectQRRestore, an environmentally conscious non-profit in Quintana Roo, Mexico, Edward Shao is definitely a lover of the world.

As a young teen, Shao was in love with magazines like the National Geographic and Scientific American. Shao always found it fascinating reading about the animals and the environment. He remembers reading about the white rhinos which are sadly extinct today. These magazines had an immense effect on Shao’s passion for the environment.

Apart from these magazines, teenage Shao also was aware of constant new scientific discoveries that promised to change the world. However, having a look around his city, things still looked the same. Where were all the great innovations that he was reading about? He was certainly not seeing any of it around him. He felt a disconnect between what he was reading and the reality he saw in NYC.

It should not then come as a surprise that Shao went to SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, majoring in Environmental Resources Engineering for his bachelor’s degree. He came to know Syracuse University’s innovation ecosystem through a class in the Whitman School of Management with the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises. One of the courses was taught by LaunchPad executive director Linda Hartsock and this was also how Shao got involved in the Syracuse University Blackstone LaunchPad located in the Bird Library.

At age 16, Shao did a study-abroad program in Latin America. He had studied Spanish in school for about four years but today he insists that you need to go down there and immerse yourself in the culture to truly live and breathe the language. After living with the welcoming families and wonderful people, Shao grew to love Latin America. Shao said that the people he met there were less materialistic and more spiritual, friendly, family-oriented and generally much happier than people in the U.S.

Taking back a picture of a mountain sunset view of Valparaiso, Shao promised himself that he would go back there one day. Shao also went to Tulum, Mexico for a vacation after college and joked that he wished his parents would have settled a life there.

Shao’s return to Quintana Roo, Mexico in October 2020 was prompted his decision to leave a government job and his love for the Yucatan Peninsula during that fateful vacation after college. Leaving for Mexico to escape U.S. turmoil and the cold winters, opportunities arose unexpectedly.

“When the world goes to chaos, you can only rely on yourself”, says Shao.

For six months last year, Shao lived throughout Quintana Roo and other states in Mexico, where he met people who invited him to work on an electric scooter rideshare startup. Along with his cofounder from London and team members from all over the world, Shao excitedly embarked on the adventure. However, this startup met with some difficulties.

Shao’s cofounder had great and honest intentions but not all of the other start-up members did. Due to a variety of complex reasons, the electric scooter business that existed in Mexico had gone through major difficulties including theft and interference from organized syndicates that control many business operations and the taxi industry throughout Quintana Roo. Uber drivers were being harassed and even assaulted, and the electric scooter business faced insurmountable challenges. 

As he saw the electric scooter business decline, Shao says he went back to the lesson learned in his Syracuse EEE classes that he could now put into use in real life. We remembered the value of being resilient and recognizing when to make a “pivot.” He realized that being a good entrepreneur means knowing when to switch focus and cut losses.

Shao talks about the Mayans and many indigenous people he met in the Yucatan and was  still drawn to the culture and tradition. He states that he felt a deep connection with them that has stayed with him. He learned that all indigenous people in the Americas first crossed over from Asia through Siberia over the Bering Land Bridge. So, one can say his ancestors were here first, he says.

Immersing himself in a different culture and society really gave Shao a different perspective on things. Shao says that different cultures have a lot to teach us, and we can learn by reading about it, but we don’t truly learn them until we live there.

Shao has now started Project QRRestore with some of the great people who had worked with him on his original start-up. The purpose of Project QRRestore is to unite environmentalists, professionals, and activists throughout Quintana Roo and restore and rebuild the ocean’s ecosystem by growing healthy mangroves and coral reefs.

Shao says that the ocean’s ecosystem is the same as it is on land except that it works with salt water, and he hopes to eventually work with oceans around the world.

He is now trying to win a competition through the Blue Climate Initiative to gain traction and funding for the non-profit to take it even further.

Shao has always loved the water. Growing up, he swam competitively, worked as a lifeguard for fun and scuba dives now. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide and covers so much of the world and coral sheefs shelter one-fourth of Earth’s aquatic species. Coastal communities around the world depends their livelihood on the ocean. People are starting to care about the environment more than they did before but eventually world news around climate change and environmental destruction are waking people up in dramatic ways.

There are good people in the world who truly care about the environment and Shao is certainly one of them.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied

Zachary Goldstein ’22 an iSchool major in Information Management and Technology with a concentration in cyber security, was always interested in tech since he was young. From being a kid obsessed with Legos to a teen unscrewing iPods, Goldstein is now a cyber security intern at National Grid.

Goldstein says the hands-on experience at National Grid has been very instrumental for him in learning more about what cyber security is and how the cyber security team operates.

At Syracuse University, Goldstein is the vice president of WiTec, a graduate student research organization, and co-founder and vice president of CryptoCuse, a club that educates fellow students about cryptocurrency with education and collaboration. Along with president of WiTec and co-founder and interim president of CryptoCuse, Catherine Forrest ’22, Goldstein has also created the blockchain start-up Edgucoin, a blockchain education platform and cryptocurrency. With Edgucoin, Forrest and Goldstein’s vision is to help people become more literate on cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Goldstein is passionate about blockchain and believes that blockchain will replace the web one day. All servers where the Internet is hosted are now centralized in a physical location, but Goldstein feels that when blockchain replaces the web, servers won’t be physical anymore.  Personal computers will be able to exist as servers and will be able to be stored in the cloud.

Technology is fascinating to Goldstein because it can do so much for people and everyone has a super computer in their pockets.  

When Goldstein was considering colleges, he heard Professor Lee McKnight, who is a faculty advisor for WiTec, give a webinar on blockchain technology, Goldstein was instantly interested in the subject. This prompted Goldstein to write his college essay on Bitcoin and blockchain technology and come to Syracuse University. Goldstein is an active member of the Blackstone LaunchPad at SU Libraries in Bird Library, which he uses as for collaboration.  LaunchPad executive director Linda Hartsock is also faculty advisor to Crypto Cuse which meets in the LaunchPad.

When not immersing himself in the world of technology, Goldstein likes to listen to old school rap or alternative music, as well as spend time with friends and ski on the Syracuse University ski team. Goldstein also used to be a lifeguard where he refined his work ethic.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied