NYSTEC awards $50K to student entrepreneurs at Commercialization Academy

MARCY, N.Y. — The New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation (NYSTEC) has awarded $50,000 to teams of student entrepreneurs participating in the 2014 Commercialization Academy.

The Academy is a program that seeks to commercialize technologies in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

NYSTEC awarded the funding during an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) technology showcase held this past Saturday at the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute in Marcy.

Four student-led companies will share the cash award that NYSTEC presented during the event.

NYSTEC, a nonprofit offering specialized information-technology consulting services. has offices in Rome, Albany, and New York City. 

The Academy, which launched in August, is a program designed to pair student entrepreneurs with AFRL technologies and inventors to launch new tech ventures. In all, 25 students from 11 universities across New York participated in this year’s program.

The Academy is a program of the Chicago–based Startup Strategy Group, LLC, a nonprofit that product developers, serial entrepreneurs, and tech-commercialization “gurus” founded.

Startup Strategy Group announced the NYSTEC award in a news release the nonprofit distributed on Monday.

The nonprofit provides “education and resources for technology-based startups looking to turn their ideas into novel, innovative, and marketable products,” according to its website.

Each team presented its business case for commercializing select AFRL technologies to an audience of more than 100 investors, entrepreneurs, and members of the DoD.

The early-stage companies include an event-prediction technology for industrial processes, an artificial intelligence platform for 3D printers, an “effective” method for preventing malicious code from computers, and an inverted water bottle.

One of the winning teams included Jake Clintsman, a student at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Charlotte Hayden from Clarkson University; Christopher Kellogg from Utica College; and Ian Berringer from the Rochester Institute of Technology working with a company called Kognitive Systems.

Another winning team included Elizabeth Cassady and Elijah Cleveland from Clarkson University and Seth Samowitz and Louis Bookoff from Syracuse University working with a company called Cinder.

Two other Clarkson students, Colton Weaver and Katy Martin, were part of a third winning team working with a company called Lilo.

The fourth winning team included Adam Klitch and Alexandra Hudak, both students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, who worked with a company called ConSENSus.

The teams and the inventors behind these technologies worked hard to make these tech ventures a “reality,” Mike McCoy, founder of the Commercialization Academy and lead business mentor for the program, said in the news release.

“Our students have worked tirelessly to pick apart AFRL patents and collaborate with inventors, resulting in business concepts that are either ready to launch today, or within the next few months,” said McCoy.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com