This past weekend, ninety-some CCNY students joined us at Grand Central Tech in Midtown for a two-day retreat to kick off our 2018 Lean Startup Bootcamp. Here's a recap of the weekend:We kicked off Saturday with inspiring words from Joe Barba, Director of Entrepreneurship at CCNY. He spoke about the journey to come and shared: “Each and every one of you is going to struggle at some point, have setbacks, but that's okay. We'll be with you every step of the way. By the end of this program, you'll leave with much more than any other student gets to experience.”From there, we moved… Read More »
Yesterday, NYC Media Lab announced its third cohort of startup teams that joined Combine, its entrepreneurship program to commercialize emerging media technologies from faculty and students at the Citys universities. Among the selected startups is our own Ouvos, a community-based navigation app for cyclists. I sat down with the Ouvos team–Ahmed Ben Mansour, Kevin Navarra, and Salman Siraj–to learn more about the progress theyve made since our Accelerator, and what they hope to accomplish during Combine.Katherine Olives: So what is new with Ouvos? We spend almost every day with… Read More »
Although our Internship Program is popular on campus, many havent heard the story behind it. About two years ago, the Zahn Center approached BNY Mellon with a proposition. We wanted to find opportunities to apply the talent of the CCNY student body to solving needs in the social sector. Soon, the idea for a funded internship program for social enterprises and non-profits came to life. At last weeks Fall Internship Finale, our own Lindsay Siegel proudly announced that since the start of the program, thanks to BNY Mellon, weve been able to support 37 leading social enterprises in… Read More »
In late November, the American Association for the Advancement of Science presented the Forum on Inclusive STEM Entrepreneurship. The event was organized by key figures in the space including our own Kesia Hudson and Lindsay Siegel, and CCNYs Dean of Engineering, Gilda Barabino. It brought together a diverse set of leaders in STEM and entrepreneurship to share best practices, network, and plan for more a more inclusive tech and startup space.One of the main goals of the Zahn Center is to cultivate more women entrepreneurs, and create a pipeline to the C Suite. In the same sense,… Read More »
This year we piloted a program to give CCNY students an opportunity to develop their skills by working on projects out of our MakerLab. As our own Technology Program Director, Devin Voorsanger, puts it, Were a teaching hospital for engineers. Its like an apprenticeship that builds on what students have learned in their classes to prepare them for industry careers. And after one semester, were very pleased that one of our SuperUsers, Jason Pratt–part of a cohort of 24 students specializing in Software, CAD Design, Electronics, and Advanced Manufacturing–was offered a full-time… Read More »
You may remember Motion2Movement (formerly known as Active Hands), as the winner of the 2017 Kaylie Prize. Since then, the team has been working hard on a pilot program with Burke Rehabilitation Hospital here in New York. Now theyre embarking on a new journey! Theyve been accepted into the Bio & Health Tech Entrepreneurship Lab NYC (or ELab)s 6-month training and mentorship program for aspiring entrepreneurs in NYCs life sciences and healthcare technology community. ELabs program is designed to assist biotech, medtech, and life science innovators. Its comprised of a mini-MBA… Read More »
We are thrilled to share the new Zahn Center Cohort of the 2018 Competitions! This year our process was more competitive than ever, and we were truly impressed by the quality and creativity of the ideas we received. We are looking forward to working with the new class of startups over the coming months as they tackle important problems with their entrepreneurial solutions.Over the past few weeks, weve worked with expert judges €“ from investors to successful entrepreneurs, educators to executives €“ to help select our entries. Zahn staff then held interviews with the top… Read More »
We couldnt have chosen our 2018 Startup Competition Cohort without the help of our expert judges — investors, entrepreneurs, public officials, educators, and CCNY alumni who took the time to read dozens of student applications, provide feedback, and score startups based on a variety of factors, including market value and innovation.A huge thank you to: Jack Abel, Namisha Bahl, Lisa Balter Saacks, Joe Barba, Marom Bikson, Gerardo Blumenkrantz, Claude Brathwaite, Art Brody, Elaine Chin, Yaroslav Chinskiy, Andrew Conde, Jared Day, Frank DeBernardis, Kate Debold, Sean Dhadialla,… Read More »
The Zahn Center's MakerLab is getting an upgrade! In June, the Manhattan Borough Presidents Office awarded the MakerLab with $500,000 in capital funds. The award will enable us to dramatically improve our manufacturing offerings by adding short run manufacturing capabilities to the equipment in our MakerLab, a rapid prototyping facility designed for student entrepreneurs and the hardware startup community. The new equipment and improvements will bring lasting impact to CCNY and Harlem, more broadly. We are incredibly grateful to Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Matthew… Read More »
On Thursday evening, Veripad took home $50,000 at MassChallenge's annual awards ceremony in Boston. They competed with 127 other startups from around the country to earn a spot in the accelerator's Top 26, and were eventually selected as one of 16 startups to receive a piece of MassChallenge's $1 million cash prize.Veripad has come a long way form their start at the Zahn Center. After winning the 2016 Zahn Social Impact Prize, and completing our Accelerator Program, Veripad learned more about how to reach their customers in the Google Adopt-a-Startup program. From there,… Read More »
Last Updated: 10/08/2020 22:24