Every May, Cornell Tech hosts Open Studios on its campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island, celebrating student startups and presenting cutting-edge research and projects as an annual end-of-year event. The 2024 event will take place on May 17 from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm, this year coinciding with the annual New York City-wide NYCxDESIGN festival.
The 2024 Open Studios event will feature Cornell Tech’s annual Startup Awards as the evening’s main event. The Startup Awards marks a key milestone in students’ entrepreneurial journeys. Ten teams graduating from Cornell Tech’s Startup Studio course will present the company ideas they developed in the course, and up to five teams will receive $100,000 in pre-seed funding and co-working space at the Tata Innovation Center. A panel of judges made up of technology industry leaders and executives, and Cornell University and Cornell Tech faculty will select the winning student team, which will be announced following the presentations at the event.
Last year’s Startup Award winners included Esger, Fig Medical, Gaia Computer Technologies and Project B. Fig Medical was recently recognized by Poets & Quants as one of the most disruptive MBA startups of 2023. Project B has also been selected to participate in a program for founders and startups hosted by Newlab and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
During Open Studios, one of the highlights visitors can explore will be a display of this semester’s projects from INFO 6940, “Participatory Design in Digital Making,” taught by Niti Parikh, as well as other innovative efforts supported by MakerLABs across campus. Cornell Tech’s MakerLABs are designed to help students, faculty, and the entire campus community bring concepts to life. Equipped with cutting-edge digital manufacturing tools and resources, MakerLABs seamlessly evolve ideas from initial sketches to polished prototypes.
The evening will conclude with networking and informal opportunities for students, faculty, industry professionals and community members to mingle over food and beverages.
Members of the media may apply to attend the event by emailing cornell@berlinrosen.com.
Here’s a breakdown of activities and locations throughout the event:
3-4 p.m.: Faculty and student demonstrations in the Extended Reality (XR) and Robotics Lab, and presentations of work across campus. Cornell Tech’s MakerLAB, equipped with cutting-edge digital manufacturing tools, will showcase the “Participatory Design in Digital Making” project and other innovative student work. (Tata Innovation Center)
4-5:15 PM: Ten student startup teams will pitch their business ideas and compete for five $100,000 investment grants and on-campus startup space from Cornell Tech. A panel of tech industry leaders and executives, as well as Cornell Tech faculty and staff, will select the five winning student teams. (Outdoor tent)
5:30-6:30 p.m.: Demo spaces will reopen across campus, where student “BigCo” teams will present the results of tech-enabled solutions born out of collaborations with large corporations (Tata Innovation Center and Verizon Executive Education Center).
6:30-8 p.m.: 2024 Cornell Tech Startup Awards winners announcement and networking reception (outdoor tent and Tata Innovation Center).
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