Meet the 4th Cohort of the Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator

Rev: Ithaca Startup Works is excited to welcome 15 new entrepreneurs to the fourth annual cohort of the Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator.

Funded by the U.S Economic Development Administration and supported by the Cornell University College of Engineering, the accelerator supports hardware startups that are ready to bring their prototypes into production. The cohort-based program gives founders the skills needed to bridge the gap between producing 1 unit and producing 1,000 units – often considered one of the biggest hurdles in the startup journey.  

Over the course of the year-long program, the cohort will have access to business mentorship, local manufacturers, and manufacturing expertise and advice, to keep moving forward towards successful manufacturing. The cohort meets virtually twice a month and will gather in Ithaca, NY three times during the program for field trips and further hands-on manufacturing experiences. 

Each team will also be assigned a dedicated entrepreneur-in-residence as a resource for advice and mentorship. Participants will graduate in September 2024 with the skills, connections, and resources needed to bring their products to the market.

Meet the participating teams in the Classic Track of the 2023-24 Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator:  

• AirVitalize: Emily Roos and Serena Allen are helping local governments improve air quality to save millions of dollars in EPA sanctions.
• Corlear: Lawrence Hinkey is the inventor of Corlear North America Inc, a corporation focused on fabrication and marketing the Puelche Dryer product line. 
• Konekted.me: Founder Thebe Tsatsimpe is making clean energy affordable and accessible for tenants in multi-unit residential and student buildings by supporting landlords to share solar and battery power among their tenants through a subscription-based model. 
• LUMIQ Inc: Michael Wieckowski is the founder of LUMIQ Inc., a company that manufactures a new type of IoT display platform that combines real time data with printed artwork and graphics.
• PigPug Health: Vitali Karpeichyk of PigPug Health is building an AI-driven neurofeedback platform that provides drug-free support and therapy to children with ADHD and ASD. The product leverages AI to analyze data from neurofeedback wearable devices to provide personalized mental health support to children and their caregivers. 
• ReviMo: Aleksandr Malashchenko is the founder of ReviMo, a company that is aimed to help people who currently cannot leave a bed without external help to become more independent and perform toileting and other everyday tasks on their own.
• TEKS: Jeff Yang of TEKS is creating spike covers that are the perfect solution for athletes who want to safely and conveniently traverse non-track surfaces while wearing track spikes. Made of durable and elastic materials, TEKS are easy to put on, allowing for a quick transition between track and non-track surfaces.
• Vision by Scope: Founders Justin McCoy and John Home are automating the inspection of critical rope applications, thus increasing operational safety and efficiency with greater accuracy than is achievable through human visual inspection alone.
• Wayside: Founder James Werbe is developing the world’s first commercial immersion cooled stationary storage system that’s safer and more efficient than anything else on the market.

“We want to use the wealth of prototyping, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship resources that Rev has to finalize our engineering prototype and push past the prototyping stage into mass production,” said Jeff Yang of TEKS. 

This year also marks the second cohort of the Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator’s AgTech track, where those working on prototypes in the food and agricultural technology industries will receive specialized training and mentorship.

Meet the teams participating in the AgTech Track of the 2023-24 Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator:

• Aruna Revolution: Founder Gurleen Bajway is revolutionizing the way we manage our menstrual health by creating a compostable menstrual pad made from local food and crop waste.
• LuminoStream Solutions: Founder Shuofei Sun offers a device that can fully automate the process of immunohistochemistry, which is essential for nearly all biological labs, yet often require repetitive, and long hours of manual work. 
• Wandering Shepherd: Neil Helfirch and Sheldon Archibald are co-founders of Wandering Shepherd, developer of the Wireless Rumen Bolus (WRB), a device that monitors the health and location of over 200 different species of animals, both domestic and wild. 

“We have a product and a customer, the race is on to bring this project to reality,” said Emily Roos of AirVitalize. “Rev provides invaluable support with technical consultation, a vast network, and business expertise that is going to equip us with all the tools to build something effective. We hope to come out of this program a year from now with our first operational sites and a whole lot of knowledge.”

Follow along on the Rev blog, Instagram, and LinkedIn to learn more about the teams and watch their journeys unfold over the coming months.