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B-Lab 2015

Brown University’s Breakthrough Lab (B-Lab) is an intensive 8-week accelerator program that supports student entrepreneurs developing high-impact ventures. Each venture receives sector-specific mentoring, a peer cohort of dedicated founders, and access to co-working space.

We welcomed 16 student ventures to the 2015 program. Founders came from all across the Brown and RISD landscape, bringing diverse perspectives, strengths, and interests to the cohort. They are bound together by their passion for creating meaningful solutions to important global challenges, and they represent some of the most advanced ventures in the Brown entrepreneurial ecosystem.

CHORUS

Chorus is an iPhone/iPad app that aims to resolve current limitations to songwriting: that it must be done in person by people who live close to each other. Chorus circumvents this obstacle by globalizing the creative process, widening the pool of accessible musicians to include anyone in the world. The goal? To contribute to the creation of more and better music by connecting musicians who might otherwise be unable to collaborate.

Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper

Brown '18, Computer Science

Anthony Martin

Anthony Martin

Sean University '15, Communications

Max Sternlicht

Max Sternlicht

Brown '18, Graphic Design

ECOOL SYSTEMS

The recent movement of data storage and processing from multiple platforms to consolidated data centers has required the deployment of servers with ever increasing levels of computational and processing speeds. Server performance has increased 75 times in the past 8 years, but the ability to cool these chips has remained stagnant. Data centers are approaching the point where current cooling technologies are going to be unable to meet the growing needs of the data center industry. ECOol provides a green solution that reduces electrical overhead, mitigates implementation costs, increases server density, and improves technological reliability.

Peter McHugh

Peter McHugh

Brown '17, Mechanical Engineering

Anshul Rathi

Anshul Rathi

Brown '15, PRIME

FORWARDGEN

A new initiative dedicated to identifying the best policies and practices to support first-generation college students. Building off of the success of 1vyG, an inter-Ivy League network of first-generation students, ForwardGen aims to coach administrators, researchers, and policy makers in the creation of systematized support for first-generation college students. The initiative also aims to improve the experiences of first-generation students by creating a series of benchmarks that universities will be accountable for to ultimately increase “college success rates” among first-generation students.

Jessica Brown

Jessica Brown

Brown '16, BEO

Merone Tadesse

Merone Tadesse

Brown '16, Sociology & Development Studies

GEODEX

We design and enhance visitor experiences by delivering up-to-date, hyperlocal content through a system of rugged low-cost bluetooth beacons. For users, we make activities like visiting a new city, exploring a national park, or touring a college campus fun, engaging, and sharable. For managers of public spaces, we provide a rich understanding of visitor behavior, movement and retention. Our products create durable direct-to-customer marketing channels that offer and a simple platform for proximity marketing, loyalty programs and special offers.

Iain MacKenzie

Iain MacKenzie

Brown '15, PRIME

Ian Thomas

Ian Thomas

Brown '15, PRIME

HEALTHY ROOTS

Healthy Roots is a company that makes dolls and storybooks to combat internalized racism and colorism among young girls. They will offer 4 dolls, each with a different skin tone and hair texture– including African American, Haitian, Nigerian and Pacific Island/Afro-Brazilian–and will teach natural haircare for young girls of color. They aim to go above and beyond filling the diversity quota. Healthy Roots has an ambition to begin an impactful social movement.

Nitashia Johnson

Nitashia Johnson

RISD '15, Arts Education & Graphic Design

Yelitsa Jean-Charles

Yelitsa Jean-Charles

RISD '16, Illustration

Ingrid Nelson

Ingrid Nelson

RISD '17, Graphic Design

Anisa Holmes

Brown '16, Economics & Development Studies

LEADING EDGE

Leading Edge will build on and update the ongoing Leading Edge tidal energy device project within Brown’s School of Engineering. The device harnesses tidal energy in rivers and oceans using a water-catching hydrofoil system. While the larger project is device that will produce potentially up to 100 kW of power and contribute to the electrical grid, the goal of the team working in the B-Lab is to create a smaller-scale version of the technology to serve an alternative market. The team will investigate the market potential of a scaled down model of the larger hydrofoil device.

Michael Miller

Michael Miller

Brown PhD, Fluid Mechanics

Eva Junquera

Eva Junquera

Brown '17, Mechanical Engineering

Cesar Loera

Cesar Loera

Brown '17, Engineering

NGS IMAGING

NGS Imaging seeks to improve the medical x-ray imaging market by redesigning a scintillator that provides high-resolution x-ray images, allowing physicians to make more nuanced and accurate diagnoses while reducing patient exposure to harmful radiation.

Linghan Xing

Linghan Xing

Brown '15, PRIME

Matthew Donahue

Matthew Donahue

Brown '15, PRIME

Shashank Boddupalli

Shashank Boddupalli

Brown '15, PRIME

OPUS

Opus is creating a touch-based interface that allows users to learn musical theory and hear how music on a staff sounds. This will enable musicians with a narrower range of knowledge on written theory to express themselves artistically in a quick way.

Samuel Dooman

Samuel Dooman

Brown '16 Computer Science & MEME

Nicholas DeMarco

Nicholas DeMarco

Brown '17, Computer Science & MEME

Peter Bowden

Peter Bowden

Brown '16, Computer Science & MEME

PODIA

Podia is a mobile app for location based Q&A that will allow communities to share, and debate, their knowledge. Through engaging users with the Podia platform, the application will enable local experts to answer questions related to their community.

Amory Bennett

Amory Bennett

Brown '16, Political Science

Nikos Melanchrinos

Nikos Melanchrinos

Brown '15, Economics

RIPPLE

Ripple is a mobile app that uses in-store sensors to transform the moment of a purchase into the seamless activation of a small donation from the businesses’ corporate social giving reserves to a user’s preferred cause. Through the creation of an app that is beautiful and effortless to use, Ripple seeks to empower consumers to contribute to issues they care about on a basis that fits within their lifestyles, all while cultivating brand loyalty for their socially responsible partners. More broadly, Ripple hopes to leverage an already pervasive technological infrastructure to transform every transaction into an opportunity for collaborative social impact generation between well-intentioned customers and resource-capable businesses.

Viveka Hulyalkar

Viveka Hulyalkar

Brown '15, Political Science

Neel Yalamarthy

Brown '15.5, Political Science

SHAPE FROM BROKEN PIECES

Shape from Broken Pieces is building an advanced system to 3D scan fragmented objects and automatically assemble individual components to output complete 3D models of the original, unbroken object. These models can then be used to recreate the original object using a 3D printer or CNC. In essence, this system aims to assemble fragments where manual reassembly is impossible.

Kilho Son

Kilho Son

Brown PhD, Engineering

Daniel Moreno

Daniel Moreno

Brown PhD, Engineering

SUMA

Suma is a fashion brand that partners with artists and creatives to design its products. Each product developed is co-branded between Suma and the artist, so the tag reads Suma + {Artist Name}. They are the first high-end fashion brand to create its identity around collaboration and crowdsourcing design ideas. They hope to add to the already-rich dialogue surrounding art and design by expanding the community’s bounds to include more amateurs and professionals.

Ingrid Zippe

Ingrid Zippe

RISD '17, Apparel

Matteo Mobilio

Matteo Mobilio

Brown '16, History

UNSYNC

UnSync’s 3DS desktop system brings 3D scanning technology to its next stage of evolution by reducing the cost of high performance scanning. This will make the technology more affordable to a wider range of users. By eliminating the need for expensive high-speed hardware, UnSync will make 3D scanning technology accessible to many, many more people.

Xiaochuan Liu

Xiaochuan Liu

Brown '15, PRIME

Meixing Dong

Meixing Dong

Brown '15, PRIME

THE UPRISING

The Uprising is a socially conscious hip-hop initiative that hosts events which exclusively feature socially responsible artists, vendors and sponsors. This initiative uses hip-hop and the arts as a tool to fight against violence, sexism, and homophobia.

Erin Cohee

Erin Cohee

Brown '16, Sociology

Leadz Dorcé

Leadz Dorcé

Brown '16, Visual Arts

VITAE INDUSTRIES, INC.

Vitae Industries is a mobile application that can determine your Vitamin D levels and suggest treatment for possible deficiencies. With this information in mind, it personalizes supplement doses to cater to your individual needs. In the near future, Vitae hopes to expand its services to recommend a wide range of vitamins and supplements.

Daniel DeCiccio

Daniel DeCiccio

Brown '15, Chemistry & Engineering

Jeanine Sinanan-Singh

Jeanine Sinanan-Singh

Harvard '13, Computer Science

ZENCARE

Zencare is an application that pairs providers and patients for cognitive therapy. People struggling to navigate modern mental health services often experience difficulty seeking out care. Zencare will eliminate this barrier by launching a software and service that addresses this need by creating a clearer patient-care connection system.

Nicholas Lemme

Nicholas Lemme

Brown '18, MD

Benjamin R. Johnston

Benjamin R. Johnston

Brown '18, MD

Yuri Tomikawa

Brown '12, International Relations & East Asian Studies

Debbie Lai

Brown '12, East Asian Studies & Economics