CUNY Hot Spot Shines at 2024 New York State Innovation Summit

The New York City Innovation Hot Spot, led by CUNY Industrial and Applied Research (IAR), took center stage at the New York State Innovation Summit organized by Albany-based FuzeHub and supported by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR).

 

The Summit, a multi-day annual event, attracting entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, tech executives, and economic-development leaders, highlighted the latest advancements in emerging technologies driving innovation and growth across New York state. This year’s summit was held in Syracuse, with more than 600 individuals representing over 500 different organizations registered for this event, marking the conference’s largest attendance yet.

 

The NYC Hot Spot sponsored three NY I-Corps graduate companies—CarbonCLAIR (CUNY-City College), BioWraptor (CUNY-ASRC), and Tastee Tape (NYC - IndieBio)—to attend and exhibit at the Summit. All three  companies completed extensive customer discovery and received mentorship from NYC-based commercialization experts. InYourEcosystem, an open-source-based software created by members of the CUNY IAR, also participated in the summit as an exhibitor. Other recent NY I-Corps graduate companies that exhibited at the 2024 Summit include IAMBIC (NYC) and TapeCon (Buffalo).

 

Additionally, three NYC Hot Spot portfolio companies competed at the Commercialization Competition held in conjunction with the Summit: Addinex Technologies (NYC), led by Jay Schiff, SychroPet (Long Island), led by Marc Alessi, and FASS Syringe (Westchester), led by Hilario Castillo. The competition received more than 45 applications, which were narrowed down to 12 finalists. Each finalist company delivered an eight-minute pitch to a panel of four judges to complete for over $500,000 in prizes. FASS Syringe was awarded $50,000 as a runner-up.

 

“The Summit offers a fantastic opportunity for our companies to demonstrate their accomplishments and market readiness, and this year we took full advantage,” said Ariella Trotsenko, director of the NYC Innovation Hot Spot. “I was excited to see our graduate companies perform so well and have the opportunity to make meaningful connections in New York State.”

 

CUNY IAR was represented in the panel discussions, with Entrepreneur-in-Residence of the NYC Innovation Hot Spot and founder of neARabl, Arber Ruci who moderated a panel discussion on “New York’s Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The panel included Krystyn Van Vliet, PhD, VP for Research & Innovation, Cornell University; Venu Govindaraju, PhD, VP for Research & Economic Development, University at Buffalo; Ciprian N. Ionita, PhD, Chief Scientific Operator & Founder, QAS.AI; and Vince Hartman, Cofounder and CEO, Abstractive Health. The discussion focused on Empire AI, a new consortium seeking to secure New York’s place at the forefront of this transformational industry.

 

“New York’s AI leadership is uniting diverse voices to drive real impact,” said Ruci of the panel discussion. “Standing-room-only at this panel was proof of the excitement and innovation shaping our future.”

Other panels covered topics including New York’s transit ecosystem and sustainability in manufacturing. The event also featured a keynote speech from Mark Helm, a senior fellow in Micron Technology’s technology and products group. Helm presented Micron’s vision for advancing the semiconductor manufacturing industry in central New York, as construction approaches for a $20 billion fabrication facility in Clay, New York, near Syracuse.

 

On the evening of the first day of the Summit, CUNY IAR hosted an introduction meeting of all the NYS partners of the newly-established Empire Corps program, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program. Empire Corps helps New York’s small businesses tap into Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) awards, and serves small businesses statewide with an emphasis on women-owned, rural-based, and socially or economically disadvantaged small businesses pursuing research and innovation activities across all 10 regions of New York State. This evening meeting was an opportunity for leaders to gather and strategize about increasing SBIR/STTR proposals from companies from across New York State, from Niagara to Montauk.