Micro-donations for unhoused people, a program to help people overcome videogame addiction: these are just two of the ideas behind the 20 teams participating in Boston University's Innovate@BU accelerator program this summer, announced Friday.
Each team will received $10,000, workspace at the BUild Lab, access to two mentors, and a full curriculum. This is the first year BU was able to expand the program to 20 teams; in the past, just 16 have participated, spokeswoman Ahlea Isabella said in an email. Ten of the ventures are focused on tech, while 10 are focused on social impact or creative output.
Read more about the teams below:
Apollos: a cross-platform medical record application built for patients to have privacy, portability, and controlled access for their records.
Urban Bank: a mobile micro-donation platform that enables users to give the homeless access to essential items for health, like a toothbrush.
Coco College: an app that exclusively connects students within their own university, where they can buy and sell books, TVs, couches and more.
Community Connect: a web app that allows users and social workers to discover and share health resources in their area.
Bluebonnet Data: makes tools that allow Democratic campaigns and state parties to visualize, analyze, and understand commonly available but unitized data.
Hire Five: helps early-stage US startups to build top tech teams remotely by connecting them with full-time senior engineers in Brazil at an affordable cost.
BRÜZD Foods: works to solve food waste by uptaking the typically wasted ugly produce at the farm level and then redistributing it to homes in a subscription model. Read our profile here.
Healthy Gamer: helps people struggling with video game addiction to regain control of their lives.
Konbit Inovasyon: teaches Haitian youths design thinking and how this process can be used for cultural competent problem-solving in their communities.
Every Hand is a Hero: a media campaign that links sex trafficking victims and bystanders to help and resources.
Juriscape: provides accessible legal information, like rights protected by the First Amendment, to users to grow their autonomy.
Step-up Magazine: an online destination for young people to voice their opinions and have a safe space to write about their passion.
ODE: a P2P service that allows you to get tasks done on demand from the convenience of your smartphone.
Dynamic Pantry: uses positive psychology techniques to empower clients to live more joyful lives through improved dietary and lifestyle habits.
Higher Place: a mobile app that lets the artists in a city be searched by their name and/or profession and hired through direct messaging.
Collaborative Prep: provides online, live, group college preparation services to families, making it affordable and accessible.
Rilla: an online platform that provides guidance to startups through ecosystems and organizations.
Script Solutions: a platform for the opioid prescription process saving doctors more than three minutes per prescription and adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for abuse potential.
Req Staffing: permanently places formerly incarcerated people into highly skilled trade roles in the energy industry.
The No-Slosh Water Bottle: a water bottle which prevents sloshing. It's geared toward runners but can also be used by babies to prevents excessive air consumption.
