The 2020 Harvard i-lab spring cohort in numbers: 350: 13: 100: 300,000.
The incoming spring cohort has more than 350 student-founded teams participating from 13 Harvard schools. Same as last year, of the participating teams, 100 were selected as semi-finalists for the President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC). Those teams will have the opportunity to compete for $300,000 across three tracks: social or cultural impact; health or life sciences; and one for ideas that transcend categories. These prizes will be funded by the Bertarelli Foundation.
The startup ideas in this cohort range widely. An acrobatics circus troupe, a microbial-communities discovery platform and an Etsy for scientists are just a sampling. This is also the first venture program batch that will be overseen by Matt Segneri, who is taking over as the new director in March.
The incoming batch also features some repeat inductees like g.Root Biomedical Services, humanID, Koodos, Limax Biosciences and Loro.
Below is a list of the 100 PIC semi-Finalists. You can read about all of the teams in the venture program here. (descriptions provided):
1Room: The company delivers an individualized high school education through offline tablets in one room, with a single staff member.
Ace: Ace is a branding agency that provides models, social media content, Photoshop editing, and influencer marketing for brands.
acelab: Empowers ACE professionals to make responsible choices through preconstruction intelligence.
Acrobatics Circus Troupe: Uses acrobatics and education as a foundation to fight poverty.
Active Parenting: Enables parents to carry out high-quality interactions with their children through fun and simple activity videos.
Aliro Quantum Technologies: It's building software to make today's quantum computers accessible and useful to any software developer.
AquaPlastic: AquaPlastic mitigates the menace of plastic pollution we have developed through a plastic that is water-processable and biodegradable.
Ayanda: The startup uses offline technology to discover vendors and items, and to message other users entirely without the internet.
Beacon Biomimetics: Makes phonografts 3D-printed from novel, biodegradable ink, which can repair damaged eardrums and passively enhance sound conduction.
BikePath: Tells bike and scooter-sharing companies where to equitably and efficiently place bikes and scooters.
Boston Votes!: Is working towards 100% civic engagement in MA high schools and beyond through its college-high school mentorship program.
Breaktime: Prevents long-term chronic homelessness by launching the careers of young adults experiencing homelessness.
Center for Intimacy Justice: Rewriting business rules through its coalition/campaign to allow advertising and entrepreneurship of women's intimate health products.
Change The Tune (The Lab): An innovative and accessible summer program model providing impactful learning opportunities for youth and educators.
Churchill Foods: Sustainably and ethically grows meat without killing an animal.
Club Cana: is a soccer apparel brand and club, inspired by the global heritage and style of the sport.
Coding it Forward: A 501(c)(3) nonprofit empowering the next generation of technology leaders to create social change.
CollabReality: VR simulations to develop interpersonal skills (leadership, collaboration, etc.) in the workplace.
Concerto Biosciences: Discovers functional microbial communities for human therapeutics using a patented, high-throughput screening platform.
Conductscience.com: Etsy for scientists—a marketplace for revenue-based tech transfer of academic inventions.
Corelant Technologies: Helps customers close more deals via faster prospecting of commercial real estate with automated market analysis.
CryoDerm: Builds cooling bandages for surgical wounds to control pain, decrease opioid usage, and get patients home faster.
Dealmaker List: A “LinkedIn for commercial multifamily apartment investors.”
Debate Spaces: Brings middle school students together from disparate backgrounds to learn debate and activism skills.
Dental Key: An online dental education platform that transforms the way dental students learn clinical dentistry.
Dia Health: A virtual newborn care coach that educates and supports both the mom and baby.
DozeOn: An Apple Watch application that detects driver drowsiness and alerts the driver before they doze off.
DreamworldVR: Combats loneliness and helps develop emotional & social intelligence for isolated pediatric patients.
Educational Materials: Spreads love and knowledge around the world through educational materials, workshops, trainings and conferences.
FIND Surgical Sciences: Is developing a platform technology to integrate and visualize multi-modal neuroimaging data for improving surgical outcomes.
Fractal: Streams GPU-powered, Windows 10 desktops to any macOS, iOS, or Windows device.
g.Root Biomedical Services: Helps cancer patients find personalized targeted therapies by merging machine learning and clinical expertise.
GenUnity: A civic leadership program that empowers individuals to affect real, systemic change in their local community.
GOViral: Finds patients and connects communities to help eradicate hepatitis B in the Philippines.
Green Bea: Makes coffee more sustainable and more convenient by redesigning the way coffee is manufactured and packaged.
GRYPS: An AI powered platform that extracts and categorizes information from construction documents.
H2Ok Innovations: Empowers communities with the knowledge for sustainable access to clean water through AI and IoT.
Healthy Girls Save the World, Inc: Provides programs to help underprivileged girls adopt healthy lifestyles.
Helen Health: A digital health platform that connects people with the best oncology resources in the world.
Hercules: A contact organization system that automatically keeps track of your expanding personal network.
Hibiscus Monkey: A millennial personal care startup. It makes & sells all-natural products formulated from my grandma’s recipes.
High Table: A members-only professional networking community.
Hikma Health: A data platform integrating predictive models & decision support into accessible systems for MDs & refugee patients.
Hire Simpler: Curates data-driven matches between applicants and companies in a timely, cost effective, and efficient way.
Human Agency: Builds tools to democratize social enterprise, enabling people to turn ideas or intent into action without developers.
humanID: A Single Sign-On enabling platforms to block bots and abusive users, and protects users’ data from leaks and abuse.
Immigrants Like Us: A legal aid nonprofit that prepares immigration documents using a "turbo-tax"-style web platform.
Immunity Health: An analytics company using medical data to improve clinical trial recruitment and operations.
International Orchestra of Refugees: Empowers displaced musicians to become musical ambassadors of peace, through orchestral opportunities and community.
Juntos Boston: Provides financial and relational support to unaccompanied Central American students to help them graduate high school.
Knot: A software platform that automates data management for physicians so they can get back to the bedside.
Koodos: Is building a fun Gen Z-native experience around content discovery, sharing and curation. Text any emoji to 566-367 or m.me/Koodos to try it.
Larissa Health Tech: Lets patients receive their post-op instructions from a friendly animated avatar who greets them warmly in the recovery room.
Leela Khan: Etsy meets Aliexpress, with a South Asian twist.
LeverEdge: Uses group buying power to negotiate down loan rates.
Limax Biosciences: makes a strong, stretchy, and flexible hydrogel adhesive platform - based on bio-inspired materials - to seal wounds and promote healing.
Loo Works: Transforms plastic waste and wood waste into sturdy construction materials to create toilet structures and digesters.
Loro: A socially assistive robot that gives people with mobility challenges the ability to control, communicate, and connect.
LotusMicrosystems: Creating a new generation of small and efficient power converters for smart electronic devices.
Marlo: A workplace mastery platform, starting with a tool to find and fix unproductive meetings.
Metalmark Innovations: Developing nanostructured materials for highly efficient decomposition of air pollutants, making clean air accessible and affordable.
Meteor: Minimalist fine jewelry with impact — sustainable, ethical, circular-economy silver & gold jewels empowering women.
Microsprout: Helps parents and students access community resources to save for college and take on less debt.
Mismatch: A real-time video platform that connects U.S. middle and high school classrooms across distance and divides.
Napkin, Data Science Toolkit Simplified: A statistical toolkit for machine learning, allowing engineers and data scientists to better clean, parse, and visualize data.
Naya Studio: A digital platform for affordable personalized furniture.
Nearsighted Globe: A high-science, low-cost, easy-to-use tool for diagnosing nearsightedness, targeting remote communities.
NeuronSpike Technologies Limited: Developing brain-inspired AI processors to power autonomous technologies with energy-efficient and adaptive intelligence.
Nom Pot: Healthy, one-pot meals for easy home-cooking.
Ntoma Chocolate: A Ghana-based chocolate producer, moving the local cocoa industry beyond bean exports into high-quality chocolate production.
OnRamp: A customer partnership platform helping B2B SaaS companies provide world-class onboarding to new customers.
OptiNutri: Offers new, locally sourced malnutrition treatment and prevention products that can reach more children and support local development.
Overjet: Uses AI to analyze dental clinical data and help payers and providers improve patient care and profitability.
Pepper Pot Tea Company: Empowering women tea producers. The company serves consciously-sourced premium whole leaf tea, blended-to-order in small batches.
PionEar Technologies: Revolutionizing the treatment of ear infections with novel ear tube implants with unique drug transport capabilities.
Place.Int: A video analytics platform that transforms video data into actionable business insights.
PreciGene: Developing CRISPR gene editing therapeutics for triple-negative breast cancer.
ReadToMe: Listens to students read books/articles aloud. It coaches students and provides data for teachers and parents.
Roost Coffee Company: Brings simple, elegant, consistent cold-drip coffee to the home with an automated appliance.
Save Identity: Builds and designs dignified community spaces and neighborhoods for refugee communities.
Schneider Economics: Creating the Wellness Quotient™, a single statistic to amalgamate the big data of healthcare.
SECURE: A personal safety app allowing users to easily share GPS coordinates and signal for help.
SESEWA: Preparing youth in Nigeria for the world of work by equipping them with in-demand skills and connecting them to work-based employability skills, while offering businesses work-ready and value-adding interns.
Shamiri Institute, Inc.: Helps adolescents with depression and anxiety to thrive, improving mental health, grades, and relationships.
Shamsina: Provides access to affordable solar technologies for energy-poor communities.
ShelfLife: Makes ordering from and communicating with suppliers faster and simpler—saving time while boosting margins.
Shelly Xu Design: The first zero-waste fashion startup with original designs that are more accessible, versatile, and fully zero waste.
Sports Industry Influencers: A community-building organization focused on improving D&I in sports biz through events and developing a digital network.
Stowe: An AirBnB for storage space.
Surge Employment Solutions: Sources, trains, and places formerly incarcerated people for highly skilled trade positions.
Tang: A mobile app that allows Filipino overseas workers to send money home, and the receiver to use the same app to e-pay.
Teacher Impact Collaborative: Leverages VR & AR tech to support districts in developing effective processes to recruit and retain teachers of color.
Teaching Artists International: Transforms musicians into global citizen artists through cultural exchanges that support music education around the world.
Tekal: Brings scalable AI solutions in social policy and infrastructure to an untapped market segment: low/mid tech cities.
The AMEL Project: Trains human rights activists in how to change their societies from within.
The Apprentice Project: Builds 21st-century life-skills and socio-emotional skills by using co-curricular activities as a medium.
The Concordium: A web-based video conferencing platform serving as an e-support network for socially isolated seniors.
The Negotiat'HER Project: Increases girls’ power by building their negotiation skills, through in person training and a digital learning platform.
The Perfect Chai Maker: A machine to make a traditional cup of chai with the touch of a button.
Troav: Rent the Runway for consumer products: become a member and borrow anything, anytime.
Umbulizer: Developing a reliable, low-cost, and portable device that can provide continuous ventilation to patients.
Veri Nano: Developed a self-healing, antimicrobial gel barrier with unique nanotechnology to prevent mastitis in dairy animals.
Village: Catalyzing women’s advancement by building community spaces anchored in daycare that centralize family and childcare.
Visionary Health: Developing an automated chest x-ray screening solution to reduce radiologists’ workload and increase their efficiency.
Wala Digital Health: A digital blood service modernizing the process from volunteer donors to those needing transfusions.
Waveback: An app that allows users to meet new people and try new things by creating and viewing activity-related posts.
