CMU Builds a Stronger Pipeline From Research to Startups
CMU Startup Week highlights the university expertise, resources and investment relationships helping advanced technologies reach the marketplace
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When founders, investors and researchers gather at Carnegie Mellon University for CMU Startup Week,(opens in new window)they will get an early look at technologies moving out of university laboratories and toward the marketplace.
The university’s flagship entrepreneurship event returns Sept. 14-18, bringing together more than 3,000 founders, investors, corporate partners and university community members in Pittsburgh. Among its central themes will be how to transform advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, health, energy and other fields into companies positioned to address consequential challenges.
Organized by the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship(opens in new window), CMU’s university-wide hub for entrepreneurship, CMU Startup Week’s more than 35 events will bring together faculty, students and postdoctoral researchers, who have deep expertise in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, computer science and the sciences, with investor and industry connections.
“At Carnegie Mellon, entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful ways we translate bold ideas and pathbreaking research into technologies, companies and economic opportunity,” said Theresa Mayer(opens in new window), vice president for research. “The Swartz Center is the hub that connects our faculty, students and alumni with the expertise, talent and investment needed to build. Startup Week brings the full strength of that ecosystem together and gives Pittsburgh and the world a view of what is coming next.”
This year, CMU Startup Week is also an anchor partner of StartUP PGH(opens in new window), a new effort bringing together more than 15 regional partners for a collective week of events celebrating Pittsburgh’s future as a frontier technology hub.
“Pittsburgh has never lacked technical strength. What StartUP PGH adds is a galvanizing, coordinated regional effort. For the first time, more than 15 organizations across the region agreed that Pittsburgh should be known as a place where frontier technology gets built,” said Meredith Meyer Grelli(opens in new window), inaugural vice provost for entrepreneurship and associate vice president.
Grelli and the Swartz Center team developed CMU’s Startup Week and launched StartUP PGH during Grelli’s tenure as interim executive director of the Swartz Center.
“Our research strengths sit at unusually investable intersections, where AI, robotics and the physical sciences meet,” said Grelli. “Turning that into companies takes more than capital. It takes the right audiences, and StartUP PGH is deliberately bringing them here, including corporate partners from around the world who can be a startup’s first customer or eventual acquirer. That is a critical and often overlooked part of the equation.”
Support at every stage
Research startups face challenges that differ from those of other new ventures. Their technologies may require years of development, specialized facilities, intellectual property protection and significant investment before reaching the market. Their founders also must make the transition from conducting research to building teams, understanding customers, attracting capital and leading companies.
Damion Shelton, a CMU alumnus and co-founder of Agility Robotics(opens in new window), joined the university in August as associate vice president and executive director of the Swartz Center. His return to CMU brings the perspective of a founder who has taken advanced technology through research, product development, fundraising and company growth.
“CMU’s innovation ecosystem supports founders wherever they go,” said Shelton. “The Swartz Center brings the university’s entrepreneurial community together around that potential. Our opportunity is to make the path from a strong idea to a successful company easier to navigate by surrounding founders with experienced people, creating more connections to capital and helping teams build the capabilities they need at every stage.”
The Swartz Center helps founders navigate that journey through programs tailored to each stage of company formation. Working with CMU’s colleges, research institutes and technology transfer team, it gives researchers a central place to find the entrepreneurial support their ventures require.
Students can explore entrepreneurship through coursework, fellowships, competitions, clubs and experiential programs. Faculty members, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers can evaluate the commercial potential of their work, learn from experienced founders and investors, and develop a path from research result to new venture. Alumni founders can return to CMU for talent, mentorship, connections and support as their companies grow.
“CMU companies are uniquely positioned in that they are all being born out of deeply technical work,” said Namrata Banerjee(opens in new window), senior director of investments and strategic partnerships and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Swartz Center.
“Our funding opportunities for founders — from grants to explore whether a project is viable to mentorship and high-level strategic partnerships — give them the support they need to flourish,” she said. “We are consciously building strategic relationships with top funds that understand deep-tech investing and the financial needs of the long research and the development process that often comes with that.”
Since its launch, the Swartz Center and related CMU entrepreneurship programs have helped start more than 400 companies. The broader CMU community has produced 67 affiliated unicorns — privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion — including companies such as Duolingo(opens in new window)and Skild AI(opens in new window).
Startups put support into practice
The student-founded startup Revora Health(opens in new window)is a digital platform that connects patients with physical therapists and uses AI-powered triage to guide faster, more affordable recovery from musculoskeletal injuries. Revora Health’s founder, Surya Kukkapalli said CMU guidance was crucial to the development of his company.
“Bringing Revora Health to the global stage truly wouldn’t have been possible without the support and mentorship from the Swartz Center,” said Kukkapalli(opens in new window), MBA candidate at CMU’s Tepper School of Business and founder of Revora Health. “The Swartz Center has a way of making the impossible parts of being a founder feel manageable.”
Hermes Vision(opens in new window), for example, is a startup founded by graduate students Grant Wilkinson and Aditya Pratama that uses drones powered by AI to precisely manage weeds and invasive plants on any terrain.
“Traditional weed control is blunt and blanket-sprays an entire field with pesticides to reach a small fraction of weeds that are actually present. Everything native gets hit along with the target,” said Wilkinson, a mechanical engineering student in the College of Engineering and a 2026 VentureBridge fellow. “Hermes Vision finds invasive plants from the air and treats only those, which means far less herbicide is used and healthier land gets left behind. Personally, this technology will give my mom a way to kill the thistles on our family ranch without killing her bluebonnet wildflowers.”
The founders also won a Second Place McGinnis Prize(opens in new window)through the Swartz Center this spring.
“The Swartz Center has accelerated our journey, said Pratama, a masters student at the Integrated Innovation Institute(opens in new window). ”VentureBridge opened doors and introduced us to the broader startup ecosystem on the west coast. Through the Swartz Center, we’ve received meaningful introductions that continue to benefit the company.”
Building the talent startups need
CMU students contribute to the startup ecosystem not only as founders, but also as engineers, designers, scientists, product leaders and business strategists. For young companies working to bring sophisticated technologies to market, access to that multidisciplinary talent can be as important as access to capital.
Student interest in entrepreneurship also is growing. In 2018, students submitted 100 startup ideas to the Swartz Center. By last year, that number had grown to 500.
“So many of our founders stay in Pittsburgh when they start their companies,” Banerjee said. “That leads to a direct economic impact, because they’re renting spaces and employing people right here. But beyond that, the AI and robotics companies are proof that Pittsburgh is more than the Steel City. We have everything here to build the region’s next golden era.”
As CMU’s inaugural vice provost for entrepreneurship and associate vice president, Grelli is leading the development of a more coordinated approach to entrepreneurship education across the university. Her work will connect academic programs with hands-on opportunities for students to build companies, work alongside founders and apply their expertise in startup environments.
“Our students are built to be founders,” said Grelli. “When you look at research about what’s correlated with success and entrepreneurship, it’s the ability to connect seemingly disparate industries, needs, thoughts and ideas. If any school supports students to do this, it is Carnegie Mellon, where students are taking classes in design, business, engineering and computer science, and interacting with people from totally different orbits who are all achieving excellence in those areas. That is an ideal proving ground for entrepreneurship.”
CMU SPARK, held Sept. 17 as part of Startup Week, will put that connection into practice by bringing students together with startups recruiting talent in technology, design, product and business. The event reflects a broader goal: ensuring that CMU startups can draw on the people and skills they need to grow while giving students direct experience inside young companies.
That flow of founders and talent has implications well beyond campus. Many CMU-affiliated startups establish operations in Pittsburgh, creating jobs, attracting investment and strengthening the region’s capacity to build advanced-technology companies.
CMU Startup Week Events
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Lab to Market (Tuesday, Sept. 15): A research-focused day connecting CMU’s most promising research for commercialization.
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AI Robotics Venture Day (Wednesday, Sept. 16): A showcase of the most investable AI and robotics ventures affiliated with Carnegie Mellon, presented in partnership with Innovation Works.
- Carnegie Mellon SPARK Startup Job Fair (Thursday, Sept.17): A career fair connecting world-class CMU student talent to some of the country’s most exciting startups, held on CMU’s campus.
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CMU Swartz Student Startup Showcase (Friday, Sept.18): An interactive exhibition event showcasing student and recent alumni startups.
- View all Startup Week events here.
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