CSU Ventures, the technology transfer office for Colorado State University, is hosting its annual innovation symposium, CSU Demo Day, as a virtual event on April 27-29.
All eight colleges at CSU are represented in this year’s event, with submissions highlighting the incredible innovative work that has flourished at all levels despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the constraints across educational and research spaces at CSU.
This year’s Demo Day uses the same custom-built video-based platform, created by bitsurf IT, that made GradShow 2020 and the 2021 CHHS Research Day successful virtual experiences.
This 2021 Demo Day includes more than 30 industry, community, and alumni judges, representing a diverse set of companies, including Lockheed Martin, Nutrien, Advanced Energy, HP Enterprise/Inc., Newmont Mining, Co-Labs, NREL, Otterbox, Golden Media, Atlas FinTech, Long Range Systems, Kennedy Insights Consulting, Bright Horizons, and Leprino Foods.
“The outpouring of support from industry representatives to engage with our innovators provides an incredible networking and professional development opportunity for our student presenters,” said Todd Headley, president of CSU Ventures, a division of the Colorado State University Research Foundation. “This year is truly unique as the virtual platform allowed us to source judges from across the nation.”
In addition, University leadership created three welcome messages honoring the innovators and attendees for this year’s event. President Joyce McConnell, Provost Mary Pederson and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Susan James, and Vice President for Research Alan Rudolph speak to Demo Day participants about the unique and vibrant innovative community that exists at CSU.
All members of the University community are invited to peruse the showcase and join the virtual community by creating their own profile on the Demo Day platform.
Demo Day schedule of events
In addition to the virtual showcase, Demo Day includes three lunchtime seminars (noon-1:30 p.m. MDT) highlighting innovation-focused community-building, faculty entrepreneurship, and CSU’s incredible innovation expertise in sustainability.
Demo Day kicks off on April 27 with a panel discussion, “Ask Me Anything,” featuring CSU’s own expert inventor, entrepreneur and vice provost, Susan James; Molly Kocialski, regional director of the Rocky Mountain office of the United States Patent & Trademark Office; Emily Roberts, vice president for the Colorado Bioscience Association; and Nicole Ressue, patent attorney. Building a culture of innovation and supporting a dynamic and growing network of innovators and entrepreneurs takes effort and focus. This dynamic panel of experts have come together to answer questions posed by the audience, truly your chance to ask them anything.
The second seminar on April 28 features keynote speaker David Frakes, a leading inventor and entrepreneur from Georgia Tech. Frakes, a BME Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, is most well-known for his ground-breaking work in image processing, cardiovascular fluid dynamics, and medical devices, for which he has won multiple awards. He also invented the simulation-based planning technology commercialized by EndoVantage, which was recently acquired by RapidAI. Between academic appointments at Arizona State University and Georgia Tech, Frakes was technical project lead of mobile imaging at Google ATAP, and then lead of camera software at Apple.
The third seminar on April 29 wraps up Earth Month by hosting a panel of University sustainability experts to talk about how their work demonstrates CSU’s longtime commitment to our natural world and the well-being of society, a vital role in our fulfillment of our land grant mission. The panel includes Bryan Willson, executive director of the Energy Institute; Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, director of the Sustainable Livestock Systems Collaborative; Erika Benti, TDM-CP, inventor and expert in alternative transportation; and Sybil Sharvelle, associate professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and director of the CSU Urban Water Center.
Demo Day closes with a virtual awards ceremony on April 29, including awards for Innovative Excellence in each college, and specialty awards for AR/VR, software, programmatic & educational outreach, interdisciplinary human-centered design thinking, and sustainable energy initiatives, with more than $20,000 awarded in total. People’s choice awards will also be presented based on the use of the “favorites” function, where visitors vote for their favorite posters.
The full schedule and registration for individual seminars is on the Demo Day website.
Source: Demo Day goes virtual for 2021 on custom presentation platform
