Venture Partners at CU Boulder: News

In September, the Yidan Prize Foundation awarded Carl Wieman the prestigious Yidan Prize in Education Research for his “contribution in developing new techniques and tools in STEM education.” Wieman will use prize and project money to support CU Boulder’s award-winning PhET Interactive Simulations.

Step 1: Create a vaccine for COVID-19. Step 2: Distribute it across the world. This second step may be even more challenging than the first, which is why CU Boulder researchers and spinoff VitriVax are focused on finding a way to get vaccines to 7.8 billion people.

The robotics spinout company of CU Boulder’s Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, will use the award to further their research into the unique electromechanical failure mechanism in HASEL actuators, a new class of smart, soft, high-speed robotic hardware.

Venture Partners at CU Boulder is identifying new innovations that address problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure that COVID-19 innovations are rapidly brought to those who need them most, Venture Partners will be adopting an “Open Access” licensing strategy.

Imagine a test that could tell you if you were infected with COVID-19 before you had a single symptom, came at an affordable price without the need to go to a doctor, and returned results in minutes. That’s the vision behind a new CU-born technology.

ALD NanoSolutions, a CU Boulder spinout company and one of the leading experts on atomic layer deposition (ALD), has merged with Louisville, CO-based Forge Nano to commercialize its cutting edge surface engineering techniques.

In hopes of securing investments to advance their companies, 18 university ventures spun out of Colorado research institutions and federal laboratories pitched to local and out-of-state investors at the state's second annual Destination Startup showcase.

According to the journal, Professor Randolph and long-time collaborator Professor John Carpenter have shared their expertise in proteins with the drug development industry and guided regulatory strategies, among many other accomplishments.

Destination Startup, a collaboration among Front Range research universities and federal laboratories, connects Colorado’s most promising ventures with funding and networking opportunities so they can take the next step toward commercialization.

This year's event — hosted again by Venture Partners at CU Boulder on Feb. 27 — will feature 18 startups from CU Boulder, CU Anschutz, CU Denver, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and NIST.