Skip to main content

Alumni

Cohort 1 (2017-2019)

Anna Douglas

Anna Douglas

Bio: Anna received her PhD in 2019 in Interdisciplinary Material Science from Vanderbilt University. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellow, she primarily focused her studies on…

Matthew Ellis

Matthew Ellis

Bio: Matthew received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and hold a MS and BS in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. His…

Mitchell Ishmael

Mitchell Ishmael

Bio: Mitchell received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University and holds a BS in Chemical Engineering with a Minor in Economics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology…

Samuel Shaner

Samuel Shaner

Bio: Samuel received his PhD and MS in Nuclear Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and hold a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa…

Cohort 2 (2018-2020)

Don DeRosa

Don DeRosa

Bio: Don DeRosa is developing a next generation electrolyte that will significantly lower the cost and size of ultracapacitor modules. The resulting lower cost and smaller ultracapacitor modules can…

Shane McMahon

Shane McMahon

Bio: Shane McMahon is developing thin-film semiconductor substrates that will serve as a novel platform for highly integrated and flexible electronic devices. The platform will provide the ability…

Justin Nussbaum

Justin Nussbaum

Bio: Ascend Manufacturing is focused on developing a manufacturing grade additive manufacturing system, utilizing a technology he developed, called Large Area Projection Sintering (LAPS). LAPS…

Megan O'Connor

Megan O'Connor

Bio: Megan O’Connor is an environmental engineer and chemist who has 7 years’ experience in developing carbon nanotube membrane separation technologies. Megan developed the unique hard-tech that…

Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith

Bio: Matthew Smith’s new class of high thermal conductivity plastic composite materials aim to improve heat dissipation, allowing for metal replacement and light-weighting, cost and component…

Cohort 3 (2019-2021)

Jesse Claypoole, MantaPoole Technologies

Jesse Claypoole

Bio: Jesse Claypoole is developing a roll-to-roll, manufactured, active multispectral light field (AMLF) micro-optics architecture for applications including autonomous surgery, industrial…

William Fitzhugh

William Fitzhugh

Bio: American Nanotechnologies, Inc. (ANI) is developing material processing technology for purification of high-value nanomaterials. Such material processing technology is critical to developing…

Hicham Ghossein

Hicham Ghossein

Bio: Endeavor Composites is designing and implementing an innovative mixer system for the hydroentanglement process that offers several advantages over the current fiber dispersion techniques. …

Alex Lewis

Alex Lewis

Bio: Electro-Active Technologies was spun out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2017 and has gone through multiple accelerators in addition to Innovation Crossroads including IndieBio, Plug and…

Trevor McQueen

Trevor McQueen

Bio: Neptune Fluid Flow Systems is developing an advanced thin film cryogenic sample preparation device designed to substantially improve sample preparation for the transmission electron microscopy…

Leila Safavi-Tehrani

Leila Safavi

Bio: Leila is the co-founder and CEO of Purist, a company based on a technology she co-invented during her Ph.D. studies. Purist's focus is developing a technology to be implemented in existing…

Jesse Thornburg

Jesse Thornburg

Bio: Grid Fruit is developing and evaluating a novel technology and operating framework for monitoring and control of commercial refrigeration systems installed at food retailers. Jesse earned a…

Cohort 4 (2020-2022)

Renee Carder

Renee Carder

Bio: PixelEXX Systems is reimagining tomorrow’s cameras so you can capture, analyze, and interpret the world around us in awe inspiring detail. Ninety percent of the information we process is visual…

Danielle Castley photo

Danielle Castley

Bio: Danielle Castley is developing a high-temperature, lightweight neutron-shielding technology that will help reduce costs and increase safety in the nuclear industry. This technology operates at…

Joe Fortenbaugh

Joe Fortenbaugh

Actinic, LLC

Bio: Joe Fortenbaugh is designing, developing, and testing formulations of thermally cured thermosets which can directly and rapidly produce cured composite thermoset materials upon photothermal…

Thomas Foulkes

Thomas Foulkes

AquaQuant Laboratories Inc.

Bio: Thomas Foulkes is deploying the next generation of high-performance central processing units and graphics processing units required to feed the power demand for elastic cloud computing, big…

Erica Grant portrait

Erica Grant

Quantal Security Inc.

Bio: Erica Grant has a PhD in Quantum Computation from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a BS in Physics from Virginia Tech. At Virginia Tech, she was a leader in a service organization…

Cohort 5 (2021-2023)

Caleb Alexander

Caleb Alexander

DayLyte Batteries

Bio: While completing his Chemical Engineering Degree at the University of California, Berkeley, Caleb Alexander served as the president of the AIChE chapter and started a brewing club and biodiesel…

Sam Evans

Sam Evans

Unbound Water Technologies

Bio: Sam Evans received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 2015, an Master of Science degree in Chemistry from Georgia Tech in 2017, and a PhD in…

Tommy Gibbons

Tommy Gibbons

Hempitecture

Bio: Tommy Gibbons comes to Hempitecture with experience in corporate finance and growing early stage companies. He complements his business experience with a green building background that includes…

Shuchi "SK" Khurana

Shuchi “SK” Khurana

Addiguru

Bio: Shuchi “SK” Khurana has twenty years of work experience in predictive analysis and commercialization of new products and technologies. SK’s technical expertise is in computational weld modeling…

Forrest Shriver

Forrest Shriver

Sentinel Devices LLC

Bio: Forrest Shriver is the Chief Executive Officer of Sentinel Devices LLC and a 4th-year PhD candidate in the Nuclear Engineering program at the University of Florida (UF), scheduled to graduate…

Philip Stuckey

Philip Stuckey

FC Renew, LLC

Bio: Philip Stuckey has over sixteen years of hydrogen fuel cell experience directly related to research, development, and intellectual property. Philip received a Bachelor of Science degree in…