As part of the upcoming 36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival here in Nashville, the 36|86: Student Edition will feature 13 regional startups led by students who will compete in a pitch competition for up to $60k in prizes. Startups who participate in the 36|86 Student Edition will receive access to a business mentor through LaunchTN and will be exposed to both local and national venture capitalists as well as other successful entrepreneurs throughout the program. This year, Vanderbilt University will be represented by a total of four startups featuring both undergraduate and graduate students. The startups are Synchro Motion, a company developing prosthetic limb technology; Prediction Health, a startup that uses AI-assistance to automatically document physician-patient interactions; Fathom, a company providing tools to help young people develop social ventures in their communities; and Zeno Power Systems, a startup who is developing a radioisotope power system for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Check out each of the Vanderbilt finalists below or click here to see all 13 finalists!
Synchro Motion
Synchro Motion develops prosthetic limb technology to improve the lives of amputees while simultaneously addressing the pain points of the clinicians. They can do this by providing novel hardware solutions that better serve patients while considering the practicalities of operating a medical device company.
Team: Harrison Bartlett, Founder, Vanderbilt University, 4th-year doctoral student (Mech Engineering); Brian Lawson, Founder, Vanderbilt University, Postdoctoral Scholar (Mech Engineering); Michael Goldfarb, Founder, Vanderbilt University, Professor (Mech Engineering)
What inspired your company?
From working with amputees in a laboratory setting, we realized that we were unable to meet their needs directly through research alone and that we could commercialize our technology.. The current state of prosthetics is inadequate, and amputees are left struggling when faced with slopes or uneven terrain. We’re solving this problem by providing amputees and clinicians with a new “smart” prosthesis.
Fathom
Fathom invests in youth-led innovation for local economic and community development. Their MVP, Change Agents, offers a 21st-century learning curriculum, incubator and mobile learning platform for young people to develop social venture solutions to challenges in their communities. Fathom believes that by equipping young people with tools for transformative change, they can realize the next generation of leaders for a more equitable and sustainable future for all.
Team: Julie Dunlap, Chief Impact Officer, Vanderbilt University, 2nd year Masters; Joseph Adeola, CEO; Jean Castrillo, Visual Design; Omari Byrd, Social Media Manager
What inspired your company?
My co-founder and I were inspired to launch Fathom to solve what we believe is the most pressing problem of our generation– the ability to create meaningful careers while doing the things we love and earning a livable wage and making positive impact in the world. There’s a quote by Susan Davis which we always return to as our driving inspiration and motivation, “Work is not only a means of survival and meeting basic livelihood requirements. It is also a means of self expression, self actualization and a vehicle for meaningful engagement in one’s community.” We started Fathom with a mission to provide young people with tools to reimagine the possibilities for 21st century education, workforce and community transformation.
Zeno Power Systems
Zeno Power Systems is developing a radioisotope power system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which will allow a UAV to have a nonstop flight endurance of over one year. With flight endurance over 250x greater than any UAV currently in use by the US military, a Zeno powered UAV will enable the military to more accurately maintain surveillance on areas of interest and provide intelligence to keep our military personnel safe and better prepare for “boots on the ground” missions. A Zeno powered UAV will also have several commercial applications, such as a communications platform that brings internet and telecommunications access to underserved areas and developing nations.
Team: Tyler Bernstein, CEO, Vanderbilt University, Junior; Jonathan Segal, COO, Vanderbilt University, Senior; Jake Matthews, Chief Engineer, Vanderbilt University, Master’s Student
What inspired your company?
One of our co-founders, Jonathan, has been obsessed with the airline and aviation industry since he was a baby. And believe us- he talks about it enough. Jonathan transitioned his love for the industry into three summer internships at United Airlines where he recognized a lack of real innovation in the space. The aviation industry hasn’t seen a radical shift since the invention of the jet aircraft in the 1950s. And worse of all, they still rely on dirty, pollutant heavy jet fuel, whereas the auto and train industries have both shifted to clean alternative fuel sources. Jonathan brought this idea to Tyler, and together they developed the idea of using radioisotope power to power an aircraft to radically extend flight endurance, and also reduce aircraft emissions to zero.
We are starting with UAVs to demonstrate the safety and feasibility of radioisotope powered flight, but recognize that it has potential far beyond this one application. We believe in clean radioisotope power, and while we did not take a normal path to this point, we feel strongly that we are just crazy enough to be the ones to pursue it.
Prediction Health
Prediction Health has built a service for doctors that automatically documents patient encounters at the tap of a button. Their AI-assisted scribes capture and structure data as doctors talk with their patients. They can then use this dataset to enable applying machine learning in real-time to improve care quality and efficiency.
Team: Pedro Teixeira, CEO, Vanderbilt MD/PhD Program, 4th year medical student; Ravi Atreya, CTO, Vanderbilt MD/PhD Program, 3rd year medical student; Michael Poku, CMO, Vanderbilt MD, Harvard MBA, 3rd year resident at Johns Hopkins