Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student, takes home top awards from both NVC 14 and New Venture Launch class, winning $17,500 for her startup, Chembotix

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 21:59:11 +0000

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student, takes home top awards from both NVC 14 and New Venture Launch class, winning $17,500 for her startup, Chembotix Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/22/2021 - 15:59

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won $17,500 from three CU ��«��Ƶ business competitions, including New Venture Challenge 14, for Chembotix, a startup offering a chemical automation robot to accelerate chemistry research and the discovery of new molecules.

Shara won first place at the NVC14 Female Founder Pitch ($5000) and the NVC14 Championship Audience Choice Award ($1000). She also secured two first-place wins associated with CU ��«��Ƶ's New Venture Launch class ($11,500) taught by Jeff York, associate professor in the Leeds School of Business, and funded by the Robert & Kathleen Dobkin Intuitive Foundation.

"For a fully remote team that was almost entirely assembled during the pandemic, it's an exciting moment for us to see our work starting to pay off," Shara said. "Chembotix is based on my PhD work at the ATLAS Institute, so this win also helps to validate a problem I care deeply about—widespread adoption of laboratory automation.”

The prize money will be used to pay for materials to finalize the team's prototype hardware, she said.

Through Chembotix, Shara is developing a robotic automation platform to dramatically speed up chemistry research and development. Shara’s laboratory automation research is the premise for the company, and Shara is the company's CEO.

Kailey Shara

The company has received support from VEX Robotics, and CU ��«��Ƶ students are assisting with mechanical, electrical and software engineering. Chembotix's first provisional patent is in progress with Venture Partners and a second is on the way.

This is Shara's second time as an NVC participant: Last year she and her advisor, Carson Bruns, made it to the semifinals. This year her team has expanded to include eight teammates and three advisors, Robert Dobkin, founder of the Intuitive Foundation, Kevin Noble, founder of Red Rock Rebels, and Bruns.

For 14 years, the New Venture Challenge has been CU ��«��Ƶ’s premier, cross-campus entrepreneurial program and competition, giving aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to build a startup through outstanding support and mentorship. Participants represent majors and departments from across the university.

NVC connects the CU ��«��Ƶ campus with the ��«��Ƶ community to develop and fund innovative ideas. Participants attend year-round events, network and collaborate with mentors to refine their ideas and form startup teams to pitch for funding (up to $100,000!) at the NVC Championships.

The goal of the New Venture Launch class is to translate an existing product, service or opportunity into a real, functioning venture. Over the course of the semester, New Venture Launch teams have been competing for more than $25,000 in non-equity funding. The Robert & Kathleen Dobkin Intuitive Foundation, which is providing the funding, pairs up “young, bright entrepreneurs in business and science to help them achieve greatness together.”

Shara emphasized that she hopes her success will inspire more women to enter entrepreneurship. “There are many brilliant women out there who can and will achieve great things through their work,” she said. “Always put yourself out there. You never know when an idea in a lab can become something more.”

ATLAS students who have successfully competed in past NVCs include the EdBoard Technologies team co-led by Cody Candler, MS-CTD '20, and Ruhan Yang, MS-CTD student, winning fourth place and taking home $12,500 in NVC 12. Ted Thayer, MS-CTD student, and two team members won fourth place and $7,500 at the NVC 11.

Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, won two top prizes within several days to fund her company, Chembotix, taking home a total of $17,500.
Shara won first place at the NVC 14 Female Founder Pitch ($5000) and the NVC Finals Audience Choice Award ($1000), as well as two first-place wins with CU ��«��Ƶ's New Venture Launch program ($11,500).

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ATLAS PhD Student Darren Sholes takes first place at NVC 14 Newcomer Prize Night, winning $5,000

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 22:46:27 +0000

ATLAS PhD Student Darren Sholes takes first place at NVC 14 Newcomer Prize Night, winning $5,000 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/18/2021 - 16:46

[video:https://vimeo.com/525809774]

Darren Sholes, ATLAS PhD student and a member of the ACME Lab, pitched LoopSketch to judges during CU ��«��Ƶ’s New Venture Challenge 14 Prize Night on March 17, winning first place in the newcomer competition (event video here), which comes with $5,000 in funding. In addition, the team advances to the next round where they will compete for additional awards.

Restrictions during the pandemic have made it difficult for musicians to make music with others because the creative process is often intensely collaborative, and latency, the short unavoidable delays that are part of remote information transmission, make digital communication technologies a poor substitute for working together in person, Sholes says.

“LoopSketch’s software program is designed for collaborative music-making,” he says. “It focuses on group flow and brainstorming, allowing for a remote experience that feels more like an in-person jam session.”

The program makes it possible for musicians in different locations to collaborate and quickly build rich, multilayered recordings. For example, a drummer in New York City could use LoopSketch to share a short recording with two friends in California and Oregon. The friend in California then composes an accompanying guitar track and their buddy in Oregon, who plays the bass, can listen to the combined tracks and add his own layer.

Sholes explains that the power of LoopSketch lies in the simplicity of the design. Users record short loops of music that are shared among friends who progressively build a song layer by layer, section by section. The software modulates playback so loops stay in sync with each other, empowering users to focus on playing the music, not managing the session.

The short video above explains the technology in more depth.

Darren Sholes, an ATLAS PhD student and a member of the ACME Lab, won first place in NVC's newcomer competition and walking away with $5,000 for LoopSketch, a program that makes it possible for musicians to remotely collaborate.

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Kailey Shara, ATLAS PhD student, takes home top awards from both NVC 14 and New Venture Launch class, winning $17,500 for her startup, Chembotix

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ATLAS PhD Student Darren Sholes takes first place at NVC 14 Newcomer Prize Night, winning $5,000

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