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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS:
PROGRAMS & DEADLINES
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The McGinnis VC & SEP Final Round Teams Competing for
$375K in Prizes Have Been Announced!
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After a rigorous Round 1 and Round 2 process, the final undergraduate and graduate teams for the McGinnis Venture Competition have been announced. With just over a week to go, excitement is building for the final pitches and celebration on March 17.
The finalist teams will compete for the newly expanded $375,000 prize pool. This includes $125,000 in cash investment awards, made possible by the David and Lindsay Morgenthaler Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fund, and $250,000 in AWS Activate credits provided by AWS for Startups.
Join us for the final round and help celebrate the next generation of student founders!
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|  | Pictured above: David, Lindsay, and Gary Morgenthaler
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| Powering the Future of Sport:
A Draft WeekShowcase on April 22
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| The Swartz Center will host a $1.275M national pitch competition during the NFL Draft week in partnership with the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers and AI Strike Team. “Powering the Future of Sport: A Draft Week Showcase,” will highlight startups at the intersection of sports and tech on Wednesday, April 22 at the new Carnegie Mellon Robotics Innovation Center.
A panel of high profile judges, including Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor; Ed Stack, Chairman of Dick's Sporting Goods and Foot Locker; Will Allen, former Pittsburgh Steeler and Partner at Magarac Venture Partners; and Deap Ubhi of AWS Startups, will decide the top pitches from around the country and the world.
The prize pool is made possible through major investments including $1M in cloud compute credit from AWS for Startups and $250K in investment from Magarac Venture Partners.
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Family Entrepreneurship by Design (Not by Accident)
Featuring: Michael Bernstein, Managing Partner, Woodland Management and Partners Edge Fund ~ Board Chair, Tree of Life, Inc.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Ave.
Lunch will be provided. Open to the public!
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Lunch will be provided to all registered attendees!
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| CMU VentureBridge Applications Closing Soon!
Are you a CMU founder ready to scale a bold, technically differentiated company?
Apply to VentureBridge, CMU’s flagship pre-seed accelerator fund, and join a fast-growing portfolio of companies collectively valued at over $1B including Gather AI, Trainwell, Artyc, Refiberd, Mach9
and Zensors.
Each year, the VentureBridge program backs a small number of ambitious founders with early capital, high-touch mentorship and direct access to top-tier investors and operators.
Two weeks left to apply!
Register for the next virtual Info Session:
Friday, March 6 - 2:00 PM ET
Register
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| Apply by April 4!
2026-28 Undergraduate Innovation Scholars Program
Register for the next virtual Info Session:
Wednesday, March 11 - 12:00 PM ET
Register
*APPLICANTS MUST ACTIVELY BE WORKING ON A STARTUP TO APPLY!
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| Corporate Startup Lab Hosts ROAI Event on April 16
CMU’s Corporate Startup Lab is excited to invite you to the next event, ROAI on April 16, 2026 at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Sponsored by Deloitte, this in-person event will explore how companies are translating AI investments into meaningful business outcomes. ROAI brings together leaders from industry, venture and academia to share what’s working, what’s not and what’s next.
Find out more, including the upcoming speaker announcements.
Email Sean Mawhinney, smawhinn@andrew.cmu.edu with questions.
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HEBI Robotics Awarded $850K SBIR Contract from NASA to Develop Robots that Withstands the Vacuum of Space
Local robotics startup HEBI Robotics announced it was awarded a $850,000 SBIR Phase II contract from NASA to develop hardware components for use in outer space. HEBI was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics lab.
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Astrobotic Inks Deal to Design Wheel for Lunar
Habitation System
Astrobotic Technologies Inc., led by CEO John Thornton, announced it was awarded a contract from a French company to develop a wheel that would be used to help astronauts live on the moon. Astrobotic will develop a wheel system to be used to allow the MPH to move along the moon's uneven terrain.
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 | Rendering of possible wheel design
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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| Co-founded by CMU ECE student Vivaan Sawant, SpoilSafe is building an industrial IoT system focused on predictive quality assurance in factory and warehouse environments. The company is seeking an intern to assist with designing and setting up the IoT network infrastructure that connects sensor devices across large industrial spaces.
Find out more and see the job description here (pdf). Contact Vivaan at vsawant@cmu.edu with questions.
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| Special Talk: Financial Tools for Tech Business
Startups and Beyond
Hosted by Financial Executive International Pittsburgh
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Floor
Learn crucial financial knowledge that will help your startup businesses and growing businesses. Speakers will include Chrissy O' Hara, CFO and Ben Taylor, Owner, from SoftLedger, as well as a Q&A panel from FEI.
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Search, Buy, Build: Entrepreneurship Through
Acquisition (ETA) Seminar
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2026
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Floor
Join hosts Len Caric and Chris Cynkar for this curated and practical intensive for professionals ready to acquire and operate their own business. This seminar is built for anyone interested in learning how to acquire and run a small business.
Send questions to Timothy Watts at timothy.watts@scottiefetch.com.
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CMU Energy Week | March 17-20!
The Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University would like to extend a personal invitation to you to be a part of our energy innovation ecosystem by participating in CMU Energy Week 2026, which will be held March 17-20, 2026, in CMU’s Cohon University Center.
With participation from academia, industry, and government leaders, the theme Reinventing the Grid for Our Electrified Future seizes on the momentum of innovation and research that surrounds the United States’ power grid as its infrastructure ages, contends with extreme weather events, and supports new energy demands from artificial intelligence and electrified buildings, vehicles, and factories.
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| Pear VC at CMU | Wednesday, March 18!
Pear VC is a pre-seed and seed-stage VC firm that was an early backer of DoorDash, Dropbox, Gusto, Vanta, Listen Labs and more. PearX, their exclusive small-batch accelerator program, provides funding of $500K-$2M, office space in the heart of San Francisco and hands-on mentorship from their Partners, who have started and sold over a dozen companies.
Contact jiyag@andrew.cmu.edu with any questions!
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LEGAL SEMINARS
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| Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
See the full schedule and register for ALL of the seminars here!
The CONNECTS Seminars will resume in the Fall 2026 semester.
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**SPRING 2026 START SMART LEGAL SERIES (Virtual)**
ALL virtual sessions held at 5-6:15 PM | ET
March 24 & April 7
How to Structure Your Capital Raise | Part 2 Workshop
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CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
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| Click the images to find out more about each of the Clubs!
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| The CMU T&E has a jobs board, available for people across the community to share and seek new opportunities in the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Find out more and visit the website here.
The CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship group aims to build a bridge between CMU students and alumni across the startup and tech continuum. With main chapters in NYC, Pittsburgh, and SF, we offer a range of in-person and online events and programming in the form of panels, workshops, founder/investor engagements, startup support, and socials to foster collaboration, innovation, and networking opportunities.
Join 7,000+ Tartans on our Slack workspace and mailing list for resources and updates on how you can engage in the community and CMU entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
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Legal Services Weekly Virtual Office Hours with Matt Kirmayer
Mondays 1:00-3:00 PM ET (10-12 PT)
Matt Kirmayer of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, is offering office hours for newly established startup and emerging companies. Matt specializes in representing technology startups and emerging growth companies, assisting with entity formation, fundraising and overall growth needs. Startup companies with a founder who is a CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni is eligible to register for
an appointment. Complete the Signup Form for a 30 minute session by the Thursday prior to your
desired appointment.
Contact Daria Stokes or Sean Mawhinney for office hours outside of these regular hours.
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PwC
Our purpose—to build trust in society and solve important problems—is at the core of everything we do. It guides how we serve our clients, our people and the world. To help our clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes, PwC provides professional services across two segments: Trust Solutions and Consulting Solutions. Within these segments we bring a range of capabilities to help organizations solve faster, solve more and realize more value. These capabilities include cloud and digital, deals, ESG, cybersecurity and privacy, governance/boards, risk, transformation, tax services and much more. Across our global network of more than 295,000 professionals in 156 countries, we are committed to advancing quality in everything we do.
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| HOW TO WORK OUT OF THE SWARTZ CENTER
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Swartz Center Education and Resources
No matter what phase of the entrepreneurship cycle you're in, there are programs and resources at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship that will take your idea to the next level.
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COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
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FIND OUT WHAT OUR PARTNERS ARE DOING
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Have startup news or opportunities to share? Have questions about the Swartz Center Weekly Bulletin? Send news, opportunities or questions to Sonya Ford, Program Manager.
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Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center For Entrepreneurship
5000 Forbes Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 |
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