Catalyzing Technology Products, Innovators, and Founders
|
|
|
|
People often ask me what The Christensen Family Center for Innovation actually does. The short answer is that we help Pratt innovators find ways to take the amazing technologies being created every day by Duke Engineers to have impact out in the world. As part of that work, we help students and faculty start companies, lead product teams, and get ventures off the ground. The longer answer is in this issue of our newsletter.
What I'd point out is that none of it happens in one program or with one person. A student might hear about our GoBIG awards from a mentor in Duke I&E and apply for funds to move their idea forward, only to realize how little they know about customer discovery, so they join Product Lab the following semester, work on solving real problems for Duke Athletics, and meet their future start-up team in the process. A PhD student working in a faculty research lab attends Founders Fridays and leaves with information about our Research Accelerator, changing his career trajectory toward entrepreneurship and becomes one of 15 company founders working in our downtown Durham incubator. A Clark Scholar enrolls in one of our Business Leadership courses and is now able to enhance their technical skills with the decision making, problem solving, and judgement skills critical for success. Our programs create pathways that allow our products and people to make a positive impact.
|
EXPANDING BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
|
Though it began as a Fall semester course for Clark Scholars, EGR 190: Business Leadership for Engineers (EGR 190) is now open to all Pratt undergrads and is offered every semester. Taught by Mike Salvino and myself, students meet with leaders and executives who coach them on judgment, communication, and executive presence, the things that make someone worth following when they're leading a product or a company. You'll read below about one student who took the class, received one of our GoBIG Awards, and ultimately sold his company before graduating from Duke. The mentorship, coaching, and connections this course provides are unmatched. Enrollment has tripled, and the waitlist is long. Students know how important these skills are for engineers.
|
You'll meet six students below. Each one used more than one of our programs, and I think their stories explain what we do better than I can. Thanks for reading and for being in their corner. Please share their stories and amplify their work as they continue to build successful products and companies.
|
Managing Director, Christensen Family Center for Innovation
Duke University Pratt School of Engineering
|
|
|
|
| Class of 2025, Electrical and Computer Engineering
|
Ken and his QuikCal co-founders, Del Cudjoe and Alec Liu, carried a first-year EGR 101 design project to acquisition by MOCA Systems, Inc. (MSI), provider of Touchplan by MSI®, the industry-leading construction planning platform. Two years of GoBIG Award funding and advising from Executive Director Steve McClelland kept them going, while Product Management and Business Leadership for Engineers gave Ken what he needed to keep building past the classroom and grow as a leader.
|
|
|
|
Class of 2026, Electrical and Computer Engineering
|
At the Center's Founders Fridays drop-in mentoring sessions, Shaan and his co-founder Edmond Niu found their earliest mentors in Mike Salvino, former CEO of DXC Technology, and Executive Director Steve McClelland — coaching that pushed them to get closer to customers and test their assumptions before scaling. That thinking shaped Atlia, an AI-native property management company for short-term rental owners, which has since been accepted into Y Combinator.
|
|
|
|
|
| Class of 2027, Electrical and Computer Engineering
|
With her Blue Skull Group co-founders — Saagar Arya, Anna Brusoe, and Amanda Li — Lindsay turned an EGR 102 Design to Deliver class project into a per-pin force sensing system that gives neurosurgeons accurate, real-time data. The team was accepted to both the Call for Papers and the Student Design Showcase at the Design of Medical Devices Conference (DMD 2026) at the University of Minnesota — a peer-reviewed validation of their work and a platform to connect with industry leaders from across the country. GoBIG Award funding and Center mentorship carried the device from class project to active licensing conversations with manufacturers and venture firms.
|
|
|
|
Class of 2026, Computer Science & Environmental Science/Policy
|
Through Duke Design Climate and the Department of Energy's EnergyTech UP Challenge, Nick and his teammates — Kellan Hepditch, Jake Sapp, and Ben Verlander — built a plan for accelerating Enhanced Geothermal Systems past the bottlenecks holding them back. They advanced to the regional finals of the Stanford Global Sustainability Challenge, selected from 350 global applicants, with travel funded by a Center GoBIG Award. Beyond the funding, the Center's mentorship sharpened their framing and prepared them for the jury's hardest questions.
|
|
|
|
|
| PhD Candidate, Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine
|
Cierra is the founder of TrialON, building software to improve clinical trial administration and help research move faster and more effectively. Among the Center's most actively supported PhD fellows, she has earned a GoBIG Award, gone through the Research Accelerator, refined the product as a Product Lab client, completed the I&E Graduate Certificate and PhD Innovators, won funding from the Alison Bernstein Venture Activation Fund, and competed in First Flight's March Madness Pitch competition — and is now raising to bring it to market.
|
|
|
|
Class of 2024, PhD in Biomedical Engineering
|
With support from the Center, Tri moved from academic researcher to startup founder, building Lumius Imaging out of his Duke lab work. He and his team officially founded the company after completing the Research Accelerator and graduating, and its Director, Ibrahim Mohedas, kept mentoring them well beyond it — a foundation that carried them to a pre-seed round with multiple VCs, an option agreement with Duke OTC, and Y Combinator acceptance in 2026. Lumius now works out of the Center's BRiDGE incubator in downtown Durham's Chesterfield building.
|
|
|
|
|
|
At the first Founders Fridays session of Fall 2026, Duke students joined Jaylen Coleman, founder of ATP and co-founder of Trench Sports, for a candid conversation about when to start a startup, and how to balance building an ambitious idea with the realities of student life. The session launched a monthly series of informal mentoring conversations hosted by the Christensen Family Center for Innovation.
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Fall 2026 dates: Oct 2, Nov 6, Dec 4
Wilkinson 017 | Select Fridays from 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
|
|
| |
DUKE | WILKINSON ENGINEERING BUILDING | 534 RESEARCH DRIVE DURHAM, NC
|
|
|
|
Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
|
110 Science Drive | Durham, NC 27708 US
|
|
|
|
This email was sent to tnf9@duke.edu.
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.
|
|
|
|
|
