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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Attention Founders!
Register to Pitch for AI & Robotics Venture Day by Wednesday, July 15
AI & Robotics VentureDay is a curated showcase of CMU-affiliated and the Pittsburgh-region's most investment-ready AI and robotics startups. Presented by the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership with Innovation Works, the event brings together investors, founders, university leaders and the regional startup community to spotlight high-potential companies building in AI, robotics, autonomy and embodied intelligence.
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, McConomy Auditorium, 5000 Forbes Ave.
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CMU Startup Week is Back!
The second annual CMU Startup Week is set to return this Fall! Join 2000+ founders, investors, researchers, students and alumni on September 14–18, 2026. This year, CMU Startup Week is also an anchor partner of StartUP PGH, a new effort bringing together over 15 regional partners for a collective week of entrepreneurship, innovation and activity in Pittsburgh.
Expect five days of AI and Robotics innovations, research and investor connections, recruiting opportunities and dozens of events across the Carnegie Mellon ecosystem anchored by our flagship events: CMU Lab to Market, AI Robotics Venture Day, SPARK Startup Jobs Fair, and the Swartz Student Startup Showcase (S4).
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Appy by August 1!
Fall 2026 CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows Program
The Corporate Startup Lab at Carnegie Mellon University works with companies to foster greater innovation, entrepreneurship and future readiness. Through partnerships with CMU graduate students, CSL helps organizations explore real-world challenges, identify new opportunities and bring the latest thinking in technology, innovation and startup methods into their companies.
For Students: Applications are now open for the Fall 2026 CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows Program. These incredible opportunities give Carnegie Mellon University graduate students the chance to gain valuable hands-on experience, build meaningful professional connections, and expand their networks while working on impactful projects.
The CSL Fellows Program is a paid position that offers students the opportunity to be compensated while developing skills to support their academic and career goals.
Both programs are open to Carnegie Mellon University graduate students. Please note that the CSL Project Course is restricted to Pittsburgh campus students.
For Corporate Partners: Organizations interested in engaging CSL graduate students to help address a real-world challenge are encouraged to connect with the CSL team. This is a unique opportunity to collaborate with talented CMU graduate students, gain fresh perspectives and explore innovative approaches to meaningful business, technology and societal challenges. Reach out to Jim Jen if interested, jjen@andrew.cmu.edu.
Students, click the links below to learn more about each program and apply by August 1!
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Mowito Raises $3M Pre-seed Round Led by Version One Ventures, All In Capital
Physical AI startup Mowito, co-founded by CMU '17 alumnus and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Puru Rastogi, has raised $3M in a pre-seed funding round led by Version One Ventures, with participation from All In Capital, Unisol, iSeed and a group of angel investors. The Bengaluru and Detroit-based startup will use the capital to expand its footprint in the U.S., strengthen its engineering and go-to-market teams, and scale across automotive and electronics manufactures.
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|  | Innovation Scholar alumni Janise Kim (second from left), Won Park and Baek Kim (right)
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| Innovation Scholars Takeover Seoul at ICML 2026
Baek Kim, General Partner at Hashed, welcomed a couple of CMU Innovation Scholar alumni at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2026 Seoul opening reception on July 5, which his office hosted. As one of the first Innovation Scholars cohort members as far back as 2015, Baek was excited to see his mentee Won Park (OpenAI) and Janise Kim (Nimble), both CMU alumni from the 2025 cohort.
The reception, which was held at Hashed, welcomed hundreds of Ph.D. professors, some hailing from CMU, along with a highly curated community of leading AI researchers, engineers and founders from around the world. Hashed has locations in Seoul, Singapore, San Francisco and Abu Dhabi.
The Innovation Scholars network is over ninety alumni strong, and we're happy to see them stay connected even as far as Seoul!
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| Robotics Team from CMU Arrive in Venezuela to Assist Search and Rescue Crews
A robotics team from Carnegie Mellon University arrived in La Guaira, Venezuela, last week to assist search and rescue crews in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes. Designed by CMU Kavčić-Moura CS Professor of Robotics Howie Choset and his team, the snake robots are highly articulated mechanisms that can exploit their shape and many degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed regions, accessing locations that people and conventional machinery otherwise could not.
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Shelfmark is hiring! Shelfmark is a Pittsburgh, PA-based team of engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs with a mission to solve problems for the bedrock industries that power our global economy. Their innovative AI computer vision technology is solving problems for the world's largest manufacturers and they are hiring.
Open positions:
Deployment Manager - Physical AI
Embedded Software Engineer
Machine Learning Engineer
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Brighton Business Analytics is seeking a go-to-market sales partner to launch a financial
analytics service that helps small businesses improve profitability, pricing, and cash flow. The
product has paying clients and opportunities in both direct sales and reseller partnerships.
Bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and professionals interested in building an advisory practice can
expand their services and create recurring revenue by offering financial analytics to their clients.
Jonathan Brighton is a 2026 graduate of the CMU Tepper School of Business Master of Science in Business Analytic (MSBA) program.
Contact jonathan@analyticcfo.com to learn more.
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OTHER APPLICATION DEADLINES
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Apply for the AlphaLab '27 Cohort by July 17!
AlphaLab is now accepting applications for AL27. AlphaLab is a six-month on-site accelerator based in Pittsburgh that invests $100K as an uncapped convertible note in early-stage startups across software, hardware, health, and robotics. The program provides hands-on mentorship, deep connections to investors, customers, and talent, and a built-in network of 300+ alumni
companies that have raised more than $1.3 billion in follow-on funding.
The AL27 application is open to early-stage startups that are incorporated in the U.S. and ready to commit to spending significant time in Pittsburgh during the program. Applications are free and reviewed on a rolling basis.
Schedule office hours or apply at alphalab.org/apply.
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Nucleate Pittsburgh x UPMC Enterprises Reverse Pitch
Date: Wednesday, July 15
Time: 4-6 PM ET
Are you considering comercializing your research? UPMC Enterprises is flipping the script and will take the stage to pitch to you! Register to learn more and then stick around for refreshments and networking.
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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/START SMART Legal Seminars will resume in the
Fall 2026 semester.
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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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