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| 2026 COMMENCEMENT EDITION
Congratulations to all of the CMU graduates!
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| Celebrating CMU Swartz Center For Entrepreneurship
Cohort Graduates!
Graduate Swartz Fellows, Undergraduate Innovation Scholars and PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellows
This past weekend, many of our Undergraduate Innovation Scholars, Graduate Swartz Fellows, as well as a PhD. Innovation Commercialization Fellow participated in CMU's graduation ceremonies. This year's commencement address was given by NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jason Huang, who told the graduates, "No generation has entered the world with more powerful tools—or greater opportunities—than you. We are all standing at the same starting line. This is your moment to help shape what comes next. So run. Don’t walk." Words that truly exemplify the entrepreneurship spirit.
We are incredibly proud of each of these students and the hard work they've put into exploring entrepreneurship, starting companies, participating and winning competitions and further reaching their entrepreneurial goals, all while balancing their busy academic schedules. These newly crowned alumni will continue to be a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem here at Carnegie Mellon, staying connected with their respective programs by becoming ambassadors and mentors to future cohorts and returning to campus to participate in and attend future Swartz Center events.
The graduates pictured above (from left):
Swartz Fellows: Ashwini Karanth, Tepper School of Business; Shiv Panjwani, Tepper School of Business; Jennifer Evans, PhD; Abdullah Jawhar, AI Engineering/MechE; Dr. Shubhaa Chawla, MIIPS, Business, Design & Engineering; Anthony R. Edwards, Tepper School of Business/AI
PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellow: Mitchell Fogelson, PhD (center)
Innovation Scholars: Eagle Lo, Master of Computational Data Science; Simran Jolly, Business Administration (minors in Finance and Entrepreneurship); Aaryan Lalwani, Tepper School of Business; Avalon Sueiro, Business Administration/Computer Science
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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Fireside Conversation with David Coulter, Chair,
Carnegie Mellon University Board of Trustees
Date: Tuesday, June 2
Time: 3-5 PM | ET
Location: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, NYC
Join us for a discussion on leadership, innovation and Carnegie Mellon’s role in shaping the future as we host David Coulter, Chair of Carnegie Mellon University’s Board of Trustees, for a fireside conversation with Meredith Grelli, Managing Director & Interim Executive Director, Swartz Center
for Entrepreneurship.
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Join the CMU Swartz Center for CMU VentureBridge ’26 Demo Day, which will be held during a16z New York Tech Week - featuring CMU founders building across AI, robotics, biotech, and infrastructure.
The keynote will be followed by founder pitches.
Investors Only. Limited Spots!
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Complete this marketing survey and make your voice heard on the brand name and associated taglines for an inaugural week of innovation and entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh this September!
Brought to you by 15 partners across the Pittsburgh region.
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Apply to the 2026-2027 PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellows Program by May 15!
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| The PhD Innovation Commercialization Fellows program is an exciting opportunity for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working with faculty investigators who are interested in driving the commercialization efforts for their Carnegie Mellon University research based startup companies. Previous Fellows have collectively gone on to receive nearly $114M in follow-on funding for their ventures.
Innovation Commercialization Fellows is a year-long program that begins July 1, 2026. Along with cohort-based educational opportunities and expert one-on-one mentoring, Fellows will receive a $50K contribution from the Swartz Center, contingent upon a $50K match from another source, to support them while they explore the commercialization process.
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Appy for the Fall 2026 CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows Program by August 1!
Applications for the CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows for the Fall 2026 are now open! Click the links below to learn more about each program and apply! CSL programs are offered to all Carnegie Mellon University Graduate Students (Project Course is restricted to Pittsburgh campus students).
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Cinder Raises $41M in Series B Funding to Scale its
AI-powered Infrastructure
In an announcement via LinkedIn on Tuesday, Cinder Co-Founder and CEO Glen Wise announced the company has raised $41M Series B funding to scale its AI-powered infrastructure, which is designed to protect the internet from AI-generated abuse and bad actors. The funding round was led by Radical Ventures, with ongoing participation from existing investors Accel and Y Combinator.
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Beyond Reach Labs Named to Black Flag's 100 List
Beyond Reach Labs (YC W26), Co-Founded by CMU's Mitchell Fogelson, PhD (Mechanical Engineering), has been named to the Black Flag 100 List, which gives 500+ founders the opportunity to share which companies they're most excited about.
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Summer Internship: Startup Operations Associate
NetraMind Innovations, a company focused on AI-driven ophthalmology and eye disease diagnosis, is in need of an Operations Associate. CMU alumnus Justin Shaka is an experienced medical device executive and entrepreneur currently involved with the company, and as of 2025–2026, he is supporting NetraMind's commercialization and operational strategy. This is not a traditional corporate internship. It is a hands-on operational role working directly with startup leadership.
Email Justin Shaka at justin@netramind.ai for more information and find out more here (pdf).
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| Wilbe Capital Mixer ~ Pittsburgh, PA
Date: Tuesday, May 19
Time: 6-8 PM | ET
Location: TBD
Wilbe Capital, a platform and venture fund for scientists and engineers building generational companies with strong communities in Boston, Zürich, Munich, Oxford, Cambridge and London, is coming to Pittsburgh to meet the local scientists and engineers who are already building, or want to. From quantum physics to bio and robotics, join us for good conversations and new connections.
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| Dentons 2026 Corporate Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summer Kick-off
Date: May 21, 2026
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 PM | ET
Location: Dentons Cohen & Grigsby P.C.
Jump into summer with an evening hosted by Dentons! We are excited to have you once again join us for our annual summer kickoff networking event among the city's innovation and entrepreneurship community.
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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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