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Swartz Center Founding Executive Director
Dave Mawhinney Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
from the PVCA
CMU Swartz Center Founding Executive Director Dave Mawhinney was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association (PVCA) last Thursday, May 8, 2025. Several friends, colleagues and Dave's family were in attendance, including his wife Kristan and their three sons Sean, Michael and Ben.
After special remarks were given by long time friend and colleague Sean Ammirati, Dave received a special tribute from each of his sons as they took the stage together to share early family memories, a bit of humor and reflections on his unwavering commitment and passion for the Entrepreneurship ecosystem both in Pittsburgh and at Carnegie Mellon University. Dave's tireless and dedicated mentorship to countless students and alumni over the years was also highlighted and celebrated among the many friends who attended in his honor, including CMU Swartz Center staff, Swartz Fellow and Innovation Scholar students and many more from CMU and the community.
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|  | From left: Sean Ammirati, Bill Flanagan, Michael Mawhinney, Dave Mawhinney, Ben Mawhinney and Sean Mawhinney
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Trainwell Launches Free Tier Workout Plans
Trainwell co-founder Matt Spettel has announced that Trainwell is now offering completely free trainer-curated workout plans for its users, with the accountability of a team of fellow users to back you up.
With trainwell teams, users can build a team consisting of family and friends that can work together to hit consistency and desired goals.
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Tepper School of Business MBA Ruben Antonio Quesada Named to Poets & Quants Best and Brightest Class
of 2025
Ruben Antonio Quesada, Tepper MBA and 2023-25 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow, has had an incredible journey from architect to startup founder. As CEO and Co-Founder of Sabana, an AI-driven data management platform designed to simplify how architects and engineers manage, document and collaborate on product selections and construction specifications, Ruben embodies the passion, grit and drive that propels entrepreneurs forward and is a key leader in the Tepper School's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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Aurora Innovation Deploys First Driverless Semi-truck
on Texas Roads
Strip District-headquartered autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation Inc. announced that it has successfully deployed a completely driverless semi-truck in Texas, making it the first company to ever operate a self-driving heavy duty truck on public roads.
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| Lovelace AI Secures Seed Funding
Lovelace AI, the stealth AI startup founded by Andrew Moore, former dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and former Google Cloud AI General Manager, announced it has closed a seed round backed by RRE Ventures. Financial terms of the funding round were not disclosed.
"Lovelace AI is not just building another AI company, it's solving one of the most fundamental bottlenecks in modern computing, the ability to synthesize data across environments at operational speed," RRE COO Will Porteous said in a prepared statement.
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Near Earth Autonomy's Barry Rabkin
Named to CMU's 2025 Tartans on the Rise
Tepper School of Business alumnus Barry Rabkin (MBA '14), Director of Marketing at Near Earth Autonomy, is a recipient of CMU's 2025 class of Tartans on the Rise. Rabkin is shaping the future of aviation through “flight beyond sight.” His strategic leadership is driving Near Earth’s revolutionary autonomous aircraft technology, forming key partnerships with the U.S. Department of Defense and leading aircraft manufacturers.
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Apply to the F (Lux) Fellowship by May 12!
Lux Capital is a >$5B AUM multistage fund investing at the intersection of science and technology, comprised of lead investors of companies such as Hugging Face, Anduril, Applied Intuition, RunwayML, Recursion and many others.
Lux has launched its inaugural f(Lux) Fellowship for the summer of 2025. Undergraduate students building in physical sciences (semis, space, defense, manufacturing), computational sciences (opensource, infra, crypto, AI) and life sciences (bio, healthcare) are eligible to apply.
The fellowship can be done in tandem with an internship, or for those working on a project full time.
The fellowship includes:
•$15K non-dilutive, no strings-attached grant
•All expenses paid retreats at the start + end of the 2025 summer
Personalized mentors from both the Lux investment team and the Lux portfolio
•Rich fellowship programming (fireside chats with portfolio founders, themed discussions, etc.)
Applications are live now and due at the beginning of May 2025. The application is open to anyone from freshman to coterms. Send questions to flux@luxcapital.com.
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Help For an MBA Student's Research Collaboration
Nate Patterson, a James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow in the MBA Class of '25, is working on a research collaboration in behavioral science space with academics at other leading universities.
He and his collaborators are collecting informal survey data, which will help them qualify for additional research funding. Please complete their survey if you have a few minutes!
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Today is the Last Day to Apply to the Beyond 2% Fund!
The purpose of the Beyond 2% Fund is to provide up to $2K in support for early-stage startup ideas at Carnegie Mellon University's Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship that address the needs of women, as determined by a committee of CMU staff, alumni and friends. The deadline to apply is May 9.
Open to All CMU Student Founders!
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Multimodal AI, Vector DB and Agentic AI (San Francisco)
on Tuesday, May 13!
Join AICamp and CMU VentureBridge on May 13, for an evening of cutting-edge talks on multimodal AI, featuring leaders in computer vision and vector database infrastructure. Explore the future of intelligent systems that see, understand and interact across modalities.
Space is limited. Register now!
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Moon x CMU Founders Meetup & Pitch Event (Palo Alto)
Join a networking and pitch event with members of the CMU network. Hear from students, alumni and other founders within CMU as they pitch their innovative business ideas to an audience including VCs, investors, leaders and peers.
Hosted by Moon and CMU VentureBridge and Alumni Association San Francisco Bay Area Network, this event is an exclusive opportunity to learn about up-and-coming businesses and meet founders and other innovators from CMU San Francisco Bay Area Network.
Space is limited. Register now!
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| 2025 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summer Kick-off!
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Step into summer with Dentons! Join us for an unforgettable evening of camaraderie, connection and celebration amidst the vibrant pulse of Pittsburgh's innovation and entrepreneurship scene.
Enjoy light hors d'oeuvres and engaging conversations as we gather to reconnect with old friends, forge new alliances and immerse ourselves in the dynamic spirit of innovation.
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| Join us on June 2nd during NY Tech Week for the CMU VentureBridge 2025 Demo Day to watch
pitch presentations from the current cohort and select VentureBridge alumni in the portfolio, followed by a reception.
This event is open to investors and VIPs only.
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW 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!
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The CONNECTS/START SMART LAW Seminars have ended for the Spring semester and will resume in the Fall.
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The mission of 99 Tartans is to partner with the highest potential, early-stage CMU alumni companies and accelerate their success through access to capital and networks. Find out more.
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CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
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| Click the images to see upcoming Club events!
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Big News: We’ve Moved to Substack!
Starting April 2025, the CMU T&E is transitioning from Mailchimp to Substack for their primary newsletter!
You can expect a welcome email—if you don’t receive it, you can manually subscribe at cmutechentrepreneur.substack.com.
We’re excited for this next chapter—see you there!
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| 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. Find out more and get involved!
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The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
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| Pillsbury and Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC are holding office hours for the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. The office hours are for any interested CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni interested in entrepreneurship or connecting with members of the Swartz Center network.
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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. Find out more.
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Project Olympus Incubator Program
Want more help with finding product/market fit, developing your business model, making connections and attracting funding? Project Olympus will team you up with a business coach to develop a personalized ‘roadmap. Find out more.
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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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