Innovators

At D2P, we work with all kinds of creative individuals on campus to help develop their innovative ideas. Some call themselves entrepreneurs. Others favor terms like “pioneer” or “mad scientist.” Some are still exploring and learning, and some have launched successful startups and licensed technologies. All of them are bright and dedicated, and we’d like to introduce you to just a few of them. View our startup companies here.

Below are two sections: a section that contains an industry category filter, followed by a section that contains innovators from that industry. Selecting a filter will automatically filter the innovators. Innovators may take a few moments to load as the filtering is processed.

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Alyssa Adams speaking about ProPhounD

ProPhounD, co-founded by Alyssa Adams, Ali Deastch, and Andrew Kusick, is a program aimed at counseling research scientists and facilitating their transition into impactful roles outside of academia, pairing talented scientists with causes that they are passionate about. 

Read more about Alyssa Adams, Ali Deatsch, and Andrew Kusick

Through their innovation, Alithic, Robert Anex and Bu Wang have developed a new way to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently transform it into a sustainable building material.

Read more about Bu Wang and Robert Anex

Gavin Knight and Randolph Ashton smiling in front of the Neurosetta lab

Randolph Ashton and Gavin Knight, co-founders of Neurosetta, have developed a novel, scalable approach to bioengineer reproducible cell culture models of brain and spinal cord development.

Read more about Randolph Ashton and Gavin Knight

Joel Baraka and Ansew Liow smiling with My Home Stars board game

Joel Baraka and Anson Liow co-founded My Home Stars, an educational board game for Ugandan students. Their mission is to improve access to quality education in refugee camps for children across the country.

Read more about Joel Baraka and Anson Liow

The Pyran team

Kevin Barnett and George Huber, co-founders of Pyran, are paving the way for the future of sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals

Read more about Kevin Barnett and George Huber

Bryan Bednarz headshot

Bryan Bednarz is a UW–Madison professor who co-founded Voximetry, a healthtech company specializing in sophisticated tools to accurately and efficiently monitor radiopharmaceutical therapy in cancer patients.

Read more about Bryan Bednarz

Guelay Bilen-Rosas headshot

Guelay Bilen-Rosas and her team at AyrFlo are developing a novel respiratory monitoring device that detects breathing problems in patients early, quantitatively, and in real time.

Read more about Guelay Bilen-Rosas

Calimetrix team

Jean Brittain, Diego Hernando, and Scott Reeder have designed phantoms that ensure accurate results in imaging methods for disease diagnosis and clinical trials with their company, Calimetrix.

Read more about Jean Brittain, Diego Hernando, Scott Reeder

Mentor Aimee Arnoldussen meeting with Samsara team, Caroline and Luke Burkey

Caroline and Luke Burkey are the wife and husband duo who are revolutionizing healthcare education through their company, Samsara; a virtual classroom platform that is designed to enhance teamwork skills among professionals in the healthcare industry.
Read more about Caroline and Luke Burkey

Cindy Burzinski

Cindy Burzinski, on a mission to increase community access to live-saving materials for those struggling with substance use disorders, is spearheading the Nalox-ZONE program.

Read more about Cindy Burzinski

Faraz Choudhury and Daniel Benjamin posing with the Immuno Scientific office sign

Immuto Scientific founders, Faraz Choudhury and Daniel Benjamin, are developing technology that uses protein footprinting to revolutionize drug discovery and therapeutics development.

Read more about Faraz Choudhury and Daniel Benjamin

Kit Chow and Aditya Singh Parihar

Kit Chow and Aditya Singh Parihar were undergraduate students and co-founders of Boosted Chews, a startup that produced bite-sized caffeinated chocolate. Find out what these innovators are doing now.

Read more about Kit Chow and Aditya Singh-Parihar

Clayton Custer standing beside the EduReality logo

EduReality founders Clayton Custer and Taylor Waddell are developing technology that will allow STEM students to explore educational simulations through virtual reality.

Read more about Clayton Custer and Taylor Waddell

Discussing, Paolo Desati and Elena Donghia sit at a table in Discovery to Product.

Paolo Desiati and Elena D’Onghia are developing technology to shield astronauts from harmful cosmic radiation during space travel, Halbach Torus.

Read more about Paolo Desiati and Elena D’Onghia

In the race to push manufacturing into the future, Dr. Luis Izet Escano and Dr. Lianyi Chen are pioneering advancements in metal 3D printing with their innovation, 3D Powder Tech.

Read more about Dr. Luis Izet Escano and Dr. Lianyi Chen

Kattia Jimenez crouches in a hemp field.

Kattia Jiménez is a UW–Madison staff member and the founder of Mount Horeb Hemp, a company that produces CBD oil from locally grown plants.

Read more about Kattia Jiménez

Katy Jinkins in the lab

Katy Jinkins, the CEO and co-founder of Sixline Semiconductor, is seeking to revolutionize the electronics industry by developing semiconductor devices that vastly outperform those conventionally fabricated with silicon.

Read more about Katy Jinkins

Margaret Lumley in the lab showing mentor Aimee Arnoldussen her technology

ChloBis Water, Inc. co-founders Margaret Lumley and Dohwan Nam, along with Kyoung-Shin Choi are on a mission to unlock the potential of water desalination.

Read more about Margaret Lumley and Dohwan Nam

Tamara McLean and mentor Cecily Brose smiling in front of McLean's art exhibit

Tamara McLean seeks to show how art can be made when AI technologies intersect with human creativity in her showcase, “They Said,”

Read more about Tamara McLean

Katie Haghighi posing in front of a table

Kiki Mei seeks to create a more sustainable and fashionable future through her optimized thrifting platform, FR8.

Read more about Kiki Mei

Shawn Michels

Shawn Michels founded SteadyShot while he was an undergraduate student in the School of Business. The company developed a one-handed injection device for diabetics.

Read more about Shawn Michels

Paul Mross stands by a model of the Happ:y mat, marked up with hand and foot outlines and instructions for placement of hands and feet.

Paul Mross is a UW–Madison consultant on research exploring yoga and fall prevention. He is the co-founder of Happy Wellness, a company that has created a unique mat and communication system to facilitate therapy.

Read more about Paul Mross

Bill Murphy in his lab

Bill Murphy is a professor of biomedical engineering and co-founder of Stem Pharm, a company that develops stem cells to aid in drug discovery, cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

Read more about Bill Murphy

Melissa Skala

Melissa Skala and her team are developing biomedical optical imaging technologies for cancer research, cell therapy, and immunology.

Read more about Melissa Skala

Damon Smith, Roger Schmidt, and Teryl Schmidt meeting with mentor Cecily Brose in the lab

The increasingly urgent issue of crop loss drove Damon Smith, Roger Schmidt, and Teryl Schmidt to design the solution; Field Prophet, an app that predicts crop loss risks and revolutionizes disease management for growers.

Read more about Damon Smith, Roger Schmidt, and Teryl Schmidt

Photo of Jim Steele with a group of students examining fermenting beer on a table in various test tubes and fermentation jars.

Jim Steele is a professor of food science at UW–Madison and founder of Lactic Solutions (acquired by Lallemand). Steele’s innovation uses lactic acid to increase yields in the ethanol production process.

Read more about Jim Steele

Patrick Sullivan and mentor Amar Anumakonda in the lab

UW–Madison PhD student Patrick Sullivan is a Co-Founder and CEO of Flux XII, a flow battery grid energy storage technology that offers a more effective, cost-efficient, and sustainable method of storing energy.

Read more about Patrick Sullivan

Erin Varnas smiles beside three differently flavored packages of Yips Yogurt Chips

Erin Vranas developed the concept for Yips Yogurt Chips while a student at UW–Madison. The treats are designed for those who want an easy, good-for-you snack to eat on the go.

 

 

Read more about Erin Vranas

Ben Winters at the Badger Startup Summit.

Ben Winters co-founded FoodChain as an undergraduate student in the School of Business. It provides an innovative digital solution to connect growers and consumers.

Read more about Ben Winters