New and improved for 2020, this year’s InnoVention gets off to a strong start

The InnoVention competition — hosted by the NYU Entrepreneurship & Innovation Association and supported by the Future Labs and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering — allows students from across the university to prototype and pitch commercially viable solutions to pressing societal problems.

Long an integral part of Tandon’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship (and an important stepping stone to other activities like the NYU Entrepreneur’s Challenge and Summer Launchpad), InnoVention is now even bigger and better this year.

Among the changes: the initial cohort now consists of 16 teams, rather than 12, and this year, for the first time, InnoVention is partnering with NYU Abu Dhabi's startAD accelerator, which is dedicated to steering startups from launch to development to scale. The InnoVention and NYU Future Labs teams will be traveling to Abu Dhabi to select two teams from the accelerator to compete at InnoVention Demo Day, scheduled for April 29.

There’s much more than bragging rights at stake: each accepted team in the 2020 cohort receives $1,000 to work on their prototype — $500 upon acceptance and $500 upon completion. On Demo Day, the first-place finisher will receive $15,000, with second- and third-place prizes of $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

In between comes a packed roster of personal coaching and workshops focused on such topics as team culture, customer discovery, business models, and effective pitching.

As in past years, NYU Tandon students are well represented: nine of the 16 teams accepted this year include Tandon engineers and technologists. So, without further ado ... meet our members of the 2020 InnoVention cohort, and join us in cheering them on as April 29 approaches.

• Matrix is building a B2B platform that will allow movie distribution companies to measure the emotional feedback of an audience by means of wristband hardware, helping them better market and sell their films.  
• AutoManage is building a product that provides data collection and analysis for project managers.
• New Money is a one-stop platform connecting all Impact Investing stakeholders by validating and providing raw corporate environmental data through private blockchain ledgers and smart contracts.
• Exchange helps aspiring data scientists attain their dream jobs.
• Crates is building a web-based application that provides a platform for patients to conduct remote diagnoses, as well as connect with appropriate medical professionals with ease.
• Evolve offers educational training services leveraging analytics and insights to support gamers who want to compete at eSports level.
• SitEat is a mobile commerce platform that offers advanced online ordering and pickup services for stadiums and arenas.
• Rethinking the Porta Potty is disrupting the market through design innovation, adding functionality that will allow porta potties to be stored and transported more efficiently, as well as be more sustainable.
• Chat Bite is an application that allows college students to overcome their loneliness and need for physical communication by meeting new peers with similar interests for a meal or an engaging conversation that can potentially flourish into a friendship.