Team members Spenser Wu ’26, Giovanni Patriarca ’25, and graduate students Andres Blanco and Unnati Deshwal present during the Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition hosted May 2 in Gates Hall.
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Cornell Engineering innovations drive student commercialization plans
By Syl Kacapyr
From a nanotech solution for removing toxic chemicals from water to a 3D-printing method for high-precision drug delivery, Cornell students put real research innovations to the test in the inaugural Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition, held May 2 in Gates Hall and hosted by the Cornell Engineering Office of Innovation.
Team members Evan Leong ’25, Nikhill Andrew ’28, Sarah Zhong ’26, Eileen Wu ’26, Megh Patel, M.Eng. ’25, took first place at the Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition.
The competition takes early-stage technologies emerging from Cornell research labs and challenges teams of students to develop commercialization plans for them, guided by mentorship from professionals with industry experience.
Over the course of the semester, four student teams researched market trends, regulatory pathways, and financial feasibility as they built comprehensive commercialization strategies, culminating in a final pitch to a panel of expert judges.
The winning proposal centered on commercializing a software tool developed in the lab of Max Zhang, the Irving Porter Church Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Originally designed to optimize heat pump performance in residential settings, the team identified a higher-impact application in data centers – a rapidly growing, energy-intensive sector. By highlighting the software’s ability to enhance energy efficiency and integrate with existing HVAC systems, they reframed the technology’s potential as a scalable solution for sustainable digital infrastructure.
Team member Sarah Zhong ’26 said it was a challenge to first understand the technology, then to work collaboratively to identify its potential market applications.
Team members Rasneet Singh, M.Eng. ’25, Edward Lee ’26, Moez Amini ’26 and Rui Li ’25 present during the Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition.
“When I hear about deep-tech or hard-tech startups, it can be intimidating and, before this competition, it would have been hard to imagine I could contribute to one,” said Zhong, who is majoring in computer engineering. “But going through this process made me realize that, while it is challenging, it can be done by anyone who has the background and the willingness.”
The team was mentored by visiting scientist Mark Hurwitz, Ph.D. ’96, and other team members included Eileen Wu ’26, Evan Leong ’25, Megh Patel, M.Eng. ’25, and Nikhill Andrew ’28, who said team worked well together to complement each other’s strengths.
“We're proud of the work that we did all throughout the semester, and so we were just excited to present it,” said Andrew, a computer science major, “and winning at the end was definitely just a cherry on top.”
Another team presented a commercialization strategy for RollLift – a 3D-printing technique developed in the lab of Atieh Moridi, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, that uses laser pulses to achieve complex geometries at micrometer resolution. Their plan focused first on thermal management for the aerospace sector in order to attract early funding for research and development, with a long-term goal of expanding into applications for liquid cooling in data centers.
A third team tackled environmental contamination with a plan centered on Nanocapture, a nanotechnology-based particle system originally engineered for carbon storage in the lab of Emmanuel Giannelis, the Walter R. Read Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The team pivoted its application to target the removal of PFAS – also known as forever chemicals – from contaminated water, with plans to serve industrial customers, landfill operators and government remediation programs, initially focusing on New York state.
Team members Shloka Hajare, M.Eng. ’25, Mark Edwards ’25, Chimdinma Muoguilim ’26, Nikita Dolgopolov ’25 and Claire Hwang ’26 with team mentor Patrick Govang, associate director of innovation in the Office of Innovation, at the Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition.
The fourth team reimagined a two-photon polymerization 3D-printing technology – originally developed for spacecraft applications in the lab of Sadaf Sobhani, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering – as a breakthrough tool for biotechnology. They proposed using it to manufacture liposomal drugs, aiming to improve the precision and effectiveness of drug delivery, particularly in oncology. Their strategy focused on licensing the technology and then positioning it for acquisition by a larger pharmaceutical company.
Giannelis, who is also director of the Office of Innovation at Cornell Engineering, told the student competitors during his closing remarks that they had gained new skills that would prove valuable in their future careers.
“Whether you’re going to a large corporation or a startup, you’ll know the right questions to ask,” said Giannelis. “The outcome of this was not necessarily if you won the competition or not, but whether you learned something new, useful and important. I know that you're going to carry this in the years to come, and you're going to benefit from it.”
Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition was supported by Cornell Engineering alumni from the classes of 1985, 1988 and 2000.
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