Twenty-four student ventures have been chosen for the Summer 2025 cohort of the E-Team Program. The selected teams emerged from a competitive applicant pool, distinguished by their inventive thinking, potential to drive meaningful change, and dedication to addressing critical issues in sectors such as healthcare, environmental sustainability, information technology, and beyond through science- and technology-driven solutions.
Seventeen teams will kick off their entrepreneurship journey in Pioneer, the first stage of the E-Team Program, where they’ll receive $5,000 in grant funding and intensive entrepreneurship training to help identify the right market for their products. Seven teams will advance to Propel, receiving an additional $20,000 in funding and three months of expert-led training to fine-tune their business models and validate their business hypotheses.
“These early-stage innovators are developing bold solutions with real potential for impact,” said VentureWell Program Officer Sarah Wharmby. “The E-Team Program offers critical resources to help them validate their ideas and position their innovations for real-world application.”
This cohort encompasses innovative solutions spanning diverse focus areas, including transportation infrastructure and sustainable building materials. PlastiRoad, selected for Pioneer, is repurposing recycled plastic waste into durable, eco-friendly road materials. VeruStruct, a team advancing to Propel, is developing a novel construction 3D printer to print affordable, sustainable, safe housing.
Learn more about the latest cohort of Pioneer and Propel teams and the potential impact of their innovative solutions:
Energy/Materials
FS Water Energy | California State University-Fresno
Principal Investigator: Yuanyuan Xie
Team Members: Ali Azizi, Ashutosh Goswami
FS Water is a novel, scalable water piston engine system designed to sustainably harvest energy from slowly flowing water.
New Pollutant Capture Technology | Mississippi State University
Principal Investigator: Gang Li
Team Members: Eli Herrington, Will Mayfield
New Pollutant Capture Technology is developing a modular filtration system that captures up to 95% of exhaust pollutants while maintaining minimal backpressure, delivering a cost-effective solution for emissions reduction across multiple industries.
PlastiRoad | University of South Alabama
Principal Investigator: Shenghua Wu
Team Members: Abeeb Oyelere, Jianqiao Song
PlastiRoad repurposes recycled plastic waste into durable, eco-friendly road materials, promoting sustainability and circular economy in transportation infrastructure.
Quantum Power Systems | The University of Texas at Austin
Principal Investigator: Alex Huang
Team Members: Saleh Farzamkia, Hunter Mack
Quantum Power Systems is reshaping rooftop solar with the patent-pending Nanoinverter—a compact, plug-and-play inverter designed to simplify and improve solar energy conversion.
Environment
STROP™ | SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Principal Investigator: Wendong Tao
Team Members: Taye Hamid, Pubudu Wickram
STROP™ is a chemical-free, mineral-based system that recovers phosphorus from wastewater to repurpose as a high-purity, organic-compatible struvite fertilizer.
Sustentra | Yale University
Principal Investigator: Margaret Cartiera
Team Members: Vivian Cai, Pingshan Zhang
Sustentra is an artificial intelligence (AI)–powered ESG (environmental, social, and governance) data assurance platform that helps companies and auditors cost-effectively validate sustainability disclosures with audit-grade accuracy and regulatory alignment.
Healthcare/Medical
Bite Balance | University of California-Berkeley
Principal Investigator: Rhonda Shrader
Team Members: Michael Guynn, Youssef Harraq, Tony Hsu
Bite Balance helps people who grind their teeth by balancing their nervous system through non-invasive nerve stimulation.
ClotShield | University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
Principal Investigator: Kirsten Jefferys
Team Members: Brian Baharestani, James Bowman, Jack Wilton
ClotShield is a diagnostic medical device that automatically monitors pulmonary embolism, a leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals.
CuffMate | University of South Carolina-Columbia
Principal Investigator: Jeff Savage
Team Members: Shrihan Ganesh Babu, Sanjana Tripuraneni
CuffMate is a smart medical device designed to increase respiratory recovery safety by automatically modulating endotracheal tube cuff pressures.
Everest Medical | California Polytechnic State University
Principal Investigator: Thomas Katona
Team Members: Jenna Eissmann, Madeleine Mumford
Everest Medical has created a novel, minimally invasive, single-use obstetric instrument, EMbrace, to aid obstetricians in controlled and atraumatic resolution of shoulder dystocia.
mPulse-O2 | Cornell Tech
Principal Investigator: Fernando Gómez-Baquero
Team Members: Victor Ochoa-Gutierrez, Ruth Ogbemudia
mPulse-O2 is a wearable oximeter and patient alert system designed to combat silent hypoxia.
Neuro Prima | Johns Hopkins University
Principal Investigator: Youseph Yazdi
Team Members: Sofia Garcia del Barrio Cervera, Kenny Nova
Neuro Prima has developed a novel approach to enabling simultaneous brain decompression and skull reconstruction in a single procedure for severe traumatic brain injury patients, eliminating the need for secondary invasive surgery and reducing complication rates.
Resorbable Antimicrobial Burn Wound Dressing | Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Principal Investigator: Nicole Levi
Team Members: Darnell Campbell, Spencer Phillips, Giovanny Romero
The Reabsorbable Antimicrobial Burn Wound Dressing is biodegradable and engineered to prevent infection and promote tissue regeneration in burn patients.
ShiftSync AI | University of Iowa
Principal Investigator: Yusuf Sermet
Team Members: Moaiz Abrar, Gabe Vald
ShiftSync AI is an AI-driven system designed to automate and standardize nursing handoff communication by generating accurate, actionable summaries directly from electronic health record data.
SilkMed | Tufts University
Principal Investigator: Kevin Oye
Team Members: Zachary DiMuccio, Sebastian Useche
SilkMed is developing a biocompatible, spray-on silk fibroin wound care technology that enhances healing, conforms to any body surface, and serves as a drug delivery system.
VitaliPatch | University of Virginia-Main Campus
Principal Investigator: Patrick Cottler
Team Members: Gordina Hodibert, Michael Park
VitaliPatch is a microneedle silicone patch designed to streamline post-C-section care.
Zernike Precision Optics | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Principal Investigator: Thomas James
Team Members: Elijah Johnson, Andrew Nichols
Zernike is revolutionizing the way precision optics are made by utilizing machine learning–powered robotics to automate and enhance expert-level fabrication with unmatched consistency.
Energy/Materials
BioFlare | University of Southern California
Principal Investigator: Ellis Meng
Team Members: Noy Chatoyan, Jacqueline Franco Acosta
Roughly 21% of the world’s population could lack access to clean cooking fuels by 2030. BioFlare’s kitchen device technology transforms food waste into a cleaner cooking fuel, democratizing access to clean cooking energy for people living in rural and low-infrastructure areas.
H2ive | Stanford University
Principal Investigator: Stefan Reichelstein
Team Members: Suhani Mohan, Caraíosa O’Farrell
Storing hydrogen long-term can cost up to eight times more than producing it. H2ive offers safe, cost-effective dual-alloy metal hydride hydrogen storage for industrial hydrogen feedstock and long-duration energy storage, enabling reliable, decentralized clean energy solutions.
Rise Reforming | The University of Chicago
Principal Investigator: Mark Stoykovich
Team Members: Nina Kritikos, George Rose
The U.S. generates over 40 million metric tons of plastic waste annually. Rise Reforming is developing a modular solution to convert unrecyclable post-industrial plastic waste into carbon-negative chemicals that compete price-wise with their fossil-derived alternatives.
Healthcare/Medical
Axonara Biosciences | University of California-San Diego
Principal Investigator: Jacques Chirazi
Team Members: Edward Fisher, Noah Salisbury
MRI scans only catch about 62% of cases of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs)—a rare, often misdiagnosed condition that can cause headaches, seizures, paralysis, and other symptoms. Axonara Biosciences is developing an AI-powered platform delivering neurological genetic diagnostics at the point of care, starting with CCMs.
Coord Health | Harvard University
Principal Investigator: Elise Bates
Team Member: Christina Vosbikian
When it comes to health, women often lack ongoing support—63% of those who try lifestyle counseling only attend once. Coord Health provides virtual lifestyle medicine support for women, leveraging multi-specialty teams and AI-based patient engagement to deliver evidence-based counseling and care coaching.
Veina Vascular | Johns Hopkins University
Principal Investigator: Soumyadipta Acharya
Team Members: Saardhak Bhrugubanda, Natasha Mody
About 3.3% of all blood samples are compromised by hemolysis, the premature breakdown of red blood cells, making hemolysis one of the top reasons samples are rejected. Veina is re-engineering the blood-draw process in the emergency department with a novel system that minimizes hemolysis, improving efficiency and patient outcomes.
Infrastructure/Building
VeruStruct | Yale University
Principal Investigator: Margaret Cartiera
Team Members: Nick Callegari, Konstantinos Markopoulos
Nearly 1.8 billion people worldwide are impacted by housing insecurity. VeruStruct (formerly known as Impact3D) is developing a novel 3D construction printer to print affordable, sustainable, and safe housing.
Meet the Summer 2025 E-Team Partners and Sponsors
We are thankful to our dedicated partners that work with us to support these ventures, including The Lemelson Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the power of invention to improve lives; Qualcomm, a leading wireless tech innovator; and Perkins Coie, a national law firm advancing innovation through its work with founders and startups in emerging technology, healthcare, and science-driven industries, as well as our host for the Summer 2025 cohort.
The E-Team Entrepreneurial Journey
Our Summer 2025 cohort teams will begin rigorous entrepreneurship training to advance their innovations. During Pioneer, teams will identify the ideal market for their invention, understand potential venture pathways, and define their unique value within the industry landscape. Teams that move on to Propel will form and test their business model hypotheses, fleshing out their business model canvas, verifying it through customer interviews, and working on building their intellectual property portfolio. Participants in our winter workshops will convene at the law firm Perkins Coie in Seattle, Washington, July 24-25 (Pioneer) and August 14-15 (Propel).
About the E-Team Program
Through the E-Team Program, we have trained 600+ student teams and 1,800+ early-stage innovators. The teams have raised more than $587 million in follow-on funding and have launched over 260 ventures since taking part in our program.
Learn more about VentureWell’s E-Team Program, which supports student-led science- and engineering-based teams from across the nation in bringing their high-impact innovations out of the lab and into the market.