UpPrize: Social Innovation Challenge

Congratulations to former UpPrize Finalist Make It Home Safe Inc.® on joining the PGH Lab 10.0 cohort. We can't wait to see what this collaboration means for your organization!

Congratulations to Galen Health, 2024 UpPrize Semifinalist, for presenting at #CES2025 on the #StartupStage as part of the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Grand Awards by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Galen Health won second place in the idea category. A huge congratulations to all of the finalists in this competition. 👏

I am delighted to announce that Korion's official first patent family has been *granted*!!! This patent covers our start-to-finish solution including the affordable electronic stethoscope, guided interface, and even future machine learning algorithms for analyzing the data. Something I really love about our patent is how it's both thorough and communicates things clearly, but also includes a splash of MS paint shenanigans and reminds us that we were still students when this started. A special shoutout to our amazing patent attorneys, Peter Flynn, Brenda Herschbach Jarrell, Qing Hua Wang, PhD, and Sahar Elahi, who have provided invaluable generosity, advice, direction, and worked tirelessly to help us get to where we are today. Another special shoutout all the engineers who have worked on this project, including our incredible engineering partners at HELLBENDER Inc., without whose belief in us and support we never would've gotten off the ground. I've been very concerned about how to increase equitable access in the age of AI, as we've seen historically that technology does not always mean access for everyone, and can sometimes even increase the socioeconomic gap. Hastings Greer and I, old Science Olympiad and Latin Club partners in crime, revisited our high school days when we worked into the early hours of the day to cram in the machine learning algorithm, despite having strong doubts about whether we would even be able to patent it, driven by faith in our ability to deliver inclusive and equitable ML models for healthcare and expand access in a way that truly puts people first. Our hope is that this ML patent means that, while we may not enforce it, we have the power to keep costs down and prevent another potentially larger company from implementing the algorithm and hiking up the cost without any checks or balances. Korion Health was built from crowdfunding (Honeycomb Credit!) and Foundations, and will always belong to the people first and foremost. I'm so incredibly grateful for the team who put in the work and investors who believed in us who all came together to make this happen, and for what this means for healthcare access going forward. Onwards toward affordable, interpretable, and empowering healthcare, systems that increase efficiency and keep costs down, and company values of impact and accessibility driving everything we do. Love, Anna Li

Relive the excitement of the 2024 BNY UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge! 🌟 Congratulations again to our finalists: Astria Biosciences Pathway Accessibility Solutions, Inc. (pathVu) Bindr® A heartfelt thank you to BNY for their unwavering dedication to supporting innovative companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Since its inception in 2015, the BNY UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge has proudly contributed over $3.1 million in investments, grants, and technical assistance—bridging the gap between nonprofit and entrepreneurial communities. Special thanks to our amazing partners at The Warhol Academy for capturing the vibrant spirit and energy of UpPrize! ✨ https://buff.ly/41QZOdd

Congratulations to Alexis Russell, B.S. Arch, MSL of Russell General Contracting and a 2023 BNY UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge Semifinalist on being nominated as apart of the New Pittsburgh Courier's Women of Excellence Awards Class of 2024 👏 👏

Congratulations to 2023 UpPrize Finalist Farm to Flame Energy Inc. for their continued excellence. Way to go, Kwaku Jyamfi!

Dual Pitt-CMU Graduate Student Wins $1M Hult Prize! Congratulations to Anna Li, CEO of Korion Health, on winning this prestigious prize! Li, a graduate student pursuing her M.D./Ph.D. in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, is also Korion Health's CEO. The #Pittsburgh based startup has created an electronic USB stethoscope and guided user interface that allows people to capture their own heart sounds from home. Meredith Meyer Grelli Melanie Simko #startups #entrepreneurship

🎉 Huge congratulations to Adi Mittal, a med student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, for his groundbreaking work in medical research and innovation! 🧠 Working in Dr. Friedlander Robert's lab, Adi helped develop a protein-based blood panel to predict aneurysm rupture risk. His startup, Astria Biosciences, has already won top awards, including the $20K Wells Competition and a $275K SBIR grant. 🚀 He’s also making waves in medical devices, recently competing in the Rice Business Plan Competition. Keep an eye on this rising star! 🌟 #PittInnovation #MedTech

Pitt ceremoniously signed signed licensing agreements with life sciences startups that began at the University of Pittsburgh. Amongst those signed is UpPrize Finalist, Astria Biosciences. Read the full article here: https://buff.ly/3YKP50x

ICYMI - Three innovative tech startups took home a combined $300,000 from this year’s UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge, propelling their growth in meaningful directions. Astria Biosciences won first place with $125,000 to advance its blood test for brain aneurysms; Pathway Accessibility Solutions, Inc. (pathVu), a sidewalk mapping solution for accessibility, secured second with $100,000; #ALAlum company Bindr® claimed third with $75,000. Each team expressed gratitude for the opportunity and the supportive Pittsburgh community. Thank you to Innovation Works and BNY for fostering social innovation! Read the full article to learn more about each winner’s journey and vision for impact. https://lnkd.in/eqhhn9Fa.