Chancellor King Celebrates Winners and Participants of SUNY Startup Summer School Demo Day

August 3, 2026

Startup Summer School Demo Day Provides Education, Training, and Seed Funding Opportunities for Nearly 250 SUNY Entrepreneurs

Albany, NY – State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today celebrated the success of the SUNY Startup Summer School Demo Day, which is a competitive program designed to support and showcase the most promising technologies and startups. This year's participants included 247 students, faculty, and staff from 25 campuses, with 14 teams selected to participate in demo day.

Now in its seventh year, the SUNY Startup Summer School offers entrepreneurial education, training, and mentoring opportunities that help students, faculty, and staff secure the initial funding needed to commercialize groundbreaking technology. All SUNY Startup Summer School participating teams will continue to receive coaching and mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and seasoned executives to support business development and commercialization. This year's total funding for the winners of the S4 Demo Day has doubled to $200,000, demonstrating SUNY's commitment to accelerating innovation and supporting entrepreneurship.

"A SUNY degree is a pathway to opportunity and upward mobility, and the SUNY Startup Summer School bolsters ingenuity and entrepreneurship across the SUNY system," said SUNY Chancellor King. "This program helps ensure that SUNY continues to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs as they develop technologies and startups that help communities across New York State. Congratulations to the winners of this year's demo day and to all of the participants of their innovative projects."

The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "The SUNY Startup Summer School uses education and mentorship to help innovators throughout the SUNY system bring their ideas to fruition. Through this initiative, participants gain real-world skills that allow them to commercialize life-changing and life-saving technologies. We are proud to continue investing in innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs across New York."

State Senator April N.M. Baskin said, "Congratulations to this year's SUNY Startup Summer School Demo Day winners and to all of the participants whose creativity and entrepreneurial spirit represent the very best of SUNY. By fostering talent, innovation, and entrepreneurship, SUNY is growing New York's economy and turning groundbreaking research into solutions that improve people's lives. I wish all of this year's teams continued success as they build on their ideas and bring them to market."

State Assemblymember Marianne Buttenschon said, "I am proud to see SUNY continue to invest in programs like the Startup Summer School Demo Day, which provides students, faculty, and staff across our campuses the entrepreneurial education, training, and seed funding needed to transform research and classroom knowledge into real-world innovation, scientific breakthroughs, and commercialized technologies. Congratulations to this year's winners and participants, I wish you all continued growth and success in your endeavors."

As part of the program, four teams from the State University of New York at Albany, the State University of New York at Binghamton, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and SUNY Upstate Medical University were selected to win a total of $200,000 in seed funding to accelerate their ventures. The S4 Class of 2026 Demo Day winners all received $50,000 each. The selected startups are:

  • CurrentView, State University of New York at Albany
    • CurrentView is commercializing a bedside, non-invasive cardiopulmonary monitoring system that uses an advanced electrical impedance tomography imaging method to provide continuous, radiation-free assessment of air flow and blood flow with enhanced accuracy.
  • Grip Power, State University of New York at Binghamton
    • Grip Power is developing a power electronics architecture that maximizes computer processing performance and decreases cooling needs for chips that power artificial intelligence data centers.
  • VascuArch, State University of New York at Stony Brook
    • VascuArch is developing a shelf-stable skin substitute designed to accelerate healing and health outcomes for patients with chronic wounds, burns, and severe injuries.
  • BioQuoVadis, SUNY Upstate Medical University
    • BioQuoVadis is developing a non-invasive, saliva-based liquid biopsy to monitor treatment resistance in prostate cancer, with the potential to improve detection and treatment precision.

In addition to the funding received from the SUNY Startup Summer School Technology Accelerator Fund Catalyst Investment, the winners will receive support from SUNY to identify grant-funding opportunities and write strong proposals, allowing the teams to continue commercializing their technology. The companies will also receive mentoring from SUNY's entrepreneurs-in-residence to further develop their business models and go-to-market strategies.

The winners were selected by a panel of business leaders from across the state. This year's panel of judges included:

  • Olivia Goldstein – Chief Executive Officer, Upstate Venture Connect
  • Seth Mulligan – Chief Ventures Officer, Griffiss Institute
  • Zachary Pecenak – Director, NY Ventures Innovation Venture Fund, Empire State Development
  • Patty Rechberger – Innovation Fund Manager, FuzeHub
  • Sonya Smith – State Director, New York Small Business Development Center

The SUNY Research Foundation provides SUNY's state-operated campuses with an infrastructure of people, technology, and processes that enables faculty to write and submit grant proposals to agencies, foundations, and companies; establish contracts and manage funding awarded to run campus-based research projects; protect and commercialize intellectual property created within those projects; and establish partnerships.

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.

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