Announcing 1,600+ Harvard Innovation Labs Members and 137 President’s Innovation Challenge Semifinalists

This spring semester, the Harvard Innovation Labs is welcoming more than 1,600 student innovators and entrepreneurs from all 13 Harvard schools as members. Approximately half of these students are working on ventures, while the other half are at the idea stage of their innovation journeys. Today, the Harvard Innovation Labs is also announcing the 137 student-led ventures selected as semifinalists for the 2024 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.

More students have signed up to participate in our spring programming than ever before, and our team is thrilled to see so much interest in innovation and entrepreneurship from across the University. Our staff and global network of advisors are excited to support all of our members in their innovation journeys, whether it’s attending their first workshop or competing in the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.”
Matt Segneri, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director

Harvard Innovation Labs members have access to a range of support, including expert advisors, workshops, community-building events, and resources for ideation and building products and services. Members can also apply for a range of funding opportunities, including Spark Grants, for early-stage prototyping and customer discovery; the Social Impact Fellowship Fund, for impact-focused ventures; and the Allston Venture Fund, for pre-seed funding and equity-free grants.

Out of the hundreds of ventures participating in the Harvard Innovation Labs spring membership programming, 137 were chosen as semifinalists for the annual President’s Innovation Challenge, a competition for students and select alumni pursuing ventures that push boundaries in their fields. On May 1, finalists will pitch their ventures at the President’s Innovation Challenge Awards Ceremony, and winners will receive a part of $515,000 in prizes, funded entirely by a generous gift from the Bertarelli Foundation.

Below is the list of President’s Innovation Challenge semifinalists across three student tracks (Health & Life Sciences, Open, and Social Impact).

Health & Life Sciences

The Health & Life Sciences Track is open to ventures that are improving the efficacy of healthcare services, including therapeutics, devices, and digital health. Projects may address a wide range of issues, from improving access to care to realizing the potential of personalized therapies.

• AbscoTx (Harvard Medical School) is an image-guided, injectable, intratumoral drug delivery platform that creates a personalized “cancer vaccine” to treat local and metastatic tumors.
• AchilleFix (Harvard Medical School) is revolutionizing Achilles injury care with patient-specific solutions using novel imaging techniques and 3D printing.
• Ankle Insight 3D (Harvard Medical School) is revolutionizing foot and ankle care by providing automated AI foot and ankle weight bearing CT interpretation and preoperative decision support.
• Augment Biologics (Harvard Medical School) is a platform that enables drug developers to write glycans (sugar) into protein drugs, thereby transforming safety, efficacy, and manufacturing.
• Bionl.ai (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is a no-code biomedical, bioinformatics, and literature review research platform.
• Cellforma (Harvard Medical School) is on a mission to overcome the unmet need for donor lungs by creating life-saving regenerative cell therapies.
• Clean Slate Clinic (Harvard Kennedy School) is building a clinical protocol for at-home clinician-led care for intensive medicated treatments for addiction.
• Collogh Cares Inc. (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) provides chronic care management and remote patient monitoring services to nephrology clinics, enabling them to improve care for chronic kidney disease and increase revenue.
• EduCare (Harvard Graduate School of Education) supports the global population who need but have no access to traditional therapy by hosting classes with top therapists to teach mental health care.
• EndoShunt Medical Inc. (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) is an endovascular surgical device ending death from abdominal bleeding, giving trauma surgeons time so they can give trauma patients life.
• evoAi, Inc. (Harvard Business School) is an on-demand, AI-powered ADHD coaching platform offering tailored education; strategy crafting; actionable insights; and interactive, self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy.
• FIXUS (Harvard Medical School) is a decision-support tool, featuring medical image interpretation modules.
• Global Particle Therapy (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) offers cancer patients access to affordable, advanced proton therapy by reducing the size and cost of existing devices via disruptive technology.
• Haver AI Inc (Harvard Business School) revolutionizes health care for Accountable Care Organizations by deploying advanced AI to dramatically reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.
• Illumagen (Harvard Medical School) is a handheld collagen imaging device that improves the standard of care for skin cancer surgery.
• Keles Keyless Expander (Harvard School of Dental Medicine) stands out among conventional palatal expanders through its built-in activation arm.
• Kiikter (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) has created an affordable, ready-to-use edible gel fortified with essential nutrients, integrated into sustainable food programs, to combat anemia.
• KiraGen Bio (Harvard Business School) is harnessing the power of AI-driven combinatorial gene editing to unlock the full potential of solid tumor CAR-T therapies.
• MabLab (Harvard College) develops five-in-one rapid test strips to detect the five deadliest lacing agents in recreational drugs.
• Mansarover (Harvard College) uses multiscale deep learning methods to design chemical reprogramming drugs for longevity.
• miniDia (Harvard Medical School) is developing a precise biological age test using an AI model and multiplex biomarker detection.
• Modulate Bio (Harvard Business School) is advancing next-generation therapies to treat central nervous system disorders, starting with essential tremor.
• neumind ltd (Harvard Business School) is digitizing neurorehabilitation for enhanced patient access, seamless caregiver involvement, and improved clinician overview.
• PeriPeach (Harvard Medical School) is improving the comfort and care of birthing people.
• Recursive Health (Harvard Kennedy School) is an AI-enabled platform built to 10x cancer screening completion rates by scaling best practices from world-leading hospitals.
• RescaleMed (Harvard College) is creating an AI-driven mental health chatbot for cognitive behavioral therapy.
• Robin Health Inc. (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) provides an AI-powered, personalized dream team of therapists, coaches, and advisors to improve mental wellness and performance on-demand.
• Sanso (Harvard Business School) helps drug manufacturers produce life-saving biologics more efficiently, delivering cheaper drugs to patients worldwide.
• Selene Health (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) provides personalized supplements, herbal remedies, and a digital health app for women experiencing menopausal symptoms.
• Serosafe (Harvard Medical School) designs medical devices to create a safer, healthier post-operative recovery experience for patients undergoing surgery.
• Ubi Bio (Harvard Medical School) develops small molecules that therapeutically modulate protein abundance.

Open

The Open Track is open to a wide array of ventures selling to businesses and/or consumers. Popular industries include education technologies (whether selling to government, schools, or families), finance, e-commerce, information technology, Web3, consumer products, food and beverage, and virtual and augmented reality applications.

• AgX (Harvard Business School) is an agricultural technology company with a suite of IoT devices and a data platform to deliver operational efficiencies to livestock farms.
• Anemone (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) is an alternative to LinkedIn for the cultural and creative industries.
• Art Academy Plus (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is an online education platform that aims to empower young artists in China to pursue global higher education opportunities in creative subjects.
• AudienceAI (Harvard Extension School) helps video creators, such as YouTubers and brands, avoid audience retention drops and increase views through emotion analytics and AI.
• Axal (Harvard College) is a no-code platform for intelligent crypto workflows, automating and connecting data feeds, notifications, and actions across web2 and web3.
• B Love (Harvard Business School) is a topical liquid applied to the nipple during pregnancy that helps women proactively prepare for breastfeeding and help prevent bleeding and cracking.
• Blitzy.ai (Harvard Business School) is a no-code solution for building entire software applications with just natural language.
• BUYOUT (Harvard Business School) is a platform that connects locally-owned Boston restaurants to corporate private dining needs (including client dinners, team happy hours, and restaurant buyouts).
• CGM Sports (Harvard Business School) is revolutionizing athlete mentorship with a robust network of college mentors, empowering youth through personalized guidance and support.
• Crop Diagnostix (Harvard Business School) uses AI-powered genetic insights to diagnose plant health, enabling farmers to optimize inputs and maximize yield.
• Endgrate (Harvard College) is the fastest way to add third party integrations into B2B SaaS products.
• Fortuna-Insights, Inc. (Harvard Law School) uses artificial intelligence to write, predict for, and strategize legal briefs and memos.
• greenblade.io (Harvard Extension School) is eliminating duplicative processes and information silos to accelerate project applications in green development banks from review stage to approval.
• HAKO (Harvard Graduate School of Design) is creating automated solutions that make high- quality bubble tea accessible in shared spaces.
• Heretics Club (Harvard Divinity School) is a literary salon for creative writers with a hybrid membership model that offers mentorship, resources, and community.
• Holly (Harvard Business School) is an SMS-based chatbot that turns resident requests into work orders for city agencies, reimagining the government-to-resident connection.
• Hometeam (Harvard Business School) enables family and paid caregivers to deliver the best care possible, as efficiently as possible.
• Hydra (Harvard Business School) offers a clean and convenient way to hydrate with lifestyle-forward electrolyte products, and no unhealthy or artificial ingredients.
• Jarvis (Harvard College) is writing AI-driven software to reimagine human-computer interaction.
• KeyUp (Harvard Business School) is an online education platform and marketplace that helps servicemembers and veterans take advantage of low-interest, assumable VA home loans.
• Ladder Financial Systems Inc. (Harvard Business School) takes the stress out of money with an app that acts as a personalized wealth manager in your pocket.
• leaseClub (Harvard Business School) is an intelligent rental marketplace that connects new renters to apartments through current tenants for early access and lower fees.
• LegalEase (Harvard Law School) is a legal correspondence platform facilitating communication and understanding between attorneys and their clients.
• LITER (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) desalinates water by absorbing solar energy in a design that is more cost-effective, operationally resilient, and productive than alternatives.
• MathMosaic (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) uses a virtual environment to visualize high-level mathematical concepts for STEM college students and relate them back to the real world.
• Mesa Quantum (Harvard Business School) develops highly accurate and precise chip-scale clocks using quantum sensing technology.
• Montage (Harvard Business School) is a digital platform that allows users to discover and purchase styles seen on TV.
• MOVZ (Harvard Extension School) is a two-way marketplace where dancers monetize their choreography and where their followers learn their routines with the help of custom features.
• Naani’s (Harvard Business School) is making authentic, healthy Indian food available to the world.
• NextStep Health (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is cultivating evidence-based mental health resilience through educational media and care coordination.
• Poka Labs (Harvard Business School) is building a cloud-based data platform to modernize chemical operations.
• Practice IP (Harvard Law School) helps businesses with patents, trademarks, and copyrights to monetize and manage them through AI-powered enforcement and a streamlined marketplace.
• ReadReady (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is an AI-powered reading tool that adjusts existing texts to the reading level of English language learners.
• Ream (Harvard College) helps authors create communities of their readers and monetize through subscriptions.
• RentIt (Harvard Business School) is a marketplace for residential property listings for rent or purchase.
• Rove (Harvard College) is the first travel card designed for young adults, leveraging cash-flow underwriting for accessibility with an integrated travel points portal.
• SaveSpace (Harvard Business School) creates a fully digitized inventory for physical belongings. Customers can store, access, rent, or sell items, all in one place.
• SeriousPlayerOnly (Harvard Business School) is a sports brand dedicated to democratizing sports equipment innovation, specifically shoes, with an inclusive and iterative approach.
• shoal (Harvard Business School) is a fitness platform that helps women build workout habits with tight-knit social groups and engaging livestream content.
• Skills.tech (Harvard Medical School) employs AI to craft tailored learning experiences for learners in educational institutions and corporate training programs.
• Storyfave (Harvard Graduate School of Design) uses AI to design and produce lesson-oriented physical and digital books, combining meaningful storytelling with cutting-edge customization.
• Unboxing Art (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is helping individuals pursue creative careers.
• Vélos Education (Harvard Business School) is an intelligent data platform for education that uses different data sources and proprietary algorithms to optimize learning.
• Veritel Energy (Harvard Extension School) provides a comprehensive system for property owners to generate clean, renewable, on-site electricity for tenants in multi-metered apartments.
• Virtualus (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is an AI platform that empowers users to derive meaning from their past, alter their narrative, and get equipped with tools to comprehend their values through the Life Design methodology.
• Vocadian (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) provides predictive fatigue risk management to empower a safer, healthier, and more productive workforce with evidence-based voice AI.
• Xtory (Harvard Medical School) is a generative AI platform revolutionizing education through the scalable creation of personalized and interactive learning experiences.
• Y-Health Corp (Harvard Extension School) is reducing wait times for crisis-prone individuals by using innovative software to find and connect with local mental health resources.
• YouShift (Harvard College) is a platform that automates shift scheduling in hospitals, prioritizing doctors’ shift preferences.

Social Impact

The Social Impact Track is open to ventures that want to make our planet safer, more equitable, sustainable, and beautiful. The critical issues they address include social equity, the depletion of finite resources, support for artists and cultural traditions, and more.

• Africa Paralegal Network (Harvard Law School) uses constitutional and international laws to challenge criminal laws targeting LGBTIQ persons and trains paralegals from the queer community.
• AgroCycle Technologies (Harvard Kennedy School) aims to turn agricultural waste into products, fostering economic and environmental benefits for farmers using a circular economy approach.
• Antrim Literature Project (Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences) aims to make the study of literature accessible to the public through close reading, conversation, and community.
• ApplicAid (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) helps disadvantaged young people to obtain scholarships by educating, empowering, and assisting them in the application process.
• Asude Foundation (Harvard Graduate School of Education) aims to provide a holistic education for every child in India.
• BacBon Foundation (Harvard Kennedy School) leverages information and communication technology to enhance education in Bangladesh, reducing the digital divide and bridging urban-rural educational gaps.
• AfrOURban art – Black Diasporas Platform (Harvard Graduate School of Design) maps audio stories about places that have meaning to Black communities in cities around the globe.
• The Black Girl’s Dream Initiative (Harvard Graduate School of Education) transforms education for young African women by providing out-of-classroom experiences that improve technical skills and soft skills.
• Breave (Harvard Divinity School) offers 24/7 access to grief support and spiritual care from a team of highly skilled interfaith chaplains via a telehealth platform.
• BridgeHealth AI (Harvard Business School) is eradicating health disparities by simplifying benefits navigation for underserved families.
• Canopy Nepal (Harvard Graduate School of Education) provides equitable education access to underprivileged children of Nepal and promotes interactive learning used to make informed decisions.
• Catching Joy, Inc. (Harvard College) organizes hands-on service projects to share the responsibility and joy of giving and create a kinder, braver, and more equitable world.
• Chula (Harvard Kennedy School) cultivates a sustainable food system that fosters the growth of local communities.
• Citizenship Tutoring (Harvard College) eases the burden of the path to U.S. citizenship by providing educational, language, and financial support to prospective citizens.
• Collegiate Recovery Solutions (Harvard Graduate School of Education) aims to ease the transition process into higher education for people in recovery from substance use through tailored college advising sessions.
• Congo River Capital (Harvard Business School) aims to grow and catalyze the nascent Congolese startup ecosystem by providing social, technical, and financial capital to startups.
• Edufun Technik (Harvard Graduate School of Education) empowers rural and semi-urban Nigerian schools with essential STEM education for K-12 students and advanced digital skills training for youth.
• Free My Period (Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences) supports the design, production, and distribution of menstrual underwear to help girls and women achieve financial, mental, and physical freedom.
• GramHeet (Harvard Kennedy School) enhances smallholder farmers’ income and sustainability by providing tools, market access, and AI-driven post-harvest solutions.
• Indonesian Global Health Foundation (Harvard Medical School) endeavors to craft and implement innovative and creative solutions aimed at advancing healthcare accessibility, health outcomes, and health equity in Indonesia.
• Intrapreneurs with Purpose (Harvard Kennedy School) supports a community of more than 10,000 young corporate social intrapreneurs in sustainability and equity and promotes research and teaching.
• Jamii Life (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) uplifts marginalized professional and family caregivers of color with tools and training to deliver high-quality home-based care.
• Lotus (Harvard College) is a digital community that fosters connection and conversation among adolescent women+ with reproductive health conditions and/or concerns.
• Mai Soli Foundation (Harvard Graduate School of Education) uses education and entrepreneurship to prevent child marriage for at-risk young girls in Bangladesh.
• The MV3 Foundation (Harvard Medical School) provides mentorship, networking, and financial support to future Black leaders in health sciences who will advance health equity.
• My Uyghur Origin (Harvard Kennedy School) aims to raise awareness about the Uyghur genocide to compel individuals and policymakers around the world to take action.
• NetaCarbon (Harvard Business School) is a platform that removes friction for pro-climate businesses to issue and manage their carbon credits, like the TurboTax for carbon credits.
• Nunchi Health (Harvard Medical School) builds inclusive mental health programs for culturally diverse communities.
• Paint it Red Foundation (Harvard Kennedy School) strives to impart body literacy to eliminate intergenerational misinformation that prohibits menstruators from living a life of dignity.
• PhilanTrade (Harvard College) is a platform that aims to empower small businesses by creating a cycle of charity and reinvestments.
• Purple Point Neurodiagnostics (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) provides brain health diagnostic services in underresourced parts of the world.
• ReGeneRate (Harvard Extension School) is solving the need for renewable energy and nature restoration through area-based regenerative agrivoltaics.
• Saturday Art Class (Harvard Graduate School of Education) helps underserved children in India to develop social-emotional learning and 21st-century skills through visual arts.
• School-Based Wellness (Harvard Graduate School of Education) provides mental health services to under-resourced schools.
• Scienspur (Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences) teaches and mentors youth with a think-like-a-scientist approach focused on problem solving and critical thinking.
• SeaCycle (Harvard Business School) extracts valuable biopolymers from seafood waste, reducing environmental impact with sustainable alternatives.
• Shared Harvest (Harvard Kennedy School) is creating more equitable opportunities to eliminate student debt while elevating the culture of volunteering.
• Sidecar Homes (Harvard Graduate School of Design) provides affordable, modular ADUs bundled with financing options to help homeowners generate rental income and support local housing needs.
• Society of Women Coders (Harvard Graduate School of Education) battles gender-based digital inequality in low to middle income countries and marginalized communities.
• Solara (Harvard Business School) provides an on-demand solar irrigation service to Indian farmers, increasing their access to affordable, reliable, and clean irrigation.
• Stories of Home (Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences) preserves African life stories, supports children with free library spaces, and partners with rural farmers to improve their livelihoods.
• TestParty (Harvard Business School) is an automated digital ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and EAA (European Accessibility Act) compliance platform.
• TheTeenageEntrepreneur.com (Harvard Extension School) is an interactive online community for teenage entrepreneurs to share their stories, get guidance from successful entrepreneurs, and attend virtual workshops and events.
• Thinkverse (Harvard Business School) offers a personalized and interactive AI math tutor for every K-12 student in the U.S. to democratize high-quality education.
• Trans Health HQ (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) is a single source of truth for clinicians on how to provide quality gender-affirming care and safely advocate for transgender patients.
• UMA Peru (Harvard Kennedy School) helps female artisans break free from the poverty trap by enhancing leadership skills and providing access to markets.
• Veins (Harvard Graduate School of Design) is developing an integrated system for early wildfire detection and intelligent fire response based on real-time forest data.
• WaySense (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) is an indoor wayfinding system for the blind using robotic guides and sonic beacons for accessibility.
• Yes! And… Education (Harvard Graduate School of Education) is providing Chinese kids with high-quality art education in a joyful environment.