Four Projects Awarded in Software Startup Development Program

graphic with headshots of awardees

Pictured from left to right, top row: Ce Yang, Lang Qiao, Sandipan Pati, Vishal Kancharla, Gayathri Balaji. Bottom row: Abhishek Chaudhari, David Aviles Hinostroza, Swapnil Puranik, Krishna Ravat, Himanshu Laiker.

The Technology Commercialization Office is excited to announce the recipients of the 2025 Software Startup Development (SSD) Program:

  • Ce Yang and Lang Qiao for “Gender and Fertility Detection of Chicken Eggs Prior-to-Incubation Using AI-based Hyperspectral Imaging”
  • Sandipan Pati, Vishal Kancharla, and Gayathri Balaji for “PolyScribe AI – A multilingual AI Scribe for Diverse Healthcare Settings”
  • Ce Yang, Abhishek Chaudhari, David Aviles Hinostroza, and Swapnil Puranik for “Omniagrobot: A Quadruped Robot for Crop Phenotyping and Agricultural Automation”
  • Krishna Ravat and Himanshu Laiker for “@RevLoop: AI-Powered Sales and Marketing Assistant for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs)”

The Software Startup Development (SSD) program is a competitive two-phase funding program to support the creation and development of University of Minnesota (UMN) startups in the software space.

In Phase 1, the program provides up to $10,000 per project to advance early-stage innovations that include a software component. Upon completion of Phase 1 and selection to Phase 2, recipients receive a UMN investment of up to $35,000 in the startup company and are eligible to apply for matching funds up to $35,000 with the Launch MN Innovation Grants program from the State of Minnesota.