Innovate UA announces 1st cohort of startups in Innovative Minds Challenge

Innovate UA, in partnership with the Arizona Center for Innovation and Perkins Coie law firm, announces the first cohort in the accelerator program Innovative Minds Challenge at the University of Arizona (UA). UA is a prominent leader in generating entrepreneurs that partake in many initiatives to provide the world with a variety of solutions to everyday and global problems, and this new program is no exception.
The accelerator program offers extensive mentorship for growing business and helps develop a viable business model that will be used as the foundation of the startups. The accelerator cohort is then given the opportunity to compete on demo day for three cash grand prizes awarded by Arizona Center for Innovation and Perkins Coie.
Related: Edible Optics and The Apollo Team win UofA’s first Startup Weekend
The accepted finalists are:
Edible Optics: A company focused on exposing children to a field of engineering and science through teaching kits containing edible parts.
Infinurja: Attempting to provide low-cost, renewable electricity to underserved areas. Using patent pending products, they plan to improve the standard of living and increasing economic strength of underdeveloped communities.
Crate Crops: They use a combination of aquaponics, vertical gardening, and automation inside shipping containers to provide K-12 and university schools with a platform for experiential STEM education.
ABA Specialists: Provides an all-encompassing data collection software that will be able to replace the traditional methods of taking notes on paper, timing activities with a stopwatch, and manually calculating various fomulas necessary for behavior analytics.
Hurb: A simple, safe, sleek, fun hydroponic system that communicates with kids via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi in order to increase engagement and education for young students in the STEM field.
LinkX: Provides an increase to access of life improving and critical medications to patients through a framework of linking together community pharmacies.
Agent Sage: Offers homebuyers and sellers with an efficient and likeable agent while simultaneously feeding real estate agents valuable intel they can use to make home transactions as seamless as possible.
ConnekT: Their mobile app allows students and tutors find each other in an efficient manner, decreasing the time it takes to find a tutor/student while increasing the amount of tutors/students available.
uNet: Allows users to share one name that is linked to all of their contact information. It gives users the ability to share their contact info, to custom tailor their online presences for different categories, and to stay connected even when contact information changes.
Fast Table: Provides customers with the ability to “ping” their server when an unaddressed issue arises in their dining experience. The information is then logged for use of data analytics to observe trends in customer service.
Smart Mason: Smart Mason combines a smart kitchen scale with a Mason Jar lid. They provide a kitchen scale at a much more affordable price while adding the convenience of allowing users to track capabilities via smartphone.
Click here to check out more Arizona University Advancements