Milestone-Driven Seed Funding
Three inaugural awards moving PSU discoveries from promising research toward validated products, industry partnerships, and public impact.
$175,428 Total Seed Funding
How Funding Works3 Projects · 3 Frontiers
Project 01
01Dr. Atul Ingle
Single-Photon LiDAR is the future of 3D spatial mapping, but extreme bandwidth and power demands limit its use on mobile devices and drones. Dr. Ingle's lab is co-developing and validating a patent-pending processing architecture with a leading sensor manufacturer to deliver an eye-safe, ultra-low-power camera prototype.
Project DetailsProject 02
02Dr. Shankar Rananavare
Monitoring blood glucose typically requires painful finger pricks or invasive needles. Dr. Rananavare's lab is developing a painless alternative using a silver nanoparticle assembly that detects ultra-low glucose concentrations in sweat and saliva, with wearable test strips and microfluidic sensors validated alongside OHSU and industry partners.
Project DetailsProject 03
03Andrew Greenberg
Building on Portland State's open-source OreSat network, this project is commercializing a portable satellite ground station. The device lets high school students receive real-time video from low Earth orbit while giving commercial users a portable local downlink.
Project DetailsProject BootSTRP 01
Scaling 3D vision for mobile robotics, drones, and wearable technology through ultra-low-power computational imaging.
The Technology
Single-Photon LiDAR detects individual light particles with unparalleled precision, yet traditional sensors can generate data rates exceeding 100 GB/s and consume tens of watts. Dr. Ingle's lab is developing a user-centered, patent-pending photon stream processing architecture spanning six patent families. Co-designing the algorithm and specialized hardware optimizes illumination patterns to reconstruct high-resolution 3D environments while reducing power draw and bandwidth by more than an order of magnitude.
The Lab & Team
Led by Dr. Atul Ingle, the PSU Computational Imaging Lab works at the intersection of computer vision, computer science, and hardware design. The BootSTRP team includes graduate research assistants in computer science and electrical engineering who are gaining hands-on experience co-designing hardware-software systems for next-generation optoelectronics.
Market Opportunity
Customer discovery with major sensor manufacturers and integrators, including Sony and Teledyne, confirmed bandwidth and power draw as key barriers to portable 3D sensors. An eye-safe, low-power prototype positions PSU's intellectual property for licensing or a fabless startup serving robotics, augmented reality, and autonomous systems.
Broader Impact
Efficient spatial-mapping sensors can support safer, more energy-efficient drones and search-and-rescue robots while placing graduate students at the forefront of the computational imaging workforce.
Project BootSTRP 02
Developing a painless conductometric biosensor utilizing silver nanoparticle assemblies for sweat and saliva monitoring.
The Technology
The lab's enzyme-free, patent-protected sensor uses a modified Tollens' silvering process to deposit metallic nanoparticles in direct proportion to glucose concentration. The resulting conductive percolation network achieves an ultra-low detection limit, making glucose measurable in saliva and sweat through inexpensive electrical resistance readings.
The Lab & Team
The Rananavare Lab studies condensed matter, molecular self-assembly, and nanotechnology. The team includes Ph.D. candidate Maryam Sarlak and partners with clinical researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and industrial partner Ronay Lab for controlled sensor testing.
Market Opportunity
BootSTRP funding advances two scalable printed-electronics formats: a disposable saliva-based test strip and a flexible, sweat-based microfluidic wearable patch. This work bridges the path toward licensing or partnerships with major medical-device manufacturers.
Broader Impact
Non-invasive sensing can reduce the physical and financial burdens of diabetes management, particularly in low-resource communities, while establishing a platform adaptable to other low-concentration biomolecules.
Project BootSTRP 03
Commercializing open-source aerospace technology to bring low Earth orbit satellite communication down to Earth.
The Technology
PSU's Aerospace Society has designed, built, and launched open-source CubeSats into low Earth orbit. This project converts technology once dependent on large tracking dishes into a hand-held station that follows OreSat passes and downloads live video. The team is refining the design for manufacturing, open-source distribution, and durable printed circuit board assembly.
The Lab & Team
PSAS is an interdisciplinary student-and-faculty aerospace project with more than two decades of experience building rockets, liquid-fuel engines, and small satellites. Andrew Greenberg leads the development team, which is also working with PSU's College of Education on classroom-ready curricula.
Market Opportunity
The device serves two validated groups: educators seeking accessible space-science hardware and commercial users needing portable local video downlinks. Standardized manufacturing supports collaboration with a regional distributor for educational and commercial units.
Broader Impact
The project gives high school students direct access to active orbital spacecraft and trains interdisciplinary PSU students on space-rated designs needed by the regional aerospace and advanced-manufacturing workforce.
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