Cornell University

This EDA investment will expand the Hardware Accelerators at Rev: Ithaca Startup Works (Rev) to increase the number and diversify the type of hardware entrepreneurs receiving support in Upstate New York. Further expansion aims to improve the mechanisms that foster collaboration between practitioners in the field and researchers in the lab. This collaboration will benefit both practitioner-driven and research-driven innovation, thereby increasing the odds of market success. Rev will scale the Hardware Accelerators with a three-pronged approach:

• Expand the capacity of the current accelerators support and infrastructure;
• Develop a “MedTech” medical device track, encouraging greater participant diversity by opening accelerator up to new sector of entrepreneurship; and
• Create a new “Protofacturing” accelerator that bridges the critical gap between the current Prototyping and Manufacturing accelerators, providing entrepreneurs with stage-specific   support to validate market and technical readiness, while building momentum to advance to the manufacturing accelerator.

This expansion builds on Rev’s success in fueling and supporting innovators from a variety of backgrounds as they develop and launch products across industries: researchers exploring new concepts in the lab, practitioners coming up with new and improved methods for issues in the field, and end-users recognizing market needs and opportunities.