Tulane Innovation Institute announces the
ROUND TWO Winners of the Spring 2024 Open MIC Night
The Tulane University Innovation Institute (TUII), in partnership with the Deming Department of Medicine, are pleased to announce the Round II winners of the Spring 2024 Open MIC (Medical Innovation Challenge) Night!
On Thursday, July 25th, four finalists presented their revised innovation pitches to the same panel of judges for a chance at a $2,000 prize to further advance their idea. We want to extend a hearty congratulations to Noah Rahman (School of Science and Engineering) and his business partner Kaju Sarkar, as well as Chanho Lim (School of Medicine) as our Spring 2024 Round II winners!
Noah and Kaju’s company Skribh leverages AI to transcribe conversations by emergency medical service providers to populate encounter notes, saving time and improving accuracy. Chanho has developed “AI for Digital Health Innovations and Advancements” (AIDHIA: pronounced like “idea”), which serves as a foundational model and analysis systems for biomarkers across a host of diseases.
Open MIC Night offers participants a chance to pitch innovative idea-stage concepts that could solve challenges related to human health and wellness. Pitches deemed to have the most promise by our judges were awarded an initial $500 for further idea development in Round I and an opportunity to re-pitch, after mentorship, to win an additional $2,000 in Round II.
In April 2024, five promising finalists were selected by a panel of judges to win Round I and advance on to Round II. In addition to an initial $500 prize, our finalists were paired with industry expert mentors within the Innovation Institute’s Green Wave Innovation Network to improve their innovation concepts and presentation in preparation for a second, and final round, of the Spring 2024 prize cycle.
We want to extend a special thank you to our Green Wave Innovation Network mentors that shared their time and expertise to support our Round II finalists:
- Lee Chedister, Associate Attorney, Associate, Foley Hoag LLP
- Alan DeCorte, Healthcare and Bio Science Business Consultant at MBS
- Jeff Emery, Sr. VP R&D/Operations, Avisi Technologies
- Joel Kanter, President - Windy City, Inc.
- Jura Zibas, Partner, Wilson Elser
We also want to thank our esteemed judges for their participation and thoughtful consideration of our Round I and II competitors:
- Kalen Hall, Cofounder & CEO of Informuta and 2023 Open MIC Night Winner
- Dr. Sindhu Pandit, Head of Industry Advisory and Innovation, Digital Health, Salesforce
- Austin Rees, Principal of LongVue Capital
- Meshawn Siddiq, Deputy Director, N.O. Health Department, MPH, Doula
- Dr. Frank Smart, Professor and Chief Section of Cardiology LSU School of Medicine
- Cara Wells, Co-Founder and CEO of EmGenisys
This program is a key part of the overall offerings of the Innovation Institute designed to help advancing promising Tulane innovations, with teams receiving resources and mentorship to help get them to the next level. If you’re interested in applying for our next cycle, applications for Fall Open MIC Night will open on Friday, August 23rd via our website, and will close on Friday, September 27th. Please stay tuned for forthcoming Fall cycle announcements, and reach out to Jillian Delos Reyes at jdelosreyes@tulane.edu if you have any questions about the program or would like to apply.
