Pitt Student Startup Selected as One of the “Best University Startups 2016”

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh student startup HiberSense has been selected as one of 35 companies from across the nation to participate in the first University Startups Demo Day at Congress on Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C.

The event is sponsored by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2), an association of university Startup Officers. Universities create over 800 startups each year around the country, and 200 companies were submitted and screened to find the “Best University Startups 2016.”

“To lead the world in the 21st century, our nation must have a sustained commitment to education, scientific research, and startups, and American universities are uniquely positioned to deliver on all three to ensure the United States continues to lead socially and economically in this century, as it did in the last,” said Tony Stanco, NCET2 executive director.

HiberSense is developing a distributed, self-learning thermostat system that collects temperature, motion, light, humidity, and sound data in each room and runs machine-learning algorithms to decide when to open/close our wireless motorized registers and turn on/off HVAC equipment to maximize savings and comfort.

HiberSense was founded by Swanson School of Engineering alumni Jacob Kring and Brendan Quay, along with Daniel Mosse, professor in the Department of Computer Science within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. HiberSense participated in the first cohort of the Pitt Blast Furnace student startup accelerator in 2015.

Earlier this year, it was one of the first three startups chosen to participate in PGH Lab, an initiative of the City of Pittsburgh to collaborate with startup companies to explore ways to use technology to make the city more efficient and sustainable. HiberSense is in the midst of a three-month project to install its sensors and wireless vents inside a city office building.

“HiberSense is an example of the exciting startups being created at Pitt and supported through programs like Blast Furnace at the Pitt Innovation Institute, our technology-transfer and entrepreneurship-education department,” said Greg Coticchia, director of the Blast Furnace.

Coticchia said, “In our first year of Blast Furnace, we have helped 40 student teams create companies, a third of which have gone on to be accepted into highly competitive regional business accelerators.”

The University Startups Demo Day is the university community’s opportunity to show the nation how far it has come in its bold, new vision for the future of the university and how that vision is central to national competitiveness and economic growth, peace, and prosperity. The university startups presenting at the Demo Day have stories to tell about the good work they are doing to create jobs, serve humanity, and leave the world a better place for the next generation.

Contact NCET2 for more information about the University Startups Demo Day.

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