RISE Program Helps UAlbany Innovators Turn Ideas Into Impact
ALBANY, N.Y. (May 19, 2026) — In just over a year, four groups of UAlbany researchers, students and Capital Region startups have moved through the Research & Innovators Startup Exchange (RISE), exploring what it takes to bring ideas beyond the lab and into the marketplace.
Their concepts have ranged from AI tools designed to support doctors to systems that measure wind conditions in real time and new approaches to disaster preparedness and environmental monitoring.
Led by the UAlbany Innovation Center inside ETEC, RISE helps participants build entrepreneurship teams, test market potential and learn the business fundamentals behind research commercialization. Since launching, the program has included 35 teams and more than 100 participants. The fellowship component is supported through a UAlbany StAR grant.
Teams spent eight weeks working through the program before presenting their ideas April 27 at ETEC during RISE Demo Day. The event gave participating teams the opportunity to pitch concepts before judges, industry professionals and technology transfer experts from across New York.
Support from UAlbany’s Office of the Vice President for Research & Economic Development also helped expand opportunities for teams interested in launching startup ventures tied to University research.
The following concepts were recognized at Demo Day, with funding supporting continued business development, incorporation, marketing and licensing activities:
- $25,000: CurrentView, led by Omid Rajabi Shishvan of the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, earned the competition’s top prize for its bedside monitoring technology designed for high-acuity clinical settings.
- $15,000: WindSitu, led by Scott Miller of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, earned second place for its real-time 3D wind sensing platform.
- $5,000: AgentHeart, led by Xin Wang of the College of Integrated Health Sciences and Hui Guo of the College of Arts and Sciences, received honorable mention for its AI-enabled clinical decision support technology.
“Participating in RISE broadened my perspective of potential career options,” said biology PhD student and RISE fellow, Manuela Montoya-Giraldo. “I am particularly interested in someday applying this approach to conservation and ecosystem management, with a special eye to coral reefs.”
For students like Montoya-Giraldo, that broader mission also translated into new professional connections and ways of thinking about the future of her research.
“This was an excellent opportunity to not only develop a broader professional network, but also to imagine ways to expand the impact of my own research,” Montoya-Giraldo added.
To learn more about Montoya-Giraldo’s experience, read the full Q&A with Manuela Montoya-Giraldo.
The fifth RISE cohort interest form is now open for Fall 2026 for researchers who would like to begin developing an idea/startup or students interested in becoming a RISE Fellow.