George Shultz Innovation Fund

8:30 – 9:15 a.m.: Registration 

9:15 – 9:30 a.m.: Welcome and Opening Remarks 

• Shyama Majumdar, Director, Accelerators and Investments, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

9:30 – 11:30 a.m.: Finalist Startup Pitches and Q&A from the Advisory Committee 

• 9:30 – 9:55 a.m.: PeptiForge 

• 10:00 – 10:25 a.m.: Theta Neurotech 

• 10:25 – 10:35 a.m.: Coffee Break 

• 10:35 – 11:00 a.m.: CavilinQ 

• 11:05 – 11:30 a.m.: Stac12 

staC12 // staC12 is building an integrated diamond platform – thin-film single-crystal diamond bonded to a number of relevant materials, including silicon, sapphire, and fused silica – that enables the practical adoption of diamond in semiconductor and quantum applications.

• Alex High, assistant professor of molecular engineering, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

CavilinQ // CavilinQ is creating a fundamentally scalable quantum computing architecture based on precisely controlled arrays of neutral atoms interconnected via optical cavities.

• Shankar Menon, graduate student, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Theta Neurotech // Theta Neurotech is developing a near-invisible EEG patch that predicts and alerts patients of epileptic seizures before they occur.

• Truman Pierson, founder and CEO, alumnus, The College, and Naoum Issa, associate professor of neurology

 PeptiForge // PeptiForge is creating a drug discovery platform that produces high-fidelity protein binders through a method that’s 50-times faster and 50-times less expensive than existing technologies.

• Bryan Dickinson, professor, Department of Chemistry