The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services announced today that two award-winning start-up companies are joining the Pennovation Center – the University’s new business, technology and laboratory incubator opening in August 2016. 

The two start-up companies, Fever Smart and XEED, were founded by four recent graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, who were awarded the inaugural President’s Innovation Prize created by Penn President Amy Gutmann to encourage innovative ideas that serve society. The awards include space inside the Pennovation Center’s coworking community, financial support, and mentorship from the Penn Center for Innovation.

“These recent Penn graduates are working fulltime to move their remarkably creative ideas into our innovation economy, right here in Philadelphia,” says President Gutmann. “The Pennovation Center provides the resources and facilities for them to take their work to the next level. XEED and Fever Smart are joining a community of innovators that is taking shape at the Pennovation Center, and we are excited to welcome them.”

Sade Oba and Alfredo Muniz, 2016 graduates of Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), founded XEED to help Parkinson’s disease patients and therapists through a network of wearable devices that tracks the movements of limbs, syncs the data to a smart phone, and compares the results to benchmarks set by therapists.

“The Pennovation Center will be a great part of helping XEED make bigger and better strides in the early stages of our venture,” said XEED co-founder Ms. Oba. “This opportunity provides our team the chance to brainstorm, test, and further iterate in an environment designed for innovation. Having top-notch industry and academic experts as neighbors ensures we are always trying out unique approaches to our design challenges. We believe that the Pennovation Center will open new doors for us to grow as a company and expand our network in the entrepreneurial space.”

Alumni William Duckworth, also a SEAS ‘16 grad, and Aaron Goldstein, Wharton ‘16, founded Fever Smart, a simple yet powerful medical device and cloud information system that monitors core body temperature over time, addressing a problem faced in many areas of medicine.

“Fever Smart is looking forward to working out of the Pennovation Center as a way to stay connected with the Penn community as we continue to grow our business after graduation,” said Mr. Duckworth. “We will have the amazing opportunity to connect with like-minded innovators who are fellow Center members.”

 Each team has won a desk in the Pennovation Center coworking space, and will enjoy the Center’s amenities such as conference rooms, mail services, and storage, and they will become part of the extended coworking community managed by Philadelphia’s Benjamin’s Desk, operators of the Pennovation Center on behalf of the university.

“By providing these young entrepreneurs with a ‘home base,’ Penn is encouraging these young and talented entrepreneurs to remain in Philadelphia for further developing their ideas into products that have a big impact,” said Anne Papageorge, Vice President, Facilities and Real Estate Services at Penn. “We believe they add a vitality to the community of innovators taking shape at the Pennovation Center.”

About The Pennovation Center
The Pennovation Center is a 58,000 square-foot three story facility designed for startup companies, entrepreneurs, and inventors looking to be part of a unique community of innovators and includes a full service technology incubator, basic wet and dry laboratories, private offices, inventor garages, and a coworking space for up to 200 members operated by Benjamin’s Desk. It opens in August 2016 as the centerpiece of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Works, a 23-acre development adjacent to the University campus on the southern bank of the Schuylkill River providing facilities and amenities to bridge intellectual and entrepreneurial initiatives among university researchers, private sector innovators, and startups. 

Visit pennovation.upenn.edu and follow Pennovation Works on Facebook, @Pennovation on Twitter, and @pennovationworks on Instagram.

Read the original release here.

About the Penn Center for Innovation
The Penn Center for Innovation (PCI) serves as a dedicated one-stop shop for commercial partnering with Penn by translating Penn discoveries and ideas into new products and businesses, facilitating technology licenses with the private sector, building R&D alliances, and forming new ventures; all with the aim further supporting R&D and innovation for the benefit of society.

About the President’s Innovation Prize
To be awarded annually, the President’s Innovation Prize is intended to help Penn students design and undertake innovative, commercial ventures that make a positive difference in the world. Learn more about the President’s Innovation Prize on the Penn website.