MicroAvionics, Inc.

On Day 1 of #HarvardClimateActionWeek, Harvard Grid featured four extraordinary scientist-entrepreneurs who are enhancing our planet’s ability to thrive. Paul Hayre, Executive Director of Harvard Grid, spoke with them to showcase their groundbreaking work that is lighting the way for a more sustainable future: Ben Schafer, Applied Physics PhD ’24, captivated the audience with his research on the photophoretic effect, which he is using to develop self-levitating mesospheric devices for communications, sensing, and other applications.   Alex Berkowitz, Master’s in Landscape Architecture ’23, shared her personal story of resilience after Hurricane Sandy devastated her community. She has since patented and is developing wave mitigation devices that not only protect shorelines but also generate electricity. Alex recently signed a LOI (Letter of Intent) with a town on Cape Cod to combat seashore erosion.   Corey Pedersen, PhD candidate in Environmental Science & Engineering, discussed his innovative work on designing and characterizing stratospheric organic aerosols to reflect partial sunlight back into space, aiming to mitigate the effects of global warming.   Maxwell Leef, a second-year MBA candidate, lower down in the earth’s troposphere, entertained the audience with his discussion on cows! (more broadly: sustainable agriculture). His solution involves creating virtual fences to track and induce behavior modifications in grazing livestock, currently being piloted in Australia, which help sustainably manage land and food supplies.   The Grid selected these four entrepreneurs as exemplars of how Harvard science and engineering contributes to environmental preservation, human sustainability, and planetary stewardship. Alex, Ben, Max, and Corey are driving positive change, helping sustain a habitable planet, and inspiring optimism for the future.   #HarvardClimateActionWeek #SustainableInnovation #ClimateAction #FutureLeaders #HarvardGrid #VenturingatHarvard 

A passion project I started during my first year at HBS, Beyond the Square, has been an incredible journey. In the first season, I had the opportunity to interview over 20 inspiring Harvard students and alumni, sharing their unique stories and insights. This was also made possible by Harvard Innovation Labs' facilities and spaces serve as a natural conduit for innovators within the Harvard Community. I am thrilled to announce that Season 2 is launching this summer! This week I had the opportunity to share my interview with 2 amazing Co-Founders. Manasi Mehan of Saturday Art Class and Ben Schafer of MicroAvionics, Inc. Check out their stories of entrepreneurship here! A huge thank you to all our listeners for your support and feedback. Your encouragement drives us to keep delivering quality content. If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time! Also, please DM me if you know any Harvard alumni or students who you think should be highlighted in our upcoming episodes. https://lnkd.in/ephzR3_C https://lnkd.in/eKNr89KY

MicroAvionics, Inc.’s platform offers a more sustainable way to collect atmospheric data with no fuel, batteries, power, or moving parts—its device is driven entirely by sunlight via a temperature gradient that generates thrust.  “The sweet spot for this flight mechanism is in the mesosphere,” says the startup’s Ben Schafer, who co-founded the startup with Angela Feldhaus in a Harvard lab. “This is a new propulsion mechanism, and since nothing else has been able to fly there sustainably, this will open up a new source of atmospheric data.” Read our full profile on this new Greentown Boston member: https://lnkd.in/eHTr9Ynw

Seven SEAS teams named Harvard Innovation Labs President’s Innovation Challenge finalists. Finalists will compete for a share of $515,000, given to first-place and runner-up ventures in each of five tracks, at the President’s Innovation Challenge Awards Ceremony on May 1 at Klarman Hall at Harvard Business School. Start-ups include: EndoShunt, a device to make it easier for trauma surgeons to treat abdominal bleeds; Vocadian, a software platform that analyzes voice biomarkers for signs of exhaustion; MicroAvionics, lightweight devices for telecommunications or climate science that can levitate in the atmosphere without any onboard power or moving parts; and MesaQuantum, chip-scale clocks that use quantum sensing technology to work as global positioning systems, and an AI-enabled assistive technologies to improve the health and well-being of older adults and their caregivers. “There are two major blood vessels in the abdomen, and the shunt is deployed through the entire length of each one,” said EndoShunt co-founder Finn-Henry, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student at SEAS. “Now they’ve gone from about to die in two minutes from blood loss to stable. From there, you can adjust the length of the device to target exactly where the bleed is. If you shorten it until the blood starts pooling again, you can use it to diagnose exactly where the injury is.”

Announcing the 2024 President’s Innovation Challenge Finalists! From AI-tailored shoes to tackling gender inequality, empowering visually impaired individuals, and more, the 25 Harvard ventures selected as finalists this year are truly inspiring.✨ Meet all of the finalists and join us for the award ceremony on May 1 in Klarman Hall at Harvard Business School (or online!) to see who will take home a share of $515,000 in non-dilutive funding, gifted from the Bertarelli Foundation. Check out the Harvard Gazette to learn more about the finalists that will be competing at the 2024 Awards Ceremony: https://bit.ly/3vwm91E #Harvard #entrepreneurship #pic2024 #harvardinnovationlabs

Congratulations to MicroAvionics Co-Founder Ben Schafer on receiving Harvard Grid funding! This $100k prize will allow for continued R&D and collaboration on photophoretic payloads at Harvard over the next year. https://lnkd.in/gQxcV7aB

The Harvard Innovation Labs has selected 30 ventures to join the fourth annual Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle, an incubation program for high-potential ventures working to address climate change. "Since introducing the Climate Entrepreneurs Circle in 2021, the program has supported 95 ventures in developing innovative climate solutions. In this cohort, our team continues to see remarkable impact.” Read more about members of the 2024 Climate Circles cohort and how they plan to drive climate impact, ranging from EV charging solutions to flood-proofing solutions to using data to reduce food waste. https://lnkd.in/gcJ-aWPs #harvardbusinessschool #climatechange #climateaction #innovation #entrepreneurship #business #leadership Harvard Business School Harvard Innovation Labs Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment 1Climate Aclaria Partners AgDev Algoma Carbon Counts Charli Charging Crop Diagnostix Ekidos Agrivoltaics Finpublica FlatPeak GoPowerEV GramHeet Henua Technologies Invert Inc. Keystone MicroAvionics, Inc. NetaCarbon Offstream Pacto Medical Prisere RESILIFT Inc Tender Food The Surpluss Trellis Air Corporation

Congratulations to our co-founder Ben Schafer on his acceptance into the New Mexico Lab Embedded Entrepreneur Program! This incredible opportunity provides two years of valuable funding and collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory. We can't wait to see the incredible developments this partnership will bring. https://lnkd.in/grCicxpS

We are excited to announce our latest Emerge Accelerator cohort! Over the next 12 weeks, 13 cutting-edge companies will demonstrate how intellectual property from top research universities can be commercialized for dual-use, civilian, and military markets. See the cohort companies: https://lnkd.in/eXnK33gU #Accelerator #Technology #Defense

🚀 Exciting News! MicroAvionics is a part of the 2024 NSIN - National Security Innovation Network Emerge Accelerator! This 12-week program aims to connect tech startups with DoD partners, maximizing our impact in both civilian and military markets. We’re looking forward to working alongside the outstanding companies in our cohort and utilizing NSIN’s resources to commercialize our dual-use technology. #NationalSecurity #NSINEmerge #MicroAvionics #DefenseTech #SustainableTechnology