Cara Bognar is the Founder of Top Tier Lessons, a sports technology platform that connects collegiate student athletes with parents looking for sports lessons for their children.  She’s an athlete herself, as a former team captain for Illini Swimming & Diving, and graduated from UIUC with dual degrees in Bioengineering and Innovation Leadership and Engineering Entrepreneurship (ILEE).

Cara's LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/carabognar/

Top Tier Lessons- https://www.toptierlessons.com/

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

This is a special episode to celebrate a great year at UIRP! Research Park’s very own Laura Appenzeller and Laura Bleill join the podcast to talk about startup and corporate highlights from the year, plans for 2025, industry trends, and more!

VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Jack Cui is Co-Founder and CEO of Yummy Future, a Y-Combinator backed robotic coffee shop with roots, and stores, at the University of Illinois. Yummy Future’s mission is to “enhance the artistry of the human barista by the precision and efficiency of robotics.”

Jack's LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-cui-5b8651b5/

Yummy Future- https://www.yummy-future.com/

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

Dr. David Lomiashvili is the CEO of Identomat which has created an innovative AI-powered KYC and identity verification solution. Prior to his current venture, Dr. Lomiashvili has an extensive pedigree in entrepreneurship, not to mention a PhD in Astrophysics. Tune in to hear about topics like digital identity verification, his career journey, and his outlook looking ahead.

David's LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lomiashvili/

Identomat- https://www.identomat.com/

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

Matt Ahrens oversees performance and tools work for the Accelerated Big Data Platforms group at NVIDIA. He’s a long-time leader in the University of Illinois  community with a story that spans the 20-year history of the Research Park. 

Tune in to hear about his career journey, his perspectives learned along the way, and what he sees as the future of AI.

ADDITIONAL LINKS-

Matt's LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ahrens-b62984/

NVIDIA at RP- https://researchpark.illinois.edu/tenant_directory/nvidia/

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

Dr. Beth Conerty helps lead business development for the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab at the University of Illinois. She’s also the Regional Innovation Officer for the iFAB Tech Hub, an initiative created by the Biden administration to strengthen manufacturing innovation in America. Tune in to hear about the research area of bioprocessing and how it can transform the central Illinois economy!

ADDITIONAL LINKS-

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

Dr. Brad Miller is the Co-Founder and Chief Linguistic Officer of Puzzle Labs, a software platform that uses AI to make knowledge transfer easier.  Previously, he was the Site Director for P&G’s Smart Lab in the Research Park, and he’s also spent time traveling the world from Ecuador to India studying the impact of languages

ADDITIONAL LINKS-

Puzzle Labs- https://www.puzzlelabs.ai/

Brad Miller- https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradbmiller/

"Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu"- https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3517/

VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

This is a special episode to celebrate a great year at UIRP! Research Park’s very own Laura Appenzeller and Laura Bleill join the podcast to talk about startup and corporate highlights from the year, plans for 2024, industry trends, and more!

See you back in 2024 for Year 4 of the podcast!

VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Arpit Dwivedi is the Founder and CEO of Cache Energy. Cache is developing energy storage systems that can be safely installed anywhere and transported everywhere. In the past two months, Arpit and his team have raised a whopping $4.5 million which will accelerate them on their mission of decarbonizing industrial processes so that we can look forward to a cleaner and safer future for our planet.

EPISODE LINKS-

Arpit on Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpit-dwivedi-0a9970148/

Cache Energy - https://cache-energy.com/

VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Alex Kosyakov is the Co-Founder and CEO of Natrion. Natrion is creating safe, high-performance, and highly scalable solid-state batteries with the goal of powering mass market electric vehicles and renewable energy. With more than $2 million in seed funding and the backing of giants like Mark Cuban, Alex is on a mission to create batteries without compromises.

Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.