Lab to Launch awards ASU innovators more than $150,000

Sandul Gangodagamage, a sophomore computer science student in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, presents his company Legion Platforms at the ASU Lab to Launch event. Legion Platforms is an online gaming platform created especially for those with lower performing computers and slow internet connections. Photographer: Erik Wirtanen/ASU

Lab to Launch is a pitch event for lab-based entrepreneurs at Arizona State University to present ideas to prospective investors as they aim to secure funding opportunities to advance their businesses.

ASU ranks ninth globally among universities for U.S. utility patents issued, demonstrating the impressive volume of promising technologies emerging from its research labs.

Lab to Launch is a collaborative effort led by the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU,  Skysong Innovations, InvestU and Knowledge Enterprise Corporate Engagement and Strategic Partnerships and designed to empower student and faculty entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into market-ready ventures.

In the 2025 event, faculty members and students competed for more than $150,000 in funding awards.

Two student tech startups were each awarded $25,000 through the eSeed Challenge. One received $10,000 via the Good Work Capital Challenge, while the Hool Coury Law Tech Venture Challenge granted a total of $40,000 to four promising student-led tech ventures.

The J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute also awarded $50,000 to support ASU faculty founders and university affiliates licensing technology patented by the university through Skysong Innovations, while Fulton Schools faculty member innovators also competed for appointments within the Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors Program in the Fulton Schools.

“ASU Lab to launch is filling a critical gap within our startup development ecosystem at ASU,” says Brent Sebold, ASU Hool Coury Law Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of Entrepreneurship + Innovation at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. “With the support of generous ASU alumni donors, including Tom Prescott of the eSeed Challenge, Michael Hool of the Hool Coury Law Tech Venture Challenge and Steve Lockard of the Good Work Capital Challenge, we have been able to identify, nurture and advance some of our most promising student tech startup founders at the university.”

Lab to Launch provides additional mentorship and funding opportunities to these innovators beyond the foundational support they have from venture development programs at ASU, such as Venture Devils and the ASU-led Desert and Pacific Region NSF I-Corps Hub offerings.

“We are excited about the future impact of Lab to Launch as we continue to work with our collaborators in the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, Skysong Innovations and InvestU to support more of our amazing student entrepreneurs within the Fulton Schools and beyond,” Sebold says.

The Lab to Launch event stands out from other entrepreneurial initiatives at ASU by playing a critical role providing funding for innovations to move beyond the lab and into the market to address pressing global challenges and generate real-world impact.

“It is uniquely designed for faculty founders and students who are developing cutting-edge technologies in ASU labs with the goal of commercialization,” says Tracy Lea, director of venture development at the J. Orin Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute. “It serves as ASU’s only venture challenge offering awards for faculty members, bridging the gap between groundbreaking research and viable market strategies.”

The Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors Program, part of the faculty awards offered, is a two-year fellowship that provides tenured and tenure-track engineering faculty members with time, resources and mentorship to accelerate their ventures toward successful commercialization.

“This year was a standout moment for faculty entrepreneurship — by far the strongest group of applicants we’ve seen since I’ve been involved in the entrepreneurship ecosystem at ASU,” says Visar Berisha, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of research and commercialization in the Fulton Schools with a joint appointment in ASU’s College of Health Solutions. “We’re thrilled to support Assistant Professor Jessica Weaver from the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, part of the Fulton Schools, and look forward to seeing how the Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors Program serves as a springboard for her company, ImmunoShield Therapeutics.”

 

Opening up the world of online gaming

The first of two teams to receive $25,000 as winners of the eSeed Challenge was Legion Platforms, a company focused on making online games accessible for people with sluggish computers and slow internet connections.

The company was founded by Sandul Gangodagamage, a sophomore studying computer science in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Fulton Schools, after he became frustrated with an inability to access games from his old computer with poor internet service.

Legion Platforms has gained tremendous traction, with nine million users worldwide, and continues to grow daily.

“I think games play a huge role in our society and culture, and it is important for everyone to be able to access them and socialize through them,” Gangodagamage says.

With nine million users worldwide, Legion Platforms plans to continue expanding, building new products and being an online gaming option for more users with poor internet connections.

“We have built a great company that has solved this critical issue of accessible games for millions of people already, and we have strong potential to expand on that to help billions more people worldwide,” Gangodagamage says. “This is why the support from Lab to Launch is critical for unlocking that possibility.”

Improving online shopping experience with AI

The second $25,000 winner of the eSeed Challenge was the Voicero.AI team of Nolan Selby and David Fales, first-year Fulton Schools computer science students.

Voicero.AI is an artificial intelligence chatbot app for Shopify stores that helps customers utilize voice navigation, enabling an improved online shopping experience for customers with cognitive disabilities.

“We noticed Shopify store owners losing sales due to outdated and inefficient chatbots, inspiring us to develop a smarter, voice-powered solution,” Selby says.

Voicero.AI is onboarding new Shopify stores, refining its AI model and preparing for its official product launch. The company aims to expand beyond Shopify to become the go-to AI voice solution for e-commerce globally.

ASU’s support for events like Lab to Launch is encouraging to Selby.

“Events like this mean that ASU truly supports their student entrepreneurs and wants every type of personality to succeed at everything they do,” Selby says.

Diagnosing cardiovascular health

Josh Hanson and Jessica Miron, senior biomedical engineering students in the Fulton Schools, presented their idea, ImageAiD, an AI-enabled pocket doppler probe that helps discover peripheral artery disease, or PAD, a condition that more than 100 million Americans are at risk of developing in their lifetimes. The company was awarded $10,000 as the winner of the Good Work Capital Challenge.

ImageAiD started as a capstone project, but according to Hanson, the idea was birthed long before while an intern at Mayo Clinic’s Gonda Vascular Center.

“Most of my work was centered around creating solutions to enhance the ability to diagnose and detect PAD,” Hanson says. “During my time there, I discovered there was a need for a solution in this field. As such, I came back to ASU and started ImageAiD alongside my capstone team to attempt to create one.”

Hanson’s goal for ImageAiD is to become the leader in vascular diagnostics in the PAD sphere and beyond. He says that Lab to Launch is a phenomenal opportunity for his team’s idea.

“ASU does a fantastic job making students believe they are capable of creating change in the world and an even better job of offering opportunities to bolster their success,” Hanson says.

Hool Coury Law Tech Venture Challenge winners

Four other student teams each received $10,000 from the Hool Coury Law Tech Venture Challenge for their AI innovations.

One of those teams is Solisa AI, a company planning to use AI to automate insurance sales and lead generation. Kelvin Tran, an undergraduate computer science student in the Fulton Schools, presented the idea.

Isabella Lenz, a Fulton Schools electrical engineering doctoral student, pitched OriginStory, which aims to prove human authenticity of recorded voices.

Alina Voronina, an ASU alumna who earned a degree in physics, showcased SpaceBox,  an automated, AI-powered portable minilab for biomedical research to revolutionize drug testing and disease modeling.

Anudeep Anisetty, a Fulton Schools information technology master’s degree alumnus, presented Claimify.pro, which helps health care providers draft effective insurance denial appeal letters using AI.

Launching entrepreneurial opportunities

Lea says events like Lab to Launch strengthen Arizona’s position as a regional leader in the development of emerging technologies.

“At ASU, entrepreneurship is ingrained in our DNA as a core design aspiration, inspiring students to see their professors turn research into tangible solutions and reinforcing a culture where innovation extends far beyond the university,” she says. “ASU’s tech ecosystem is rapidly solidifying its reputation as a premier launchpad for emerging technologies, transforming groundbreaking research into tangible solutions that benefit communities worldwide.”