CCEI

‘The Angus of Oysters’

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – When seafood entrepreneur Keegan Jalbert’s startup AccessFlora won the Wolff New Venture Competition on Tuesday night, it took him a few minutes to compose himself.

It’s not every day that a new entrepreneur gets a $40,000 check and $5,000 in pro bono services.

“I had been running on 24 hours of full nerves, and I felt like a tank that is pressure rated. I had surpassed what my body could tolerate,’’ says Jalbert ’23 (CLAS) ’27 MS. “When they announced that I had won the top prize, I was calm at first and then I was crying. And I’m not a crier. The recognition is so powerful.’’

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The World is His Oyster

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – Graduate student Keegan Jalbert ’23 (CLAS) ’27 MS has always been interested in agriculture, food, and innovation. Today he is finding new ways to grow oysters and share his love of seafood with customers who live far from the ocean.

Jalbert is the founder of AccessFlora, a sustainable aquaculture company with a proprietary omega-3 aquafeed for raising oysters in purified water at a hatchery. The outcome is a larger and healthier shellfish that isn’t confined to the coast nor dependent upon favorable ocean conditions.

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UConn Scientists’ Startup Seeks to Advance Women’s Reproductive Healthcare

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – As a scientist, researcher, and now an entrepreneur, Xingyu Wang Ph.D. ‘22 strongly believes that advanced technology should be used primarily to improve the health and happiness of humankind.

Wang, a post-doctoral researcher, and two of his professors from the College of Engineering, are striving to do that with their newest invention. EVA is a smart-sensing device, embedded in a menstrual pad, that collects data from menstrual blood or vaginal fluid to assess reproductive-health information.

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Father-Daughter Entrepreneurs Plan to Introduce Refreshing, Non-Alcoholic Beverage for Life on the Water

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – Father-daughter entrepreneurs Bill Smith ’78 (BUS) and Lindsay Smith are both experienced boaters who love a day of adventure on Long Island Sound or cruising on the ocean.

But an exhilarating day on the water can leave boating enthusiasts dehydrated because of a combination of heat, sun, and wind. To combat it, they’ve created SEAWELL, a sparkling, non-alcoholic juice drink with essential electrolytes, a crisp taste, and only 40 calories per can.

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Undergraduates Create a New Method to Help Warn of Skin Damage During Radiation Therapy

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – When patients are undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, one of the unwelcome side effects is skin damage, including redness, dryness, tingling, swelling, and peeling.

Radiation dermatitis can progress to more severe skin injury and may contribute to treatment disruptions and reduced quality of life. In its most extreme form, dermatitis can cause permanent changes in skin color, scarring, or even ulcers that appear months or years later.

Some 90 to 95% of patients undergoing radiation experience a skin reaction, and it can be more difficult to detect in people with darker skin.

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UConn Dentist Develops Customizable Toothbrush to Encourage Kids to Brush Better, Longer

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – When his patients’ parents would tell Dr. Dante Paolino that they had trouble coaxing their children to brush their teeth, he was admittedly a bit judgmental.

Then he and his wife had their own children, and the pediatric dentist’s whole perspective changed.

“My kids employed some classic stalling tactics, like throwing themselves on the floor, pursing their lips or locking their mouth shut, running away, pushing the toothbrush out of their mouth with their tongue, or shaking their head back and forth while trying to brush,’’ Paolino says. “They tried literally anything they could do to avoid getting the job done.’’

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UConn Student Justin Fargo Went from Family iPhone-Fixer to Small Business Cybersecurity Champion

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – In the last year, Justin Fargo ‘28 has created a new cybersecurity and compliance firm to help small- and medium-sized companies meet the requirements needed to become U.S. government contractors.

“I really think people should know that just because you’re a college student and you have a lot of obligations, you can still take risks. You don’t have to wait until you graduate to start a business,’’ says Fargo.

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Veterans’ Bootcamp Graduates 21 Entrepreneurs – Including One Who Appreciated a Great Hot Sauce Before He was Born

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – It was perhaps predestined that Sean Maloney would love hot sauce, because his mother had such strong cravings during pregnancy that she ate it straight out of the packet.

“By age 10, I was putting hot sauce on everything, even pancakes,’’ Maloney says.

Today, Maloney is the founder and owner of 13 Stars Hot Sauce, a veteran-owned small business with six sauces “ranging from mild to wild.”

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BUILDing Connecticut’s Capital City: Unique UConn Course Celebrates Five Years of Partnership, Collaboration, and Hartford Stories

Posted on by Jaclyn Severance

UConn Today – On a Wednesday afternoon in late April – tucked inside a quiet brick building in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood, just a few blocks from the shining gold dome of Connecticut’s State Capitol building – a celebration took place.

On the third floor of The Lyceum – an historic site that at different times in its past housed a box manufacturing company, a punk rock dance club, and a roller-skating business – there were balloons, and there was music. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Smiles and handshakes and hugs passed around.

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Innovation Quest Selects Five Top Startups, Ranging from Manufacturing Innovation to New Hair-Care Option

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – The Innovation Quest (iQ) entrepreneurship competition crowned five new champions on April 20, with innovations that included a novel manufacturing innovation, a system for making tuition payments easier, and tool to help protect creative endeavors from being usurped by AI.

The students ranged from a second-semester freshman to a ready-to-graduate Ph.D. candidate. Together, they shared $35,000 in prize money.

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