Month: January 2024

Originally published by VentureWell

Empathy can lead to inspiration.

Antony Fuleihan was visiting hospitals as part of his Master’s Degree studies in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University when he first considered becoming an entrepreneur. There, he observed patients who were experiencing extreme back pain, the causes of which were often complex and difficult to diagnose. “It became very obvious that there was an overwhelming unmet clinical need: Spine patients need care that is personalized to their specific problems,” said Fuleihan. “From that moment, I couldn’t stay away. I wanted to make sure that our invention would reach patients and physicians, and that we were actually improving lives.”

A report by The Washington Post detailed the widespread issue of doctors dismissing or misdiagnosing their patients’ symptoms. “There’s a major misdiagnosis opportunity for the spine—every year, over a quarter of a million patients get unnecessary spine surgery,” noted fellow Johns Hopkins graduate student and co-founder Evan Haas. “That’s terrifying.”

To solve this challenge, Fuleihan and Haas partnered to launch their startup CurveAssure, developing an at-home, wearable monitoring device that provides physicians with posture analysis data, allowing for faster data-driven patient care and surgical decision-making.

“What we do is we simplify the pathway,” Fuleihan explained. “Once patients see their spine surgeon, they’re sent home with a number of wearable sensors that provide more personalized and dynamic data. This allows us to help surgeons figure out what treatment is best for that patient.”

Since 2022, CurveAssure has progressed through the VentureWell Accelerator, completing the Pioneer and Propel stages of the E-Team Program, the 2023 Ascend Medtech Accelerator, and, most recently, Aspire Medtech 2023. The team spoke on our E-Team Founding Stories panel with other student entrepreneurs and was featured in the OPENminds Innovator Showcase at OPEN 2023, VentureWell’s annual conference.

“It has been awesome to be able to step through our journey of entrepreneurship with VentureWell,” Haas told us. “All of the programs [in the VentureWell Accelerator] are seeded in such a way so that we’re able to learn more about business as we continue to grow and expand. And the network has been tremendous—we’ve been finding great mentors and investors.”

Qualcomm became the inflection point in the team’s entrepreneurial journey.

Fuleihan was awarded a 2023 Qualcomm Innovator Stipend, which provided an additional $2,500 in funding to help offset the cost of advancing their innovation—a key moment for the venture. “The stipend was really helpful in allowing us to file our first provisional patent,” Haas explained. “With medical devices, it’s critical—especially in the early stages of the company—to secure intellectual property (IP). We want to make sure that everything is locked down so that our invention is secure for us to continue.”

The stipend helped CurveAssure reach a critical milestone of filing for IP, which then helped unlock additional funding opportunities through Johns Hopkins like the 2023 President’s Venture Fellowship. They also won first place at the International 2023 Stu Clark Pitch Competition for the Graduate Business Plan and Graduate Elevator Pitch. “Over the last two years, our team has honed in on a critical unmet need and a device that has the potential to revolutionize the spine space,” Haas said.

Tip from a founder: Start early when exploring how to secure the rights to your invention.

Patenting has always been top of mind for CurveAssure. “We learned that IP is critical at every step of a company’s development,” Haas explained. “All of the investors we talk to want to see our initial dive into the landscape through patenting. They want to make sure that they can trust the investment that they place in us, and that we’re able to execute and actually capture the market share that we’re aiming for.”

During Pioneer, the first stage of our E-Team Program, CurveAssure received mentorship specifically on the importance of IP. “VentureWell put together a couple of different workshops where [law firm] Cooley came in and talked about all the different ways to tackle IP challenges. They gave some wonderful advice that really helped us out early on.”

Looking ahead, CurveAssure is working to expand the value of the company. “We filed our provisional patents, and we’re looking to convert our patents to a full patent in the next couple of months,” Haas told us. “We’re looking for ways to expand and secure the other aspects of IP, trademark—all of the pieces that we have within the company.”

He offered a key piece of advice for early-stage innovators: “Don’t be scared of IP. You should dive into it. Be willing to read a bunch of patents, be incredibly confused, ask a lot of questions, then have mentors help you through this process.”

Hear more from Fuleihan and Haas about their journey as entrepreneurs and how participating in our E-Team Program accelerated the growth of their startup:

Expanding Participation Through the Qualcomm Innovator Stipend Program

In partnership with Qualcomm, we offered the Innovator Stipend Program in 2022 and again in 2023 to reduce financial challenges for student entrepreneurs, giving them the breathing room they need to develop their products while simultaneously juggling the fiscal responsibilities of school and life—with the aim of further narrowing the patent diversity gap. Recipients were awarded stipends ranging from $1,500 to $4,000 to offset the cost of participation in our E-Team Program as well as for living expenses, materials and physical prototyping, equipment, or expenses associated with patent filing, incorporation, or attorney fees.

About the E-Team Program

Through the E-Team Program, VentureWell has trained over 540 student teams and more than 1,300 student innovators. The teams have raised over $600 million in follow-on funding and have launched more than 240 ventures since taking part in our program.

Learn more about VentureWell’s , which supports student-led science- and engineering-based teams from across the nation in bringing their high-impact innovations out of the lab and into the market. !

We are thrilled to announce that Cadence has secured the #74 spot on the 2023 Wall Street Journal List of Best Managed Companies. This notable ranking places us at the forefront of our industry, alongside renowned tech giants such as Microsoft and Apple. This recognition is a testament to Cadence’s unwavering commitment to excellence in management practices, innovation, and strategic leadership.

Drucker Management Principles

The Wall Street Journal Best Managed Companies list, influenced by the principles of management pioneer Peter Drucker, stands as a tribute to his enduring legacy in shaping modern management philosophy. Drucker, often hailed as the father of modern management, emphasized the importance of effective leadership, innovation, and adaptability—principles that are intrinsic to the criteria used for selecting companies on this prestigious list.

A Noteworthy Achievement

Earning a spot on this prestigious list is a significant achievement that reflects Cadence’s dedication to navigating the complexities of the business landscape with finesse. It places Cadence among an elite group of companies celebrated for their exceptional management, financial performance, and overall operational excellence.

Employee Engagement Excellence

In addition to our overall ranking, Cadence has also emerged as a standout performer in the Employee Engagement subcategory, securing a position in the top 10 alongside industry giants like NVIDIA, Cisco, Adobe, and Mastercard. This recognition highlights Cadence’s commitment to fostering a workplace culture that values and engages its employees.

Being named alongside industry leaders in the Employee Engagement subcategory is a proud moment for Cadence. It showcases our dedication to creating an environment where our talented workforce can thrive, innovate, and contribute to the company’s success. Employee engagement is a cornerstone of our corporate philosophy, and this acknowledgment reinforces the positive impact it has on our organization.

Looking Ahead

As we celebrate this remarkable achievement, Cadence remains focused on the future. The recognition from the Wall Street Journal motivates us to continue pushing boundaries, fostering innovation, and maintaining the high standards of management that have brought us to this point.

Learn more about Cadence and our One Cadence—One Team culture.

Children have natural tendencies to explore, create, and innovate. By encouraging STEM education early on in their lives — before high school, and even before middle school — we can nurture the next generation of engineers, scientists, and technology leaders. In this article, we’ll share the benefits of early STEM education as well as Keysight’s efforts to encourage future STEM leaders.

What are the benefits of early STEM education?

Encouraging STEM learning from an early age unleashes children’s innate curiosity and gives them the confidence to evolve into life-long problem-solvers in their future academic and professional pursuits. Exposure to the STEM fields at a young age helps to:

Foster innate curiosity: STEM education helps children learn to ask questions, explore possibilities, and develop a natural interest in the world around them.Improve collaboration: Many STEM activities involve group projects that require teamwork and collaboration — important skills in both professional and social settings.Develop problem-solving skills: STEM programs give children the tools they need to be analytical, think critically, and come up with creative solutions to solve problems.Spark interest and motivation: Early exposure makes STEM concepts feel more familiar to kids later on, which can help motivate them to continue pursuing these interests.Prepare for future endeavors: Early childhood STEM education lays the foundation for more advanced learning in these fields, which better prepares children for future academic challenges.

How Keysight Encourages Future STEM Leaders

Keysight employees know me as their Chief Marketing Officer, but I started my career in STEM as an electrical engineer. My dad was a doctor, and he helped spark my interest in the science behind his work. But after a few biology classes, I discovered I didn’t like “the dissection stuff,” as I called it at the time. So, I explored other science-related fields, and since math was always a strong subject for me, I landed on engineering.

As an engineer and now as a CMO, it’s exciting for me to be a leader of an organization like Keysight, which has several initiatives to improve STEM education and help spark interest at a young age.

At the university level, I’m proud to be a part of the Keysight Innovation Challenge, a worldwide, women-led student competition to design innovations with real-world applications to address climate change. Keysight also has a partnership with the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) association to pair Keysight mentors with students for the organization’s statewide leadership conference competition — and works with many universities around the world to provide scholarships, internship opportunities, corporate advisory engagements with company executives, and engineering lab equipment grants.

But effectively nurturing STEM careers means engaging students from the start — during their high school years and even before. A Girl Scouts report found that middle school is a critical juncture where STEM aspirations are abandoned by many students, but especially women and underrepresented groups. Programs that pay special attention to these pivotal moments will help provide the necessary exposure, support, and motivation for students to remain committed to careers in STEM.

To strengthen middle schoolers’ STEM interests, Keysight is a corporate sponsor of the Mike Hauser Academy for STEM, a summer school program for incoming ninth-graders in Santa Rosa, CA. We also participate in Expanding Your Horizons to introduce middle school girls to careers in STEM and provide hands-on activities for students at the North Bay Science Discovery Day. Across the globe, our Penang, Malaysia site hosted an Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and partners with other technology companies in the area in the Girls in Engineering & Technology (GET) program.

And our beloved Keysight After School Program, facilitated by employee volunteers, delivers hands-on electronics, physics, and earth-science experiments to schools, with all the materials needed for students to explore various STEM concepts.

These are just a few of Keysight’s many STEM education initiatives, which aim to not only promote educational opportunities, but inspire and empower students as they pursue their ideal careers.

Investing in Early STEM Education to Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges

Even though I’m no longer a practicing engineer, I’m grateful for my STEM education — and still apply the critical thinking and collaboration skills I learned as an engineer every day.

By focusing on early exposure to STEM, we can help children develop an interest that paves the way for future career opportunities and innovations to solve the world’s biggest challenges.