Date October 1, 2025

Nurmikko named top inventor, Lin’s Fermi Energy wins pitch comp at 2025 Brown Innovation Showcase

Several Brown Engineering-related ventures from students and faculty were featured during the evening that connected new tech out of the University with investors, partners and industry experts.

Arto Nurmikko, the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering and Professor of Physics, was named Inventor of the Year and Fermi Energy, co-founded by Associate Professor of Engineering Feng Lin, won the inaugural pitch competition for Startup of the Year at the event hosted by Brown Technology Innovations.

The Innovation@Brown showcase is an opportunity for Rhode Island’s entrepreneurs, startup founders, venture capitalists, and industry leaders to preview cutting-edge technologies, startups, and innovative ideas emerging out of Brown University. Awards for Startup of the Year, Inventor of the Year and Innovation of the Year were awarded to Brown-affiliated ventures, while more than 20 early stage ventures lined the halls of the Rhode Island Venture Cafe.

Nurmikko’s award was based on the amount of patenting success during the past year, which included filing one new international patent, and four patents issued. He was also chosen to present one of those patents to a group of 300 agents as part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Examiner Technical Training program.

Nurmikko’s research fields encompass electrical engineering, physics and brain sciences, with a particular focus on neuroengineering, nanophotonics and microelectronics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Fermi Energy CEO and co-founder Ray Xu took first place and the $1,000 prize from the Slater Technology Fund for his startup pitch. Photo Credit Division of Research

Sabrina Tolppi '25 also presented her company Lilac Biosciences in the inaugural pitch competition. Photo Credit Division of Research

Engineering Professor Anubhav Tripathi joined Tolppi at the Lilac Biosciences table. Photo Credit Division of Research

Kareen Coulombe's Bioelectric Threads for Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmias was a top three finalist for Innovation of the Year. Photo Credit Division of Research

Fermi Energy, a startup which develops high-performance cathode materials for next-generation batteries, was pitched by Lin’s CEO and co-founder Zhengrui “Ray” Xu. This new pitch competition segment of the third annual showcase had five Brown-born startups pitch to a packed room and a panel of venture capitalists, distilling years of research into sharp, persuasive five-minute product proposals. The founders — a mix of faculty and students — competed not only for a $1,000 prize from Slater Technology Fund, but also for the feedback and connections that could help turn their ideas into market-ready companies.

Joining Fermi on the pitch stage was Lilac Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on advancing innovative analytical methods for quantifying RNA modifications, providing solutions for RNA stability, characterizing RNA integrity and methods for RNA purification. Biomedical engineering graduate Sabrina Tolppi ’25 is the co-founder and CSO of Lilac Biosciences, which spun out of the lab of Professor Anubhav Tripathi.

Competition for the annual Innovation of the Year included Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe’s Bioelectric Threads for Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmias pitch as one of three finalists. Although Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Yu-Wen Alvin Huang took home the most votes for A Novel Therapeutic Approach Targeting B1N1 to Modulate Secretory Autophagy in Alzheimer's Disease, it marked the third straight year a Brown Engineering faculty member finished among the top three. Coulombe took top honors at the inaugural Innovation Showcase competition, while Senior Associate Dean of Engineering and Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint won in 2024.

In addition to Coulombe, four more engineering faculty were among the initial eight semifinalists for Innovation of the Year: Professor Kurt Pennell’s Polymer-Based Foam Fractionation (FF) for PFAS Removal from Water; Assistant Professor Monica Martinez Wilhelmus’ Miniature Bio-Inspired Underwater Swarm Vehicle for Agile Navigation & Sensing; Professor Nitin Padture’s Novel Strategy to Prevent Substrate Cracking in Flexible Thin-Film Devices; and Professor Pedro Felzenszwalb’s Structured Motion for Enhanced Super-Resolution Imaging.