Date October 16, 2026

At Brown’s Innovation Showcase, engineers earn top honors

Engineering Professor Anita Shukla was named the Inventor of the Year, Lilac Biosciences, a spin-out company from the lab of Professor Anubhav Tripathi, took Startup of the Year honors, and Professor Nora Ayanian was a top three finalist in the pitch competition for Innovation of the Year, as the School of Engineering was well represented at the fourth annual Brown Technology Innovation’s Innovation@Brown Showcase.

Shukla, also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Red Maple Lifesciences, was honored for the number of patents issued during the past year. Her previous patents helped lead to EnzyLock, an enzyme-responsive wound dressing platform engineered to fit into existing surgical dressing workflows. Red Maple and TEEM Therapeutics, a spin out from the lab of Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe, were both recognized again for their Sept. 23 second and third places finishes in the Startup Challenge during Rhode Island Startup Week.

Taking root from an undergraduate independent project in the Tripathi Lab, Lilac Biosciences develops RNA analysis products that help researchers gain deeper insights into RNA samples – from patient-derived samples to manufactured RNA therapeutics.

Startup of the year 2026 Lilac Bioscienes — Lilac Biosciences, a spin-out company from the lab of Professor Anubhav Tripathi, took 2026 Startup of the Year.

Anita Shukla and Kareen Coulombe were both recognized again for their Sept. 23 second and third places finishes in the Startup Challenge during Rhode Island Startup Week.

Professor Nora Ayanian with drone — Professor Nora Ayanian

Ayanian’s Aerolink was a top three finalist chosen from ten ventures to pitch during the evening. Aerolink is a modular drone platform with 3D stackability, and competed against FiRE from Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Ahmed Abdelfattah’s lab, and Empiric, from Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. FiRE is a newly engineered molecule that allows neuroscientists to examine brain activity to test drugs faster and study brain disease. Empiric, the top vote-getter and winner is a project that uses machine learning to transform coarse weather data into forecasts for coastal locations and islands.

Engineering alumna and Brown Corporation member Sangeeta Bhatia, MIT Professor, inventor and entrepreneur, joined Brown Provost Frank Doyle for a Q&A that was recorded for an episode of Brown alumnus Bob Safian’s Rapid Response upcoming podcast. The talk, “The Evolving Role of Academia in Scaling Innovation and Economic Impact,” served as the keynote address. Discussion topics ranged from plans for expanding Brown’s research enterprise through its own corporate culture to the positives of what AI can bring to biology, genomics, engineering and other research. Doyle emphasized the university’s desire to expedite bringing passion projects from the lab to innovation by changing the yardstick for how impact is measured.

Other selected ventures from Brown and URI tabled outside the showcase, including projects from Engineering Professors Pedro Felzenszwalb and Rashid Zia, Arto Nurmikko and Monica Martinez Wilhelmus.