Ting Zhang, a fourth-year PhD student in Industrial Engineering, and her research partner, Shruthi Suresh, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, started HaptImage to develop technologies to make images instantly accessible to individuals who are visually impaired. Both students are members of Brad Duerstock's IAS Lab. Duerstock is an Associate Professor of Practice in Industrial Engineering with a joint appointment with Biomedical Engineering.

 

The startups were selected by the Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund’s Investment Committee. Seven startups were selected for tier-one Black Awards of $20,000 each: HaptImage, UniBubbles, HySonic Technologies, UniRide, MediTrak, Cyber Inform and Socio. The funding helps entrepreneurs to advance their startups and innovations through various commercialization activities including market research, product development and prototype creation.

 

HaptImage also won two student entrepreneur competitions in February and March 2018: HaptImage wins in two student entrepreneur competitions.