UC Santa Barbara's Technology Management Department has selected six teams to compete later this month in the 2023 New Venture Competition (NVC) Finals. Finalists were selected from a field of twenty teams that participated in the New Venture Fair. Formatted like a trade show, teams demonstrated their products and made poster presentations. 

Now in its twenty-fourth year, the NVC is the university's flagship entrepreneurial experience. Over the course of eight months, students work on multi-disciplinary teams under the guidance of faculty and mentors as they address a business problem or opportunity and develop their business ideas from concept to reality. The NVC Finals will take place on Thursday, May 25, at 2:30 PM, at Corwin Pavilion. 

The six finalists and described below:
 
Apical Robotics is a service-based business specializing in inspecting chemical facilities using our innovative soft robot technology. The team's robot aims to replace human inspectors in complex and hazardous distillation tower maintenance operations. The team says its solution reduces plant downtime and labor costs required to achieve optimal production efficiency.

Bright Labs aims to simplify the teaching of biological sciences, making it more convenient, and safer for users. Whether it’s a student's first time pipetting or exploring new scientific techniques, Bright Labs offers freeze-dried, cell-free technology designed to be used by anyone. From  home to the classroom, Bright Labs is dedicated to making biology easy to learn and accessible to everyone, everywhere! 

Hikari is developing a noninvasive, real-time precision drug release and monitoring platform featuring a lipid nanoparticle formulation triggered to release drugs on demand by means of an external stimulus provided by a wrist-worn device. Hikari addresses a $40B problem of adverse drug events due to dosing errors that often result in patient injury and/or death.

Leeta Materials is developing a scalable microwave-assisted manufacturing process for intercalation battery cathode materials, ensuring consistent, high-quality material production. Leeta Materials will integrate into the supply chain by providing affordable and reliable materials to American and international battery manufacturers.

Ocean Pulse gathers and delivers real-time marine data through a proprietary network of self-sustaining oceanographic buoys, which are able to directly measure and upload current ocean conditions to a web-based user interface. Ocean Pulse removes the hassle of instrumentation set-up, deployment, and maintenance from the user, enabling researchers to more efficiently obtain important ocean data.

WaferPath is a cloud-based platform for managing R&D of novel devices for the photonics industry. It provides a standardized process flow tracker to maximize learning from each fabrication run and a transparent overview of complex, multi-material device development. Wafter Path empowers companies to accelerate their product development cycles, saving time and financial resources, and facilitate the development of novel photonics technologies.