Chapel Thrill Escapes and LiRA will present interactive installations at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Creativity and innovation are at the heart of universities. And what better way to celebrate inventive mindsets than at the 2022 ACCelerate: Creativity and Innovation Festival, which honors creative exploration and innovative research happening at the intersection of science, engineering, arts and design from across the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Smithsonian. Two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student startups will step onto the national stage when they exhibit at the festival, April 8-10, at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Chapel Thrill Escapes, the first student-designed, student-built and student-operated non-profit escape room in the country, and LiRA, which provides lip-reading technology to empower voiceless individuals and advance the standard of medical care, will be featured along with 23 other exhibits from ACC universities. Each startup will run an interactive installation demonstrating innovative impact.
“Innovate Carolina has participated in all three ACCelerate Festivals of Creativity and Innovation,” says Kimi Yingling, Innovate Carolina’s student engagement and events program manager. “It’s a great opportunity for students, faculty members and staff from all schools in the conference to network, while highlighting the changemakers, entrepreneurs and inventors within their institution.”
Innovate Carolina collaborated with Chapel Thrill Escapes and LiRA to prepare their applications for the festival and create the designs of their interactive exhibits.
“There are many opportunities for student startups that attend to collaborate, and their projects gain so much attention,” says Yingling. “This year there is also a student fellowship for ACC teams that work together on future projects. Even though it’s March and we see a lot of competition between these schools on the basketball court, it’s great to see the benefits of these students teaming up. It is also a chance to highlight that there is a lot more to the ACC than sports.”
Chapel Thrill Escapes provides a unique escape-room experience for students, friends and families. Launched in fall 2019, the group partnered with UNC Chapel Hill’s BeAM makerspaces to access additional resources to create the physical space and to find ways to offer an innovative experience at a lower production cost. The room is located in Chapel Hill and offers both in-person and online activities. Chapel Thrill Escapes was co-founded by UNC-Chapel Hill students Cameron Champion, Hunter Davis, Dan Hirst and Philip Smart.
“We are so excited to participate in the ACCelerate Festival as it is an opportunity for us to show our team’s hard work and creativity beyond the borders of Chapel Hill” says Sameer Rao, a student member of the Chapel Thrill Escapes team. “We believe the festival will drive our brand forward and promote the incredible achievements of Chapel Hill students – building the nation’s first student-run escape room. The ACCelerate Festival will open new doors and spark new conversations, perhaps inspiring new partnerships for our organization or the seeds of the next student-run escape room on another college campus, one of our long-term strategic goals. We are incredibly grateful and excited.”
LiRA develops lip-reading software to empower voiceless individuals and advance the quality of their medical care. During the fall of 2021, the company took home top prize in the Covintus Tech Tank pitch competition, a technology-focused accelerator designed to groom startup founders. LiRA also participated in the Innovate Carolina Carolina Startup Connect summer program and received a sponsorship to hire interns focused on business development, marketing and software development. LiRA was co-founded by Nga Thi Thanh Nguyen, Alison Marie Schaefer, Andres Tello, Andrew Prince and Dina Nailevna Yamaleyeva.
Whether students are looking to launch a venture or just need additional support and mentorship, Innovate Carolina can help through its startup accelerators and venture services. As members of Innovate Carolina’s 1789 hub community, students have access to a team of mentors and a network of tools and resources that can become essential to their entrepreneurial journeys.
“Hours of brainstorming and planning happen behind the scenes to get the event off the ground, but you don’t realize it when you step into the National Museum of American History the weekend of the festival and see two entire floors taken over by ACC groups,” adds Yingling. “Energy is always high during the festival, and there are unlimited products to explore and innovations to learn about. UNC is proud to showcase LiRA and Chapel Thrill Escapes, both very talented student groups who are part of the 1789 community.”
Want to check out the exhibits in person? The three-day event is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day.
| UNC-CH