Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Gabriel is a digital tech evangelist, community builder, and people connector. He is also the co-founder of AudioStaq, a publishing and monetization platform for podcasters. Gabriel is a contributor to Technically Baltimore and former Editor in Chief at BaltimoreGamer.com

Michelle Menard is an award wining game designer, published author (Game Development with Unity), and 10-year veteran of the industry. She has previously worked in both the mobile and AAA market, and as a consultant under Artemic Games, LLC, partnering with other companies to provide core system design, itemization, auditing, and documentation. Once she was invited to the White House to blabber about game design and crowd-sourcing for big data. Michelle is currently the lead designer at Oxide Games, and is also a co-founder of Fishwizard Games, a small boardgame company exploring strategy games set in the Gateway universe. Gateway: Uprising, their first title, is due out in stores Q3 of this year.

Michelle also serves as an adjunct professor at UMBC and SCAD, teaching game design, theory, and game history, and has taught intro C# game development courses for the local non-profit Code in the Schools. She holds a double BA in Applied Mathematics and Music Theory from Brown University, and an MFA in Game and Interactive Design from SCAD.

Our team project, "ABSP - Active Bed Sore Prevention," was a creative concept and prototype model to prevent bed sores through a sensor-based pad that may be placed on an existing patient bed. The idea was to detect the location and magnitude of pressure differences, then use a feedback mechanism to create an air pocket at the target site in order to alleviate the pressure. Our presentation included a consideration of the potential for a large public health impact across the world, as pressure ulcers currently result in a largely preventable mortality risk and incur a heavy economic burden.

David W. Wise is the Director the Maryland Momentum Fund a new initiative of the University System of Maryland (USM) to provide late seed investment funding for promising technology ventures that come out of any of the twelve constituent institutions of the University System or its incubators. Mr. Wise has a business career spanning over thirty years including serving eight and half years as CEO of The Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia an international women's healthcare company with operations in both the US and China of which the Inova Health System was the largest shareholder. In 2014 he decided to shift the focus of his career to helping develop the innovation economy in Maryland. Since 2014 he has been the Venture Advisor to the President of the Abell Foundation on its direct investment program. He is also an advisor to UM Ventures and the Sinai/LifeBridge Health Bioincubator. In addition, he is a member of the Betamore Advisory Board and of the Board of the Maryland Humanities Council and sits on the Bioscience Committee of the Greater Baltimore Committee. He has served as a business competition judge for Accelerate Baltimore, Beta City, and at both the Fischell School in College Park and their School of Medicine of the University of Maryland, among others.

In his position with the Momentum Fund Mr. Wise will be responsible for the review and due diligence and recommendations on investments by the Momentum Fund. In addition, he in conjunction with members of the UM Ventures team, will work with these early stage companies to provide business advice and counseling to help promote their success. Mr. Wise graduated with highest honors from the University of Dayton and received a graduate degree in international business from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Olivia is a Information Security Engineer at Mapbox, She works on securing their cloud infrastructure, ensuring it performs well under high demand, and keeping everyone at Mapbox safe and secure. She also is active in the Baltimore-Washington tech scene and organizes CharmCityJS events in Baltimore, MD. She is a First Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania National Guard, working as their Automation Officer where she plans and supports network and radio communications for 500+ users. Prior to joining Mapbox, Olivia worked with various other companies to improve their security posture through automation, testing, and implementation of security best practices. Olivia can often be found playing video games, cuddling her family of pets, or sharing her love of emojis and gifs to the team. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a focus in cognitive science.

Jung Min Lee is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, where she is currently studying Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science. She first became interested in Biomedical Engineering when she was introduced to a 'lab-on-a-chip' while working in a lab during high school. Her interests have expanded since then to include point of care devices and personalized health care. Jung Min is currently leading a team that is working to develop a microfluidic chip that can serve as a platform for monitoring therapeutic drug levels.

Aleberry, Managing Partner Gira Wieczorek is a founder at Aleberry, a design & strategy firm focused on helping startups navigate the fundraising process with deck strategy & design. She has helped clients raise over $150M in funding. Aleberry works alongside startups, advisors, venture capitalists, and accelerators for demo days, pitch sessions, and investor meetings.

Darius Irani is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, currently studying Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. Originally from Upstate New York, Darius has found his home in Baltimore through involvement in his social start-up Project Charmify that does community development, educational programming, and vacant space activation in neighborhoods across Baltimore. Darius would like to combine his passion for social justice issues and technical interests and skills in STEM, by using Big Data and Machine Learning to have social impact in cities and influence social policy.