Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees has approved our new name. We are now the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship.

This milestone reflects more than $20 million in cumulative contributions from Richard and Gayle Landuyt, both Class of '78 Illinois alumni, whose landmark investment is expanding entrepreneurship education for students across all majors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The Landuyt Center will have a presence both on the Urbana-Champaign campus and in Chicago at the Discovery Partners Institute, strengthening the innovation pipeline. Stay tuned for what's ahead!

https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/stories/opportunities-illinois-innovators

Congratulations to the newest graduates of the Innovation, Leadership and Engineering Entrepreneurship (ILEE) dual degree program at The Grainger College of Engineering.

You're now part of a community of entrepreneurial-minded innovators who are changing industries, launching ventures and leading teams around the globe.

We can't wait to watch you reach new heights!

200 teams. 300 judges. Endless innovation.

Demo Day 2026, you will not be forgotten. 🌟

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Cozad New Venture Challenge!
Grand Prize — $100,000 (By TechNexus Venture Collaborative): Archean Sciences is building an autonomous system that computes with living neurons to scale human-relevant neuroscience and energy-efficient AI. Neurological conditions are the leading cause of years of life lost globally, yet breakthroughs are slowed by low-throughput, poorly predictive R&D that drives costly delays and high drug failure rates. Archean is changing that.

Archean Sciences also received $10,000 each from Illinois Ventures and Origin Ventures.

Second Place — $50,000: Cephal Corps has developed a portable guidance system that improves accuracy, reduces variability and enables non-specialists to perform life-saving procedures.
Third Place — $25,000: UncertIA is a software middleware layer that helps robot operators reduce energy waste and downtime by optimizing real-time planning decisions, enabling longer missions, higher uptime and lower operating costs. The team also secured $50,000 SAFE investments each from Multimodal Ventures (Chicago) and Pear VC (Silicon Valley).

Runner-up teams each received $5,000:
• Echo Me — Toys that target difficult speech sounds by integrating speech therapy techniques into engaging play
• AI/O — A training platform helping police officers practice high-stakes communications through realistic, repeatable simulations with measurable performance feedback
• Second Chance Innovations — Wearable neuro-rehab devices that detect muscle intent and assist upper-limb movement, enabling higher-intensity therapy for stroke patients
• Dark Matter Robotics — Automation solutions for labs and manufacturing
• Slate AI — Automated video data workflows
This year's Cozad drew a record 350+ teams and 900+ students, the largest in the competition's history. Nearly 200 teams progressed through the competition at pitched at the Demo Day on April 16.
Huge congratulations to every team that competed! Your journey is just getting started.

Thank you to judges, coaches, instructors, partners and sponsors. We couldn't have reached here without your support.

https://tec.illinois.edu/news/82423

Pending Board of Trustees approval, the Technology Entrepreneur Center is now the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship.

This milestone reflects a landmark $20 million commitment from alumni Richard and Gayle Landuyt to advance entrepreneurship education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The investment accelerates startup creation, the commercialization of university innovations and deepens student and faculty engagement.

A defining component: a permanent Chicago presence at the Discovery Partners Institute, forming a strengthened innovation corridor that connects Illinois' world-class engineering, business, and research talent to Chicago's startup, corporate and venture capital ecosystem.

In addition to supporting the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship programs and activities, the investments fund the Landuyt Center director position and previously endowed the first joint chair between The Grainger College of Engineering and Gies College of Business.

"Illinois alumni have a long history of launching companies that change the world. This commitment from the Landuyts ensures that tradition not only continues, but that it accelerates,” said Jed Taylor, Landuyt Executive Director of the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship and Assistant Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “With a permanent presence in Chicago at the Discovery Partners Institute and expanded programming on campus, we're creating an innovation corridor that will fuel Chicago's startup ecosystem and drive high-tech economic growth for decades to come.”

Founded in 2000, the Technology Entrepreneur Center, now known as the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship, is a nationally recognized program offering more than 30 courses, venture competitions and experiential learning opportunities open to students across all majors. The center plays a critical role in preparing students to launch startups, bring innovations to market and lead across industries.

Full story: https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/stories/opportunities-illinois-innovators

7 tips & tricks to make sure you slay on Demo Day ✍️

This is your moment to own the room, tell your story and leave a lasting impression.

Good luck to all Cozad teams—you got this!