Illustration of business startup activities

Empowering Entrepreneurs

WPI launches mentoring and support community for university inventors
February 10, 2026
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Ardian Preci works with student startups.

Ardian Preci

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Terry Adams leads WPI startup activities.

Terry Adams

A newly unified support system and online community for WPI entrepreneurs is aiming to connect student and faculty inventors to outside advisors who can help turn discoveries into commercial success stories.

ACIS—which stands for Advising, Connecting, Innovating, and Supporting—brings together WPI offices that support entrepreneurism among students and faculty members. The initiative also revives the university’s use of StartupTree, an online platform that makes it possible for WPI inventors to connect with alumni, mentors, and potential industry partners.

“WPI has a history of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators through multiple offices and programs, and ACIS brings all of that support together under one banner,” says Terry Adams, director of the Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 

“ACIS is not a new program,” says Ardian Preci, director of innovation and entrepreneurship programs for The Business School. “It’s marshalling WPI’s existing resources to help entrepreneurs, whether they are faculty members or students, launch their business ideas.”

Innovation and entrepreneurship at WPI flows from the university’s standing as an R1 institution and a leading science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) university with an emphasis on solving real-world problems. 

Undergraduates conduct independent research, often in interdisciplinary teams, as a requirement for graduation. Students also have access to entrepreneurial education through The Business School, which bridges business and technology to prepare future leaders of the tech economy. 

Beginning Quote Icon of beginning quote
WPI has a history of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators through multiple offices and programs, and ACIS brings all of that support together under one banner. Beginning Quote Icon of beginning quote
  • Terry Adams
  • Director, Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Faculty-led startups emerge from multiyear research projects supported by corporate, state, federal, and philanthropic funders. During the academic year that ended June 30, 2025, WPI expenditures on research totaled $79.2 million, including university seed grants awarded to faculty members.

Student and faculty ideas have led to diverse startups focused on everything from recycling to artificial intelligence (AI). Ascend Elements, a lithium-ion battery materials company, traces its roots to a startup co-founded in 2015 by Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Cyvl, a data company powered by artificial intelligence, was founded in 2021 to map public infrastructure after Daniel Pelaez ’20 discovered during a summer job that towns had no good digital technology to map problems such as potholes and broken signs.

“Startups launched with technology that traces back to WPI currently employ more than 500 employees and have raised more than $1.7 billion in capital,” Adams says.

During an event to launch ACIS in November at WPI’s Innovation Studio, representatives from the newest wave of student and faculty startups briefly pitched their ideas to WPI faculty, students, staff, alumni, and outside advisers. Student startup ideas ranged from Braille language instruction technology to online business tools for contractors. Faculty members pitched startups focused on advanced materials and energy, sustainable construction, and precision manufacturing. 

The next ACIS event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 11, 2026, at the Innovation Studio.

To build the ACIS network of advisors and mentors, organizers are seeking individuals with industry or startup experience, alumni interested in mentoring, experts in STEM fields, and people from the investment industry who are interested in getting an early look at startup opportunities. Those who volunteer will have a chance to give back to WPI, network, and shape new ventures.

Preci says the next step for ACIS, as it builds out its network, will be to bring startup advisors and business mentors together with students and faculty members on StartupTree. 

“The important thing is to connect our student and faculty entrepreneurs with people outside of WPI who can provide expert feedback on ideas and connect our community to the resources that will launch innovations into the marketplace,” Preci says.

Learn More

Interested in becoming an ACIS advisor, mentor, or outside participant? Sign up on WPI's StartupTree. Contact Terry Adams, director of the Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Attend an ACIS event.

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