Penn State News

The Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference, one of the largest tech startup conferences in the mid-Atlantic, will take place Oct. 16 and 17 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey. The conference will highlight innovations from high-growth and emerging markets, showcase disruptive technologies and early-stage companies born from Penn State research, and feature two special keynote events.

Adelina Hristova, who earned her doctor from the Penn State College of Education in 2016, launched a marketing campaign for her publishing company through Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank's Digital TestLab accelerator program. She also had her company's mascot 3D printed at OriginLabs, Happy Valley's newest prototyping and fabrication space.

The Invent Penn State team has released a free virtual Playbook entitled “Making Entrepreneurship Accessible in Rural America,” which shares the full narrative behind the building of the network, as well as a compilation of insights from network leaders. 

Brad Zdenek has been appointed director of economic development and student programs, effective Sept. 25. Steve Carpenter has been appointed director of research startups, effective Sept. 18.

Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank has accepted eight early-stage business startups into its fall 2023 FastTrack Accelerator program. The startups selected range from glowing soap and a modern color vision test, to a Latin American gaming media group, an arts education company and an adventure STEAM summer camp.