Penn State News

Throughout 2025, Berks LaunchBox continued accelerating startup growth in the Berks County community. In the last year, Berks LaunchBox assisted 277 entrepreneurs, taught new skills to 713 community members in its Makerspace, offered entrepreneurship classes to 540 community members, supported entrepreneurs and organizations in building 31 prototypes, and impacted 364 students.

Invent Penn State’s Dare to Disrupt podcast will celebrate its 50th episode with a live episode recording featuring Penn State alumna, creative entrepreneur, content creator and professional perfumer Asia Grant on Thursday, April 9, at Struthers Auditorium in the Smeal Business Building.

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, students and community members gathered at Penn State Lehigh Valley on March 27 for a hands-on workshop exploring how artificial intelligence can be used to strengthen business strategy, improve decision-making and expand capacity for small teams.

As a kickoff to Penn State Startup Week, six student teams pitched their startups to a panel of judges, competing for prizes totaling $35,500 in funding in the 2026 Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition. SlammedU, a startup founded by Smeal College of Business student Niklas Restrepo, won first place and $15,000.

Penn State has named the inaugural Innovation to Impact Awards recipients, recognizing faculty, researchers, entrepreneurs and partners whose work exemplifies the University’s commitment to translating research into real-world impact.