AviaGames, an award-winning mobile games developer, is working with Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and its Product Lab on a new research initiative focused on the potential for mobile skill-based games to impact cognitive engagement and healthy aging.
Congratulations to Duke senior undergraduate student Nick Nease and his team — Kellan Hepditch, Jake Sapp, and Ben Verlander — on advancing to the regional finals of the Stanford Global Sustainability Challenge! Selected from 350 global applicants, their team earned a spot among the top ventures competing in the North America and South America region. This recognition reflects months of thoughtful iteration, deep research, and bold problem-solving focused on accelerating scalable climate solutions.
Duke undergraduate sophomore Neha Jatla recently placed second in the Deloitte Duke Case Competition alongside her teammates Sudiksha Battineni, Sophia Dionello Hinshaw, and Noa Bremen. Neha shared that the EGR 283 Introduction to Product management course played a critical role in preparing her team for success.
Have a startup idea? Or just curious about entrepreneurship? The A. James Clark Scholars Program at Duke presents an interactive Startup Workshop designed to help you refine your ideas, get real feedback, and connect with fellow builders.
Have a software idea you want to bring to life quickly? Interested in learning how AI-powered products are built in the real world? The Duke Christensen Center's Product Lab is offering a NEW summer course EGR 590 - AI Driven Product for Builders.
Are you a Duke student working on a startup, building a technology, or exploring an idea you want to keep moving forward? The Christensen Center is hosting Founders Fridays, a monthly, open mentoring session for student founders during the Spring 2026 semester.
Duke University has received $11 million from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, a private family foundation based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on educating engineers for the most pressing challenges of today. The award brings the foundation’s total support for the program to more than $30 million.
The January 2026 Christensen Family Center for Innovation (CFCI) newsletter celebrates the recent accomplishments of Duke Product Lab teams, highlighting final project demos from Fall 2025 that produced innovative solutions ranging from mobile apps and AI tools to hardware prototypes; and highlights recent student innovators’ stories.
Oluwadarasimi (Dara) Ajiboye, Class of 2028, is a Computer Science major with an Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate who discovered his passion for product management early at Duke and has since built end-to-end PM experience through Product Lab, Code+, and coursework. Now a CFCI Fellow, Dara is excited to give back as a mentor and leader while continuing to grow as a product manager and educator within the Product Lab community.
Student-led startup pursues award-winning treatment for patients with disruptions to their autonomic body processes.
"Joining the Christensen Family Center for Innovation’s Accelerator Program was one of the most exciting parts of my PhD journey. I’ve always loved research, but I’ve also felt a little frustrated that so much great work ends up confined to journal articles instead of being put to use in the real world. That’s actually why I joined the Chilkoti Lab at Duke—because their translational research has a strong track record of spinning out real startups. By the time I reached the final year of my PhD, I was eager to see if my own research could take that path too. The Accelerator seemed like the perfect way to learn how to bridge the gap between the lab and the marketplace."
Christensen Center Product Lab Fellow Jessie Chan combines her passion for psychology, technology, and collaboration to create meaningful solutions, drawing on experiences from Duke’s Product Lab and industry internships to mentor peers and help grow Duke’s culture of product innovation.