06/01/2026
🌱💡 💼 DOING THE STARTUP THING!
𝐍𝐢𝐫𝐛𝐡𝐢𝐤 𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞 and 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝 pitched innovative AI-supported applications as part of a new competition hosted by LU’s Venture Center. 🤖 🧠
Collaborating with a friend from Austin, Nirbhik completed a finished usable product, CLOSEGRADE, an AI-powered training and evaluation platform built to help industrial contractors train teams faster, improve customer convos, and support business growth in specialty services, such as refineries and petrochemical plants.
🤷♂️ ❌ “There is a misconception of ‘we need to know everything about the industry’ before starting a project. But it turns out that's not true at all,” Nirbhik says. “True problems are found when you talk to your customers, not when you sit at your desk and just learn about the industry. Taking my own project to this level was a proud moment for me.”
Saad shared his venture, PATHOVISION AI, as part of his ongoing undergrad research developing and testing artificial intelligence models to detect cancer cells, with a current focus on Metastatic Lung cancer cells, under mentor Dr. Ian Lian.
🌎 💥 “Although PathoVision AI is not a real company, it was exciting to transform my ongoing research into a startup-style concept and explore its potential real-world impact,” Saad says. “The event helped me think more critically about both the scientific and entrepreneurial sides of AI in healthcare.”
Proud of both of you for transforming your classroom learning into ideas with potential for commercialization!!!
🔗 Nirbhik’s venture is live at https://closegrade.com/
Lamar University College of Arts & Sciences
