Vanderbilt students enrolled in a novel program that helps them commercialize deep-tech prototypes recently showcased their end-of-year projects, each aimed at addressing urgent societal needs.
IMPACT (Innovation, Market-driven Productization, and Commercialization of deep Technologies) is one of the newest programs offered by the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s center for innovation and design. Launched in the fall semester of 2025, IMPACT is open to Vanderbilt undergraduate students across all majors and disciplines and equips them to develop venture-ready solutions to pressing global challenges in four domain areas: healthcare for all humans, ensuring a sustainable planet, innovation beyond Earth, and national security and defense.
Through a multi-year sequence—Uncover, Invent, and Propel—students move from early-stage idea exploration to prototype development and venture creation. Along the way, they gain hands-on experience in design, technology development, market validation, and commercialization while working alongside faculty experts, industry mentors, and experienced entrepreneurs.
The inaugural year of the IMPACT program exceeded expectations, bringing together approximately 60 students across 16 teams to tackle an ambitious range of challenges. Projects spanned topics from in-space supply chain manufacturing to soldier injury-prediction wearables and data center heat-recovery grids—demonstrating both the breadth of student curiosity and the depth of their technical engagement.
On April 16, students showcased projects they developed during the Uncover phase of the program.
“This first year has laid a powerful foundation not just in ideas, but in mindset,” said Kevin Galloway, Evans Family Executive Director of the Wond’ry. “Our students are gaining the tools, confidence, and vision to tackle society’s hardest challenges, and I’m incredibly optimistic about the breakthroughs they’ll create next.”
Tristan Pasquale, a first-year biomedical engineering and pre-med student, said she’s pleased with what she’s learned early on in IMPACT where her focus is on national security and defense. Her project seeks to reduce the strain soldiers often encounter from carrying heavy equipment.
“This program has taught me so much about ventures and how they work,” said Pasquale, who wants to be a neurosurgeon as well as create a startup. “As a doctor, you can see three or four patients every day. But if you make a medical startup, you can impact millions at a time. And that’s the kind of thing I want to do.”
IMPACT will return in fall 2026 and the program team is looking forward to engaging a new cohort of first-year and second-year students, as well as providing them with expert mentoring.
“The program will expand its mentor network, welcoming returning mentors and adding new experts to support both the Uncover and Invent phases, further strengthening the program’s support system and deepening the expertise available to student teams,” said Lindsey Moloney, the Wond’ry’s director of operations.
To learn more or get involved, contact the Wond’ry at thewondry@vanderbilt.edu.