3 days ago
App that uses AI to boost caregiving for seniors wins PCI pitch competition at Philly Tech Week
Penn startup Sync Labs, which is developing a new AI solution to improve caregiving for seniors, won the pitch competition at the 'Innovate & Inspire: Research Panel & Pitch Competition' event during Philly Tech Week. The event was hosted by the Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), Pennovation Works and Philadelphia Alliance for Capital & Technologies (PACT).
Sync Labs, a graduate of the Penn I-Corps Program and a 2025 President's Innovation Prize winner, was founded by Penn Engineering students Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist and Alexandra Popescu, with mentorship from Jeffrey Babin, Professor of Practice and Associate Director of Engineering Entrepreneurship at Penn Engineering.
Sync Labs utilizes AI and privacy-focused edge computing to address key problems faced by caregivers. Navigating potential blind spots in care and reading time-consuming documentation can lead to caregiver burnout, reduced quality of personalized attention and increased health risks. To address this, Sync Labs's technology uses discreet, AI-powered sensors and an app to privately track seniors' daily activities, giving caregivers real-time insights and saving time on manual recording.
Early pilots at assisted living facilities have shown that caregivers using Sync Labs' technology can see three times more seniors per day while providing enhanced personalized care.
'Aging is something most of us will all go through, and it is an experience where people can unfortunately lose their independence, something I can understand from being a patient myself,' said Herbert, as per Penn Today. 'Caregivers need our support in meeting the growing number of seniors so they can always give the best, most personalized care.'
With an aging population and rising caregiver workloads, Sync Labs fills a critical need for tech-driven support that enhances care quality, preserves seniors' independence and reduces burnout among those on the front lines of eldercare. The company aims to continue working towards this solution by further refining their product, running additional pilots to gather real-world feedback and securing the funding needed to support scalable growth.
Penn MedTech spinouts help promote healing and protect health
Prior to the Philly Tech Week pitch competition, a panel was held with early-stage venture capital investors to discuss current investment trends across industries.
Bianca Schilling, chief of staff and investor at Apprentis Ventures, Brett Topche, managing director at Red & Blue Ventures and Manny Stockman, partner at Osage University Partners, spoke about their individual decision-making processes around investing in technologies and answered audience questions about startup funding.
Also presenting at the pitch competition was Airalux, another Penn I-Corps graduate co-founded by Penn Engineering alum Josh Freedman and advised by Jeffrey Babin and Dr. Andrew Tsourkas, Professor of Bioengineering at Penn Engineering. Airalux is tackling the challenge of managing post-surgical breathing exercises, which are critical for patient recovery but are often overlooked or inconsistently followed, resulting in health complications.
To solve this medical problem, Airalux is developing a smart, user-friendly device designed to help patients adhere to prescribed breathing exercises and provide real-time feedback to healthcare providers, improving recovery outcomes and reducing complications. The device aims to integrate seamlessly into clinical workflows, empowering both patients and clinicians with actionable insights to support recovery.
Another participant in the pitch competition was Neuralert, a Penn startup developing products for life-saving stroke detection, cofounded by Dr. Steven Messe, Professor of Neurology at Penn Medicine and Dr. James Weimer, PhD, formerly faculty at Penn Engineering and now Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University.
According to the American Stroke Association, on average 1.9 million brain cells die every minute that a stroke goes untreated. To combat this, Neuralert has developed a lightweight, non-invasive wristband capable of detecting signs of stroke within as little as 15 minutes, which has the potential to dramatically reduce treatment delays, improve outcomes and save lives. The technology is designed for continuous monitoring in hospital settings, offering clinicians an early-warning system to initiate timely interventions.
A chance to pitch in the big leagues
As winner of the competition, Sync Labs received direct entry to present in October at PACT's Mid-Atlantic Capital Conference, where the team will pitch to a panel of seasoned investors and industry leaders. Looking to the future, PCI is excited to host additional programs highlighting innovation and entrepreneurial activity at Penn during Philly Tech Week in 2026 and will continue scheduling commercialization education sessions throughout the year. Stay up to date on PCI's commercialization activities here.
