The Blazer App Accelerator (BAA), a new program designed to jumpstart software innovation across the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus, has its first cohort.
The BAA is a partnership between UAB’s Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HIIE) and Birmingham-based Harmony Venture Labs (HVL).
The BAA’s first cohort will include 11 participants from various UAB departments and schools, including the Heersink School of Medicine, the Graduate School, the Collat School of Business and ArtPlay Community Education. 
Some participants include:
- Dylan Ferniany, “Vocabby’s World”
- Lillian Hewitt, “The Mentor App”
- Daniel Tyrrell, “Cell Analyzer for Flow Experiments”
- Ryan Melvin, “AI-Assisted Tools for Integrating Literature into Research and Education”
- Abdulhakim Tlimat, “ICU Remote Monitoring and Real Time Quality Metrics”
- Javier Neyra, “Multimodal Data Pipelines to Enhance CRRT Deliverables and Patient Outcomes: Software for CRRT Machine Insights”
- Liz Worthey, “EmpowerME: Precision personalized insights for ME/CFS”
- Cori Perdue, “The DISC Experience: VR Training for Effective Communication”
- Rahul Sharma, “Multi-Modal AI Agent Based Platform for Data-Centric Biomedical and Clinical Discoveries”
- Kristine Lokken, “Precision Brain Health (PBH) Program Online Course”
Participants in the Blazer App Accelerator will go through HVL’s AppThink program, which includes an entrepreneurship curriculum that will help UAB software and app creators validate their ideas and create prototypes ready for the next step of development.
The BAA was created to encourage and support UAB software innovators, providing them with opportunities for success.
The HIIE team expects those who complete the BAA program to apply for the Blazer Bridge Fund, which is administrated by the HIIE and is intended to identify and assist in the development of promising ideas, discoveries, innovations and/or technologies from UAB faculty and staff that have commercial potential.
To find out more about the BAA program, visit the Blazer App Accelerator webpage. More information about the Blazer Bridge Fund program is available here.
-- Updated Feb. 12, 2025