Media Mentions

Anshul Shah and Brandon Yates, co-founders of the EnterpriseWorks startup graduate DeepWalk, have been named to  2025 Forbes 30 Under 30- Transportation and Mobility list. DeepWalk was launched out of the University of Illinois in 2019 to improve sidewalks with planning software and make it easier for cities to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The company operated out of EnterpriseWorks from 2021 to 2023 before relocating to Chicago, Illinois. Using iPhone LiDAR scanners, DeepWalk’s platform allows city maintenance staff to quickly assess sidewalks for accessibility. The software generates planning, construction and maintenance documents that cut down the time and cost to make sidewalks ADA-compliant. Since its founding, DeepWalk has raised $2 million and worked with 39 cities, counties, universities and state transportation departments to inspect 1,600 miles of sidewalks. Shah and Yates are joining an esteemed group of EnterpriseWorks startup founders previously named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. They include Natrion‘s Alex Kosyakov, Ascent Integrated Tech’s Paul Couston, IntelliWheels‘ Scott Daigle, Psyonic‘s Patrick Slade, and Electrolinks‘ Brett Walker. View the entire 30 under 30: Transportation and Mobility list on the Forbes website.

In a recent Forbes article, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was highlighted as the artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse of the Midwest. Research Park propels AI innovation through its many AI startups, corporate innovation sites supporting AI projects, community groups, and more. Nancy Amato, Interim Director of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, said that the U of I is “a place where industry comes to do cutting-edge research,” a capability that is made easier by the Research Park.  “[The University of Illinois] [is] the bridge between foundational research and corporate breakthroughs.” Many Research Park corporate offices work on projects related to AI: NVIDIA, Capital One, Synchrony, and others hire interns and full-time staff dedicated to this emerging technology. The Research Park’s incubator, EnterpriseWorks, is the home to several startups specializing in AI, including AI Nexus Healthcare, ClimeCast, Identomat, Kocree, Maxflow Technology, and Zite AI. The Research Park also fosters community around AI topics. The “Working with AI” User Group meets monthly to discuss new applications and implications of AI. This group provides a platform for learning, networking, and collaboration among individuals and organizations working with AI or looking to get started in this field. The Forbes article featured EnterpriseWorks startup and graduate Reconstruct and Prenosis as AI entrepreneurs. Reconstruct, a company that uses AI tools to analyze construction data, currently has an engineering office in EnterpriseWorks. Startup graduate Prenosis, now located in Chicago, uses AI to tailor health care to an individual’s biology. Read the entire article on the Forbes website.

EnterpriseWorks startup HabiTerre‘s model for quantification of agricultural greenhouse gas sinks and sources was approved by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) under their Soil Enrichment Protocol (SEP). This model is used as part of HabiTerre‘s advanced system-of-systems modeling approach. It comprehensively models the interplay of energy, water, carbon, and nutrient cycles in aboveground and belowground environments. HabiTerre has adapted and maintained a scalable version of ecosys to support the quantification of greenhouse gas and soil carbon outcomes from agricultural practices. The Climate Action Reserve is the most trusted, efficient and experienced offset registry for global carbon markets. CAR establishes rigorous standards to support and promote climate change solutions that benefit economies, ecosystems and society. “This milestone is just one of many more to come from the team at HabiTerre, where we are fully dedicated to supporting scalable and efficient solutions to drive maximum impact and value to farmers, paving the way for high-quality environmental market opportunities,” said Nick Reinke, CEO of HabiTerre. HabiTerre is a farming financial risk modeling company. The HabiTerre team is dedicated to making the world a better and more habitable place by advancing sustainable agriculture and land stewardship with a holistic systems approach to farm productivity and resource use efficiency. Learn more about CAR and this milestone on the HabiTerre website.