Columbia Entrepreneurship

AI and Entrepreneurship Talk: Parag Agrawal, Parallel.ai CEO and Cofounder
2026-02-05 11:00 - 12:00 UTC
The Columbia Engineering AI Entrepreneurship Series is a bi-weekly speaker series that brings students and faculty at Columbia together with founders, VCs, technologists, and business leaders to learn about the process of transitioning lessons from research and the classroom into products and value.

This week join to hear from:

Parag Agrawal, Parallel.ai CEO and Cofounder
11AM February 05, 2026 Davis Auditorium
Parag Agrawal is the founder of Parallel Web Systems, a company unlocking the web for AI agents. Previously, he spent 11 years at Twitter, where he joined as an engineer before serving as CTO, and then CEO. Parag has a PhD from Stanford University in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Bombay.

Application Deadline: Startup Works
2026-02-06
Startup Works is a practical 6-session workshop series in the spring semester that creates inclusive entrepreneurship opportunities for justice-impacted people forming teams with others with diverse perspectives and experiences, to work together on launching a startup or a small business.
This is your last chance to learn in-person about Startup Works and network to find other team members!
Applications are open and are due on Friday, February 6. Accepted teams and small business founders can expect workshops to take place on Wednesdays at 6 PM beginning on Wednesday, February 18. Justice-impacted community members* and Columbia University affiliates^ are invited to join to learn more and to prepare to apply.

Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change 2026 Annual Reception
2026-02-23 18:00 - 20:00
You are cordially invited to join the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change for an evening of networking and socializing with fellow alumni, faculty members, students, and professionals in social and environmental impact sectors.
At this year’s event, the Tamer Institute will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. During the evening’s remarks, we will reflect on a decade of pioneering ventures that have driven sustainable innovation and social impact. The program will include remarks from our honorees on their venture and founder journeys.
Reserve your spot →

February 27 Lecture Series in AI: Ali Farhadi, CEO of AI2
2026-02-27 10:30 - 12:00
Columbia Engineering Lecture Series in AI
Friday, February 27: Ali Farhadi, CEO of Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) & Professor, University of Washington

10:30-11:00am Check-in
11:00-12:00pm Lecture

Advance registration is required for both Columbia affiliates and non-affiliates
REGISTER HERE
ABOUT THE LECTURE
“What is the Language Model of a Crow?”
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ali Farhadi is the CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and a Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Ali has been a professor at the UW Allen School since 2012. He first joined Ai2 in 2015 to lead the institute’s computer vision research team with a focus on visual common-sense reasoning and the role of actions and interactions in visual understanding. While at Ai2, he co-founded Xnor.ai, the first on-device deep learning startup that was acquired by Apple in 2020. Ali led Apple’s next-generation machine learning efforts until 2023 when he rejoined Ai2 as CEO in July. Ali’s research impact has been globally recognized with several best paper awards at CVPR, NeruIPS, AAAI, NSF Career Award, and the Sloan Fellowship, and he was named one of Forbes’s Top 5 AI Entrepreneurs in 2018.

Application Deadline: Tamer Fund for Social Ventures
2026-03-01
Are you a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid early-stage social or environmental venture with  Columbia affiliation? Apply by March 1 for a chance to receive a $25K seed grant!

This fund provides $25K seed grants to nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid early-stage social and environmental ventures. Ventures must be led by Columbia University students, alumni, faculty or researchers, or be advised and have significant involvement by Columbia University faculty or researchers. Tamer Fund seed grants will be made to approximately seven ventures each year.

Before applying to the fund, watch this short video for all the essentials.

Apply by March 1

Sign up for an info session

Join Karen Hasher, program manager, on Zoom to learn about the application process and ask questions

Sign up for Feb 3 from 6 to 7 PM
Sign up for Feb 19 from 12 to 1 PM

Questions? Email tamersvfund@gmail.com.

Applications Open for the 2026-2027 Cohort of the Columbia Startup Lab
2026-03-01
The Columbia Startup Lab in SoHo is headquarters to 100 alumni entrepreneurs each year.

More information will be released on March 1, when the application opens.

Open House, March 5, 2026 - Columbia Startup Lab in SoHo
2026-03-05 18:00 - 19:00
The Columbia Startup Lab opens its doors to a new group of Alumni ventures! Applications are open March 1 through March 31. Join us for an information session. Meet the team, and founders, and ask us any questions you may have about the Lab. Space is limited! Please only sign up if you are eligible for the 2026-2027 cohort.
Please note that there will be two sessions, so be sure to mark the dates! As we have a waitlist, please do let us know if you’re unable to make it so we can accept waitlisters.
RSVP Here

The Insider Conversation with Founders x Ventures
2026-03-24 16:00 - 19:30
Curious what really happens behind the scenes in startups and healthcare venture? Join Columbia Healthcare Ventures on March 24 for an interactive evening with founders and investors who are building, backing, and scaling innovation in real time.
This isn’t a panel — it’s small-group, discussion-based sessions where you’ll sit face-to-face with founders and VCs, ask your questions, and get unfiltered insights. We’ll wrap up with a networking reception so you can continue the conversation and make meaningful connections.
RSVP here: https://luma.com/vzhr4bfq

Columbia Startup Lab Open House, March 26, 2026
2026-03-26 18:00 - 19:00
The Columbia Startup Lab opens its doors to a new group of Alumni ventures!

Applications are open March 1 through March 31.
Join us for an information session to meet the team, connect with current founders, and ask questions about the Lab. Space is limited. Only guests who RSVP in advance will be admitted to the space. Please only sign up if you are eligible for the 2026–2027 cohort.
RSVP for the Open House on Thursday, March 26 here.

Columbia Engineering Lecture Series in AI
2026-03-27 10:30 - 12:00
“Integrating Past and Present in Continual Learning”
Continual learning aims to bridge the gap between typical human and machine-learning environments. The continual setting does not have separate training and testing phases, and instead models are evaluated online while learning novel concepts and tasks. The most capable current AI systems struggle to learn new knowledge sequentially without forgetting old ones. Challenging research questions include how to rapidly assess a learner system’s abilities and how to most efficiently train it to improve on a sequence of tasks. I will describe recent progress on these questions, across various research groups in ARNI, our NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence. Finally we will consider open issues and challenges in continual learning.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Richard Zemel is the Trianthe Dakolias Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University. He is the Director of the NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI), and was the co-founder and inaugural Research Director of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. His awards include an AI Lifetime Achievement Award (CAIA) and a Pioneer of AI Award (NVIDIA). His research contributions include foundational work on systems that learn useful representations of data with little or no supervision; graph-based machine learning; and algorithms for fair and robust machine learning.
Register here

Application Deadline: Columbia Startup Lab SoHo, 2026-2027
2026-03-31
Applications are now open for the Columbia Startup Lab!
Grow your venture with tailored programming, subsidized space, and a vibrant community of Columbia entrepreneurs – applications are now live for the Columbia Startup Lab through March 31. Questions about the CSL? Join us for an Open House on Thursday, March 5, for a chance to meet the team, see the space, and hear from a few resident ventures.
RSVP here
Note: We have a second Open House on Thursday, March 26
Can’t make an Open House? Get a feel for the space with this video.

Application Deadline: Spring 2026 Start Me Up Bootcamp with Columbia Engineering
2026-04-10
Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week hybrid program designed to build your startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews, attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs.
Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps students and researchers identify new ways to apply research to solve global challenges. Teams that complete this bootcamp may be eligible to receive conference travel or stipend funding, including eligibility to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program. Click here to explore eligibility and expectations.
Spring 2026 Dates
April 24, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
May 1, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
May 8, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Rolling admissions, apply by April 10th

Data Science and AI Exchange 2026
2026-04-14
Join the Data Science Institute on April 14th to explore how leaders across academia, industry, and government are shaping the future of Responsible AI.
Learn more.

IDE x CORE Entrepreneurship in Hard Tech: A Conversation with Alumni Founders
2026-04-14 17:30 - 19:30
Join Columbia Engineering and CORE for a candid look at building a hard-tech startup before the pitch decks and headlines. Hear from young Columbia founders about ideation, finding mentors and co-founders, testing early ideas, and navigating the early stages of a tech venture as Columbia students. The talk will feature Vignesh Karthik and Valentina Marini Fichera, and will be moderated by Katherine Brown, SEAS ’28.
This event will include Q&A, networking and mentorship opportunities, and dinner will be provided.
When: April 14, 2026, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Where: Columbia Engineering, Mudd Building, Carleton Commons

RSVP

AI with a Soul: Guardrails, Access, and the Future of Healthcare
2026-04-17 09:00 - 14:00
Friday, April 17th
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

The Forum at Columbia University
601 W. 125th Street, NYC

The 2026 HPM Healthcare Conference will focus on AI and humanity, exploring how artificial intelligence can advance healthcare while preserving equity, trust, and human-centered care. Through a keynote and morning panel, we will examine what AI can do and how it should be responsibly implemented in public health, health systems, and communities.

The Keynote Address will be given by Renée Cummings.

The Morning Panel will feature Divya Pathak, Deepesh Chandra, and Dr. Remle Newton-Dame. Moderated by Professor Thalia Porteny.

A lunch reception will follow, featuring a poster showcase that highlights the work of current Columbia Public Health students.
Register Here

Lecture Series in AI: Byron Cook, PhD, VP/Distinguished Scientist, Amazon-AWS
2026-04-17 10:30 - 12:00
Schedule:
10:30-11:00am Check-in
11:00-12:00pm Lecture
Advance registration required for both Columbia non-affiliates and Columbia affiliates.
About the Speaker
Byron Cook is a vice president and distinguished scientist at Amazon, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and a professor at the University College London (UCL). He is well-known for his work on automatic methods for proving program term ination and the Terminator termination prover, showcasing that automatic termination proving was impossible. He contributed to Microsoft’s SLAM and Static Driver Verifier. Bryan Cook revived automatic program verification research in various ways and founded Amazon’s Automated Reasoning Group (ARG). He has received multiple awards for his research contributions, notably the Roger Needham Award and the distinction of Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
About the Lecture
“Neurosymbolic AI at AWS”
This talk will discuss work at AWS to bring the power of agentic/generative AI with the safety and correctness of formal reasoning.
Campus Access
In accordance with the University’s current visitor guidelines, all non-Columbia guests will receive a QR code within a few hours of the event date. The code will be sent to you via email from CU Guest Access and must be presented for campus entry, along with a government-issued ID.
Accessibility
Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend an event at Columbia University, please contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or access@columbia.edu.
Photography/Videography
Columbia Engineering reserves the right to capture and use images (including video, photo, audio) of student participants at this event in its current or future marketing materials. These materials include but are not limited to: social media, digital and/or print posters, email and web-based materials. By attending and participating in this event, you are consenting to having your image captured for these purposes. If you have concerns about your likeness being used, please reach out to engineeringcommunications@columbia.edu and we will accommodate your request.

CVC Presents: 2026 NYC Venture Community Monthly Networking Happy Hours (April, FinTech)
2026-04-21 18:00 - 19:00
Tuesday, April 21 | 6 PM EST
Penny Farthing, 103 3rd Avenue, NYC, NY 10003
Columbia Venture Community is pleased to invite you to a Networking and Social Event in support of our NYC venture community! Come out and join us for drinks and socializing with the goal of meeting and supporting the many entrepreneurs and investors in our community. This event is open to all. We look forward to seeing you there!
RSVP

Funding Opportunity: Ignition Grants 2026
2026-04-30
Ignition grants assist Columbia University engineering students in launching new businesses, social and not-for-profit ventures. Ignition grants support the initial stages of early venture development from formation, IP protection, and incubation to building prototypes and creating proofs of concept. Teams that have won the Technology Challenge or received Ignition Grants in the past will not be eligible. Applicants must have a current SEAS student on the team to apply. Teams who applied to Startup Columbia Round 2 in the Tech Challenge are welcome to update their applications before resubmitting.
Deadline: Friday, April 30
APPLY HERE

Deadline: Columbia Build Lab Application
2026-05-10
Columbia Build Lab (CBL) matches Columbia students pursuing Computer Science (or related degrees) with CBS student-founders of an early-stage startup. Engineers in the Build Lab program gain experience working to solve real-world challenges with teams of peers and CBS founders. This is an excellent opportunity for any engineering or computer science student looking to gain valuable experience this Fall! Submit your application to the Spring 2026 cohort before May 10th!

CVC-NY Presents: Incubation Night (May 14, 2026)
2026-05-14 19:00 - 21:00
Details: If you have ideas with a potentially viable business model or just want to hear what people are working on, join the Columbia Venture Community at our Quarterly CVC Incubation Night! This event puts entrepreneurs, “idea people,” and connectors in a room to engage in intense, non-stop collaboration on how to start and grow a venture.
RSVP

Founded in 2006, Columbia Venture Community (CVC) is a private, global network of more than 7,500 Columbia University alumni, students, and staff who are interested in all aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Join the Community Here

CVC Presents: 2026 NYC Venture Community Monthly Networking Happy Hours (May, AI)
2026-05-19 18:00 - 19:00
Columbia Venture Community is pleased to invite you to a Networking and Social Event in support of our NYC venture community! Come out and join us for drinks and socializing with the goal of meeting and supporting the many entrepreneurs and investors in our community. This event is open to all. We look forward to seeing you there!

RSVP TBA

CVC Presents: 2026 NYC Venture Community Monthly Networking Happy Hours (June, Crypto and Web3)
2026-06-16 18:00 - 19:00
