awards

Competitive grants, venture awards, and scholarships totalling $90,000, spanning research commercialization, entrepreneurship, and mentorship.

Ninety thousand dollars in competitive awards across federal research commercialization, university venture competitions, and scholarships. Most of it went to moving additive manufacturing research out of the laboratory and toward a product.

NSF I-Corps Team Award

$50,000 · National Science Foundation · Great Lakes Regional I-Corps Hub, completed 1 June 2023

National Science Foundation I-Corps certificate awarded to Tanvir Shanto for the Great Lakes Regional I-Corps Hub Program, dated 1 June 2023
NSF I-Corps, Great Lakes Regional Hub Program.

Awarded for High-Performance 3D-Printed Plastic Parts Through Novel Process Enhancement.

The I-Corps programme funds customer discovery rather than laboratory work: the team conducts structured interviews with potential customers to test whether a technology solves a problem someone will actually pay for. For this project it meant taking the in-situ annealing printhead out of the university and validating where improved z-direction strength changes a buying decision, then turning that evidence into product requirements and qualification criteria.

Directly informed the commercialization roadmap at Increscent, Inc..

Maverick Business Pitch Competition

$35,000 venture award · The University of Texas at Arlington

Two Maverick Business Pitch Competition cheque presentations, for $10,000 and $25,000, awarded for Outstanding Business Pitch under the Maverick Entrepreneurship Program
Two Outstanding Business Pitch awards under the Maverick Entrepreneurship Program: $10,000 and $25,000.

Two Outstanding Business Pitch awards, $10,000 and $25,000, under the Maverick Entrepreneurship Program. Judged on technical innovation, commercialization strategy, and presentation.

Wheelwright Foundation Scholarship

$2,000 · Wheelwright Foundation · 2023

Awarded in support of graduate study in mechanical engineering.

I-ENGAGE Student Mentorship Program

$2,000 stipend · The University of Texas at Arlington · completed 9 August 2023

University of Texas at Arlington I-ENGAGE Mentoring Program certificate awarded to Tanvir Ahmed Shanto in cooperation with the Graduate School, dated 9 August 2023
I-ENGAGE Mentoring Program, in cooperation with the UTA Graduate School.

Selected to mentor undergraduate researchers in technical concepts, research methods, and problem-solving, guiding them through the shift from coursework to open-ended research.

Blackstone LaunchPad Campus Award

$1,000 · Blackstone LaunchPad · 2022

Early-stage campus award supporting the venture that became Increscent, Inc.

Patents and recognition

The underlying research also produced one granted and one pending U.S. patent. See the patents page.