News
Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Missouri Broadband Office Readies Itself to Administer Federal Broadband Funding
On June 3rd the Kansas City Coalition for Digital Inclusion hosted BJ Tanksley, Director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Deployment, who spoke about the upcoming opportunities to use state and federal funds to support digital inclusion efforts throughout the region.
AR/VR Heartland Developer Challenge Demo Day
On February 3rd, KC Digital Drive hosted a demo day at the T-Mobile campus for the Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Heartland Developer Challenge, a year-long program to bring together entrepreneurs, hackers, makers, developers, and other creative minds with the goal of building AR applications that solve local problems. The full list of developers who presented […]
Comeback KC Ventures Announces Its First 7 Fellows
Kansas City innovators get support to accelerate KC’s comeback from COVID-19. Seven Kansas City tech startups have taken the leap to launch new technologies and startups in response to challenges posed by COVID-19 — and have received technical and financial assistance through Comeback KC Ventures. These innovations were conceived after two years of the coronavirus […]
Comeback KC Ventures Program Hosts ‘Business Canvas’ Workshop on Jan 27, 2022
KC Digital Drive will host a virtual workshop on Thursday, Jan. 27, aimed at advancing promising start-up business ideas that surfaced over the past year.
Comeback KC Ventures Holds First Innovation Showcase to Highlight KC Entrepreneurs
On November 11th, the Comeback KC Ventures program held its first Innovation Showcase, highlighting 12 entrepreneurs who are developing new products and services in response to COVID-19. The full list of entrepreneurs who presented can be found below, along with a brief description of their solution and a link to a recording of their presentation. […]
KC Digital Drive Air Sensors Project Named MetroLab Network & GovTech’s Innovation of the Month
KC Digital Drive’s Air Quality Sensors project was recently highlighted as part of MetroLab Network and Government Technology’s Innovation of the Month Series, which highlights impactful tech, data and innovation projects underway between cities and universities. The sensor project is focused on reducing air pollution in COVID-19 hot beds and improving overall air quality using citizen-accessible data and sensors.
Comeback KC Ventures Launches Fellowship Program
KC Digital Drive and the UMKC Innovation Center are seeking to recruit 20 entrepreneurial fellows as part of a project to fund and support innovative solutions for needs exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Civic Innovation Challenge awards $1 million to KC Digital Drive-partnered project to help underrepresented youth access extracurricular learning opportunities
On September 21st, the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the 17 recipients of their Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage 2 Awards. One of the winners was the Connecting Underrepresented Youths with Employment Opportunities, led by the University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. This project, which KC Digital Drive is partnering on, will build and test an integrated mobile application to help underrepresented youth find and access out-of-school-time learning opportunities.
Children’s Mercy is using data to improve the management of diabetes in children
In 2020, Children’s Mercy Hospital received an $8.5 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to form the Rising T1DE Alliance (RTA), an initiative to improve Type 1 Diabetes care by leveraging predictive analytics to improve inform behavioral care interventions and allow for the iterative testing of alternative care pathways.
MoodSpark’s digital companion combats loneliness in seniors by detecting signs of sadness and uplifting with emotional memories and personalized interventions
MoodSpark was founded in 2020 to develop a digital companion for seniors suffering from loneliness, anxiety, and depression. MoodSpark’s companion is designed to detect signs of sadness and distress in elderly patients and respond with emotional memories, personalized conversations, and video visits with friends and family that can help to distract, re-direct, and uplift.