Fourth-year nanotechnology engineering (NE) student Alexei Abiiaka is an entrepreneur with his own software start-up called iNano IoT Corp.
Abiiaka was attracted to the NE program in high school because of the diverse opportunities that the program offers from working with circuits and electronics, to lab work and device fabrication in the cleanroom.
“I’m having a great time in Nano! I love the variety of labs we take part in, and we work with equipment that undergraduate students in other departments never get access to,” says Abiiaka. “Our labs get better every year. For example, working in the cleanroom was interesting—it's a rare opportunity.”
Concurrent to his studies, Abiiaka built a start-up called iNano IoT Corp, inspired by software he began developing in high school. The company offers a highly flexible platform that works like a modular system, allowing users to build customized software solutions, without coding.
“Think about the software like a bunch of Lego pieces, and you can use them to build out anything you want with them. That’s how we designed the software.”
The software is applicable to many industries, however Abiiaka chose to focus on animal shelters after discovering how often shelters are overcharged and given poor-quality systems. His first client, an animal shelter he has supported for nearly six years, showed him how underserved the sector is. He now provides complete systems for the shelter for an affordable price.
“We had lots of meetings, and I realized that many companies take advantage of animal shelters. They end up giving them non-usable software, overcharging them, and not providing needed support. I got really frustrated about that because I knew I could do better and help the shelters,” says Abiiaka.
After graduation, Abiiaka will focus on his partnership with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), who is interested in using his software in their shelters across the United States. He will work with them to provide a reliable software platform that will provide reliable tools for shelters to keep track of animal intake, medical history, adoptions and more.
Abiiaka and his team are also branching out, working to develop agricultural technology such as plant sensors as another sector to grow the business.
At the heart of his decisions—both in choosing Nanotechnology Engineering and in building his company—is his desire to help people, create meaningful solutions, and support communities that are often overlooked.