Marc Gyongyosi's Startup Success Featured in Northwestern Magazine

EECS undergraduate CS student Marc Gyongyosi has always had that entrepreneurial vibe, which the Senior, shares with his partners, doctoral CS students Nathan Matsuda and Siddarth Jain. The team operates IFM (short for Intelligent Flying Machines) out of The Garage, Northwestern’s hub for student innovation and entrepreneurship. The incubator provides an environment for students from throughout the University to experiment, collaborate, innovate and dream up new ideas and make them happen.

IFM, a data analytics company, is using flying robots to revolutionize the warehouse inventory tracking process. Using cutting-edge computer vision software, IFM’s robots have the unique ability to fly fully autonomously — without a human operating them — indoors, “which enables us to capture centimeter-accurate sensor data in all kinds of indoor spaces,” Gyongyosi says. The flying robots scan the boxes and racks overnight or between workers’ shifts. IFM processes that data and compares it with inventory lists using warehouse management software. The system provides error alerts, and that data is available to warehouse managers on their computers and viewable by workers via tablets at the end of each aisle. “We make sure that everything’s at the right location at all times,” he says.

IFM is one of 60 student-founded startups and six student groups— representing 238 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students from across Northwestern — working out of the 11,000-square-foot space on the second floor of the North Campus Parking Garage. In total, more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff visit The Garage each month for classes, office hours and events on entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Garage, inspired in part by the success of 1871, the tech incubator headed by Northwestern alumnus Howard Tullman ’67, ’70 JD in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, is part of the University’s mission to create a culture of entrepreneurship, as outlined in the University’s strategic plan. The one-stop startup shop opened in June 2015.

Read More from the featured article by Northwestern Magazine, titled, "From the Ground Up"