Wearable Haptics Company, Co-founded by Alum, Wins Verizon Prototyping Challenge

With the athletic equipment market gearing up with connected wearables, sensors, monitors, smart watch apps and social media tools, sporting goods stores are as likely to be stocked with gadgets as with tube socks and gym shorts. You may soon be seeing the name REMO Haptics among those products.

Caitlin Sikora, who earned a master’s degree in Integrated Digital Media from NYU Tandon in 2016, is one of the founders of the company, which is developing a “smart” sleeve and insole that use biosensing and haptic feedback to track the movement patterns of the knee and deliver real-time feedback to cyclists, sports trainers, or physical therapists.

This year, REMO Haptics was a winner in the Verizon Connected Futures Prototyping and Talent Development program, which works in partnership with NYC Media Lab and supports the development of new media and technology projects from universities across New York City. Now in its second year, the program also enjoys support from Tandon’s Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications and Distributed Information Systems (CATT).

A “smart” sleeve and insole that use biosensing and haptic feedback to track the movement patterns of the knee and deliver real-time feedback

Sikora, along with Pratt Institute teammates Evan Huggins, Aaron Nesser, and Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, was awarded a portion of the program’s $200,000 prize pool with which to refine their product. The program also provides the company an end-to-end internet of things (IoT) enablement platform, mentorship from Verizon’s IOT Product Development team, and access to Verizon’s Open Innovation Lab.

Verizon is not the only organization to recognize the potential of Sikora and her teammates: earlier this year REMO Haptics was also selected to participate in the latest cohort of the NYC Media Lab’s competitive startup incubator, The Combine, which seeks to coordinate a community of academic researchers, entrepreneurs, media executives, and technologists in building a ‘spin-off engine’ focused on commercializing emerging media technologies.

Learn more about previous winners of the Verizon Connected Futures Prototyping and Talent Development program.