ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
change. Its second contract is focused on decarbonisation in the US southwest through the installation of a network of new carbon capture facilities.
Similarly, other startups benefit from the institute’ s hands-on support in working with municipal partners and securing additional funding to accelerate deployments.“ We try to get projects out to the field faster than they could get there otherwise, providing entrepreneurial assistance beyond just funding,” Gregory says.
Accelerating Sensagrates’ commercial translation Sensagrate is an Arizona startup that has developed a computer vision AI platform that helps improve traffic optimisation and roadway safety, aiming to save lives on roads. It represents what may be the best example of the power of the Zimin Institute in bringing field test projects to fruition and all that is made possible by that.
Sensagrate’ s integrated technology was a promising albeit untried system solution when the Zimin Institute funded a citizen-centric pedestrian safety field test to be conducted in partnership with the City of Scottsdale.
The successful completion of that high visibility study led to a similar follow-on field test with the City of Tucson, and more notably a large project with UCLA, where it is helping prepare their campus for the 2028 Olympic Games as the host of the Olympic Village, and recently, the State of Virginia Department of Transportation, where they are
“ We fund and support every link in the innovation chain, from concept to commercialisation”
Gregory Raupp, Foundation Professor and Director, Zimin Institute
assessing“ pedestrian-vehicle nearmisses” across the state. With all this new-found success, CEO Darryl Keaton was chosen for a Google for Startups Black Founders Fund Award in 2024, an initiative that provides non-dilutive cash and hands-on support to startups using AI to drive responsible change. With this support Sensagrate is now implementing its first GenAI solution, creating automated and proactive safety reports to help municipal departments of transportation understand safety issues and risks, and provide countermeasures to prevent collisions.
“ It is great to see the tremendous success Sensagrate has achieved since our original field test project”, Gregory notes.“ I always believed in the technology and especially in Darryl, and thought if he was just given a chance to show his stuff he would hit it out of the park.”
62 December 2025