Grad student and entrepreneur honored with Fifty for the Future Award

4/6/2015 Lyanne Alfaro

Written by Lyanne Alfaro

MechSE grad student Nishana Ismail (MSME ’13) has received a Fifty for the Future Award.

Hosted by the Illinois Technology Foundation, the Fifty for the Future event honors University of Illinois students who have shown determination and dedication to the advancement of technology. This year, ITF presented the awards on March 10.

At Illinois, Ismail has applied her engineering expertise beyond the academic setting. Now, as vice president of security company Servabo—which won the 2013 Cozad New Venture Competition—she has been working with MechSE alumnus and company president Tim Deppen (BSME ’09, MSME ’09, PhDME ’13) to develop Shadow, a Bluetooth-enabled personal safety accessory that sends prescribed text messages with the user’s location to selected contacts with the click of a button.

In early February, Servabo launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of raising $60,000 to develop Shadow for commercialization.


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This story was published April 6, 2015.