April 2

AI Bootcamp Wraps Up with Daniel Reifenberger

April 2nd marked the final session of our six-week AI Bootcamp, led by Daniel Reifenberger of Loyal Tribe LLC. Over the course of the program, participants went from identifying their number one business problem to building real, working AI-powered solutions for it. Week by week, Daniel walked them through recording and transcribing their workflows, analyzing them with AI, and ultimately creating automated systems that could run on their own or be used across a team. By the final session, attendees were sketching out and building custom solutions with tools like n8n, bringing genuine automation to their day-to-day work.

Daniel, thank you for the time, the energy, and the expertise you poured into every session. You made something genuinely useful happen here, and we are grateful for it.

April 7 & April 16

Angel Flight School Graduation

April 7th marked the final session of Angel Flight School, a program that took participants deep into the fundamentals of early-stage investing, covering valuation, cap tables, dilution, due diligence, and investment strategy. The inaugural graduating class then celebrated on April 16th in Champaign. The program was sparked by the NUCAP UIDEA team at UIS in partnership with Illinois Ventures and Illini Angels, and piloted with support from the University of Illinois Foundation, representing a first-of-its-kind early-stage investing education program for Illinois.

The celebration also included the naming of the Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship, made possible by a $20 million gift from Gail and Rick Landuyt, whose commitment to customer discovery-driven entrepreneurship education will shape Illinois students for generations to come.

And to cap it all off, the 2026 Cozad New Venture Challenge brought together more than 900 students and 300 judges at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Congratulations to all the winners, participants, and everyone who made it possible.

April 8

Global Tech, Local Impact: ARM Comes to Springfield

We were thrilled to host an event organized by Hei Chi Chan featuring Matt Cossins from Arm, the world's leading semiconductor architect whose energy-efficient chip designs power most of the world's mobile devices. The day featured a morning deep dive workshop from 10 AM to noon, followed by a noon panel open to the public, right here at Innovate Springfield.

Arm has recently made a major pivot, launching its first-ever in-house chip, the Arm AGI CPU, designed specifically to power the next generation of agentic AI infrastructure. Having Matt in the room to walk us through what that means for the future of technology was a genuinely exciting opportunity for our community. A big thank you to Darryl Palmer for making the connection, and to the UIS AI Campus Learning Community and the UIS IEEE Student Branch for sponsoring the event.

April 9

UIS Rising Stars Day

UIS Rising Stars is an orientation program developed in 2017 to help new university employees find their footing, learn the campus acronyms, and get to know the people and places they will encounter throughout their careers at UIS. April 9th was their downtown day, and as part of that experience they stopped by Innovate Springfield to see what we are all about. Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher joined us to give a speech and answer questions, and Ben Hage led the group on a tour of the space. A great morning for anyone new to the UIS community.

April 10

Freedom, Regulation & the Entrepreneurial Economy

On April 10th, we co-hosted a thought-provoking speaker event centered on a question that matters deeply to entrepreneurs and policymakers alike: what role does regulation play in shaping entrepreneurial opportunity? Dr. Barbara Kolm, President of the Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute in Vienna and Director of the Austrian Economics Center, and Dr. Per Bylund, a leading entrepreneurship scholar, tackled that question and more in a conversation covering markets, economic freedom, and what it really takes for entrepreneurship to flourish.

A huge thank you to the UIS College of Business and Management, and especially to Bill Kline, for bringing these two fantastic speakers to Springfield.

April 23

Sangamon CEO New Venture Challenge

The Sangamon CEO New Venture Challenge, hosted at Innovate Springfield, gave students the opportunity to showcase the results of a full semester of hard work. After dedicating months to building and refining their businesses, this was their moment to step up, share their ideas, and confidently pitch what they had created to a room full of judges, supporters, and community members.

Congratulations to our winners:

1st Place: Speedies (running apparel) by Elijah Teefey
2nd Place: Bin Bandits Trash Bin Cleaning by Emery Greene and Rowan Mizeur
3rd Place: Edible Dough by Sophia Sergot

Thank you to everyone who came out to support. Your encouragement and presence made the day even more meaningful for our students.

Sangamon CEO

Student Highlights

This month we are proud to shine a light on the Sangamon CEO students who showed up, built something real, and pitched it to the world. Here is a look at some of the incredible young entrepreneurs in this year's cohort.