Bridging Academia and Industry Innovation: Meet Cornell Tech’s First Venture Fellow

Bridging the gap between innovation and market viability is a challenge that startups, corporations and venture-backed firms alike face. That’s where the newly launched Cornell Tech Venture Fellow Program at the Jacobs-Technion Cornell Institute comes in—a unique initiative designed to help exceptional corporate professionals and individuals backed by venture capital firms to help them develop their groundbreaking deep-tech ideas into transformative solutions by refining business strategies and scaling their technologies while fostering leadership skills.

DefenseArk, a cybersecurity company with a revolutionary AI-driven Cyber Reasoning System (CRS) called Interceptive, is the program’s inaugural participant. As the program’s inaugural Venture Fellow, Bert van Keulen, Chief Data Scientist at DefenseArk, is working alongside Cornell Tech’s academic researchers, industry mentors, and the company’s CEO, Harish Prasanna, to refine Interceptive. The technology identifies and resolves software vulnerabilities in real time without human intervention. “With Cornell Tech’s support, we’re bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and commercialization,” van Keulen says.

“It’s not a degree program nor a traditional incubator,” Carley Hart, Director of the Venture Fellow Program explains. “It’s an immersive, hands-on experience that combines technical workshops, business development training, and mentorship. Fellows work on real-world ventures to create tangible value for their organizations.”

While DefenseArk’s participation underscores the program’s flexibility, the broader mission of the Venture Fellow Program is to equip corporate leaders and venture-backed firms with the tools to commercialize innovations effectively. “Bert embodies the kind of technologist we want to support,” Hart says. “His deep expertise in AI and cybersecurity, combined with his willingness to innovate, makes him a natural fit.”

DefenseArk’s decision to enroll van Keulen was driven by their goal to launch Interceptive successfully. “The program has allowed us to tap into Cornell Tech’s academic network while gaining valuable insights from other entrepreneurs and industry experts,” Prasanna adds.

The program’s approach goes beyond theoretical teaching—it’s about making entrepreneurship actionable. Instead of learning concepts in a classroom, fellows are encouraged to apply their knowledge directly, bringing new products and solutions to life. As Hart describes, the goal is to help technologists and corporate innovators advance from concept to commercialization.

With Cornell Tech’s resources behind them, van Keulen and Prasanna are refining DefenseArk’s technology through workshops, mentorship, and collaboration with students, professors, and other startups. Van Keulen highlights how pivotal these resources have been to DefenseArk’s development.

“The program allows us to work alongside some of the brightest minds in both AI and cybersecurity as we are benefiting from the strong academic foundation Cornell Tech offers,” he says.

Notably, their work on Interceptive was bolstered by insights gained through participation in the DARPA AI Cybersecurity Challenge, where DefenseArk emerged as a semi-finalist.

The need for robust cybersecurity solutions has never been greater. Van Keulen and Prasanna see Interceptive as a powerful tool for businesses, offering real-time solutions to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities automatically. “We’re building a product that can analyze software, find security gaps, and fix them—all without human intervention,” van Keulen explains. The potential of Interceptive to streamline cybersecurity processes and save time has been instrumental in DefenseArk’s growth and success.

Working at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity presents challenges and opportunities, but Cornell Tech’s ecosystem has been essential in helping DefenseArk navigate this complex field. “Having access to Cornell Tech’s network of mentors, professors, and other entrepreneurs has expanded our understanding of cybersecurity,” Prasanna says. “It’s given us the confidence to bring our product to market with the backing of a renowned institution.”

Looking forward, Cornell Tech’s Venture Fellow Program is poised to grow, with plans to bring in more fellows from diverse industries, especially those within deep-tech fields like AI, cybersecurity, and machine learning. “We want to help corporate partners by giving them a space to explore new ventures and develop real solutions that can drive their companies forward,” Hart says.

For van Keulen and Prasanna, the experience at Cornell Tech marks an important milestone. With Cornell’s support, they are well on their way to making Interceptive a significant player in cybersecurity. As Cornell Tech continues to nurture groundbreaking ventures like DefenseArk, the broader tech ecosystem in New York City—and beyond—stands to benefit from the innovations emerging from the Venture Fellow Program.