The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign joins the inaugural cohort of the AI Research Commons (ARC) Midwest Fellows Program. Rakesh Kumar, a professor and John Bardeen Faculty Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been selected for the ARC Midwest Fellows Program, a highly selective program supporting inception-stage AI startups emerging from leading Midwest research universities.
Kumar is developing an AI-powered performance engineering platform that generates high-performance code for AI infrastructure and agentic AI systems.
The ARC Midwest Fellows Program was launched in collaboration with the AI Research Commons, Microsoft and NVIDIA. It connects high-potential AI founders with infrastructure, mentorship and national investor networks to accelerate commercialization and company growth. Kumar is one of five founders selected for the cohort, which also includes startups from Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University and the University of Chicago. Learn about the selected companies at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Fellows receive up to $350,000 in Microsoft Azure startup credits, access to NVIDIA's Inception Program for Startups, mentorship from AI operators and investors, and co-working space at Third Coast Foundry in San Francisco's AI corridor. Cohort members were selected through a competitive review process focused on technical innovation, commercialization potential and founding team strength.
The program is open to faculty, students and researchers from Third Coast Foundry, a new San Francisco-based hub designed to strengthen the Midwest's collective presence in one of the world's most active venture ecosystems. The Third Coast Foundry consortium of Midwest research universities includes Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Purdue University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin–Madison and Washington University in St. Louis.
Learn more about the ARC Midwest Fellows Program.
Grainger Engineering affiliations:
Rakesh Kumar is a professor and John Bardeen Faculty Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, the Information Trust Institute and the Coordinated Science Laboratory.