Our huge congratulations to Studio resident Silas Adekunle who has been accepted onto the prestigious Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator, powered by Techstars in San Diego. From now until mid-September, Silas and his digital-physical robot gaming company, Reach Robotics will take part in the accelerator programme in this, TechStars' first ever dedicated robotics cohort of just 10 companies from around the world.

TechStars say: "These startups are representative of the tremendously talented entrepreneurs creating the future of robotics."

We asked Silas what interested him about the programme: "I felt we were at a stage where we needed acceleration, we'd built some proof of concept robots and proved that we could solve some of the challenges that were stopping products like this coming to market. For the next stage we needed mentorship and experience, specifically based around hardware startups and robotics companies. Techstar's business building experience and Qualcomm's technical experience fit the bill." 

We wish Silas and his team all the very best as they embark on this new chapter in their incredible adventure.

As well as being a valued part the Pervasive Media Studio community, Silas has recenty been developing new ideas around physical/digital play in Mighty Minis in collaboration with Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Digital Cultures Research Centre), UWE Bristol, as part of our REACT Play Sandbox programme; and even more recently, being selected for the REACT Alumni scheme, working with incubator Station 12 to extend their work around Mecha Monsters, from both a research and a commercialisation perspective.