INNOVISION AWARD ANNOUNCES 2026 FINALISTS HONORING INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The InnoVision Awards Board of Directors is proud to announce the finalists for the 28th annual InnoVision Awards, recognizing the businesses, organizations, and individuals whose innovations are shaping the future of South Carolina.
For 28 years, InnoVision has served as the state’s premier recognition program for innovation and technology, honoring breakthroughs across industries and regions, from the Upstate to the Lowcountry, that drive economic growth, strengthen communities, and demonstrate the best of what South Carolina is building.
The 2026 awards cycle marks a meaningful evolution in how InnoVision defines and recognizes innovation. Two categories have been updated to reflect the broadening landscape of impact in the Palmetto State: the new Community Enrichment Award combines the former Education and Community Service categories into a single recognition for innovations that improve quality of life through expanded educational opportunity, community health, or cultural enrichment. The new Emerging Technology Award recognizes groundbreaking startups and early-stage innovators with a working prototype and a vision, who are charting new territory before commercial launch.
This year’s finalists, selected by an impartial panel of independent, out-of-state judges, represent an exceptional range of sectors, organizational sizes, and regions, reflecting the depth and vitality of South Carolina’s innovation economy. Three finalists were chosen in each of six competitive categories and formally announced at the exclusive Meet the Finalists reception on August 25th, sponsored by the South Carolina Research Authority-SCRA at The Palmetto Club in Columbia. SCRA fuels the state’s innovation economy by providing grants and advisement to technology-based startups that are creating higher-paying jobs in South Carolina. Award finalists will be honored and winners will be announced at the 28th Annual InnoVision Awards Celebration on November 5, 2026, at the Thornblade Club in Greer, South Carolina.
The 2026 Finalists in the six competitive award categories are:
Community Enrichment – for innovations that improve the quality of life in South Carolina, by expanding educational opportunities, advancing community health, or improving cultural enrichment:
- Greenville-based Dreamgarten, LLC is built on the belief that resilience and innovation grow together, and that cultivating one cultivates the other. Their Bounce-Back-Ability program, validated in partnership with Prisma Health and Furman University, applies that philosophy to healthcare, giving doctors in training practical, science-backed tools to manage stress and prevent burnout before it takes root.
- Pathly is an AI-native platform, co-founded in Lancaster by high school senior Grace Brusky and her father Alan Brusky, that learns each student’s interests and strengths and builds a living roadmap across colleges, careers, courses, and scholarships—free for students, with school- and district-level tools designed to deliver personalized guidance at scale.
- Quick Connect, by MyUI.ai, is an AI-powered communication platform built for senior living and healthcare communities, using adaptive interface technology developed through Clemson University research to automatically tailor each screen to a resident’s own sensory and cognitive needs. Through simple touchscreen kiosks and personalized TV notifications, residents can independently manage meals, activities, and daily updates, while staff gain a single, centralized system that cuts manual work and keeps everyone connected in real time.
Emerging Technology – recognizes innovative products, technologies, or services not yet commercially available but demonstrate strong differentiation, technical merit, and potential impact:
- Comlantech Therapeutics is a Charleston biotech company, co-founded by MUSC researchers Devin Hatchell, Dr. Stephen Tomlinson, and Dr. Ali Alawieh, developing a new medicine that calms dangerous inflammation only where it’s needed after a stroke or injury, sparing the rest of the body’s immune defenses.
- Charleston based Pressiant Health‘s JVPro turns a smartphone into a heart failure specialist, enabling remote exams that allow providers to reduce hospital readmission rates and keep patients healthy at home.
- VASiQ Technologies, out of the Medical University in Charleston, is making surgery safer, more consistent, and data-rich by using a patient’s own physiology to guide surgical decisions in real time. By combining sensing, data, and intelligent automation, VASiQ is building a new category of autonomous surgical technologies.
Small Business – for innovation by businesses with fewer than 8 employees and less than $4 million in revenue:
- Created by a teacher, Charleston startup Class Window gives parents a free daily window into their child’s classroom moments, and gives teachers an easy way to receive appreciation and support without ever having to ask.
- Cattywampus, the flagship product of Columbia-based DnA Games, is a fast, clever, family-friendly word-strategy puzzle pioneering Productive Play – challenging the mindless screen-time status quo with play that’s genuinely fun and keeps the brain actively engaged.
- Survey Sherpa is a survey programming, audience sampling, and data processing market research company that helps research firms execute complex projects: delivering research and data-driven insights on one connected platform without the usual patchwork of tools and vendors.
Sustainability – for innovative technologies that protect natural resources and promote environmental stewardship:
- Clemson University has developed five new organic winter field pea varieties, marking a breakthrough as the first publicly funded, 100% organic field peas bred specifically for southern growing conditions; these varieties help South Carolina farmers maximize winter land use by producing a high-value, protein-rich crop that supports soil health, sustainable agriculture, and increased farm revenue.
- GrainGuard is a Greenville, South Carolina company that builds patented in-bin sensors detecting the chemical signature of mold and pests to catch grain spoilage weeks before conventional temperature monitoring.
- GreenerFleets: Going green sounds simple until a fleet operator has to choose between a hundred different technologies, fuel options, grant programs, and vendors, with no team to sort it out. Greenville based GreenerFleets turns that maze into a single workflow, converting a fleet’s own operating data into a fundable, ready-to-implement decarbonization roadmap.
Technology Development – for novel technologies that overcame development challenges.
- Bellwether Biotech’s NanoTone platform, built in Charleston, is one continuous, focused ultrasound handheld system which may be used at every stage of research across the entire preclinical workflow, from cells in a dish to the living, awake brain, at a fraction of the cost.
- Ridgeway’s DataTrust Solutions gives companies instant read-access to all protected data the moment primary storage fails, keeping users fully productive while recovery completes.
- NODiVEC, a Columbia-area engineering software company, built Rheona™ to take the guesswork out of 3D-printed metal manufacturing — pairing a powerful physics engine with an AI co-pilot, the CoEngineer™, that catches build-ruining stress and heat problems before they happen. The result: aerospace and medical device makers can trade costly trial-and-error for parts that come out right the first time, every time.
Technology Integration – for creative use of existing technology to generate new value.
- North Charleston baysys is using its suite of SaaS tools to drive efficiencies into the intermodal logistics industry with its entirely new approach to integrating and automating operations from the single owner-operator all the way up to Fortune Global 500 brands.
- Developed by Fort Hill, LogiX transforms construction auditing from slow, manual, billable-hours consulting into a powerful, AI-assisted construction auditing platform with built-in human oversight empowering teams with intelligent automation that elevates trust, transparency, and performance across every project.
- KYOCERA AVX, headquartered in Fountain Inn, engineered a single component that replaces several traditional electronic parts, filtering out noise across a wider range for aerospace and high-speed computing.
In addition to the six competitive categories, two special recognitions will be presented at the annual celebration: the Ibrahim Janajreh Michelin Young Innovator Award which honors programs that inspire youth across South Carolina to explore STEM and innovation; and the Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award: the organization’s highest honor, recognizing individuals whose lifelong contributions have had a transformative impact on technology and their communities.
The 2026 InnoVision Awards celebration will be held at the Thornblade Club in Greer on November 5th. For more information, please visit https://innovisionawards.org/
About InnoVision Awards
Founded in 1999, InnoVision Awards is a grassroots, volunteer-led nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing innovation and technology across South Carolina. Through its statewide events and the prestigious annual InnoVision Awards, the organization recognizes and celebrates outstanding leadership, innovation and technological excellence achievements by businesses, individuals, and organizations driving innovation in the region. 2026 InnoVision Sponsors include Contec, Kim, Lahey & Killough Law Firm, the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), Michelin North America, the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness, Velux, My Blue Butterfly, Carolina Tech Founders, ChemAu, Founderville.vc, American Technology Venture Lab, Robinson Ventures and the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science + Mathematics.
About SCRA
Chartered in 1983 by the State of South Carolina as a public, nonprofit corporation, South Carolina Research Authority fuels the state’s innovation economy through the impact of its comprehensive services to technology-based startups, academia, and industry. SCRA provides funding and support to accelerate the growth of academic startups; high-quality lab and administrative workspaces; facilitation and funding for partnerships between and among industry, startups, and academic institutions; assistance and funding for the relocation of technology-based companies to South Carolina; and coaching and funding for startups that may also receive investments from its affiliate, SC Launch Inc.