Angelo Niforatos, a recent Syracuse University graduate with master’s degrees in engineering and business, used his NSF I-Corps experience to accelerate his startup, Niffy Drone Solutions. I-Corps guided customer discovery for his AI-powered command and control platform, which transforms how operators interact with drones by integrating natural language interfaces, machine learning, and offline capabilities to improve efficiency and autonomy.
Niforatos’ work earned a Phase I SBIR contract from the Department of the Air Force (AFWERX), validating defense and emergency response market potential. He filed a patent for novel AI and NLP applications in drone control systems, and with additional commercialization funding from Syracuse University, developed a sophisticated prototype and proof of concept. He is now pursuing first sales.