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Winning LaunchCon 2026 would Assist Elsie Mappin in Testing Her Physics-Informed AI Platform

As Jordyn Paul-Slater writes for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, "[w]hile Columbus puts more emphasis on entrepreneurship as a piece of its economic development strategy, four founders will get their chance to pitch business ideas they hope could grow along with the region." Paul-Slater is referring to the four finalists, selected from 65 applicants representing Columbus and cities within a 150-mile radius, who will compete for $40,000 at the StartUP Columbus LaunchCon, a Shark Tank-style competition, this Friday. One of these finalists is Elsie Lappin, a graduate student in civil engineering at Georgia Southern University who works largely with robotics and structural engineering. Lappin explained to Paul-Slater that she needed a machine-learning platform that could integrate the two, so she founded Echo Science. “I was told that this is where the industry is headed,” Mappin stated in her interview with Paul-Slater. “But it’s hard to find people who have the data sets, and I thought to myself, ‘Well, I have the data sets, so I guess I’ll just go ahead and do it myself.’” Echo Science is a physics-informed AI platform that automates ultrasonic weld inspections for critical infrastructure by using ultrasonic signals and artificial intelligence to detect, classify and map defects in 3D, thus reducing work that typically requires skilled inspectors. “The comparison I like to make for people it’s very similar to getting an ultrasound to image a baby,” Lappin explained to Paul-Slater. “Asset owners of pipelines that move our oil and gas, as well as every single bridge in the United States, needs to be ultrasonically inspected to make sure that the inside of the steel is defect-free.” Winning the pitch competition would help Lappin find a pilot user to get her company out in the field. “I’m really passionate about forensic engineering and making sure that our structures are safe and reliable for people to use,” Lappin stated to Paul-Slater, “especially as America has a very large aging infrastructure problem, so continuing to address that, making sure that our public roads are safe.”






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