CSL Professors’ start up makes Top 10 List for two years running

An achievement for any company is to appear in one of Crain’s Chicago Business’s Top 10 lists. Personify, a deep technology company developed by CSL Professors Sanjay Patel, Wen-Mei Hwu, and Minh Do, has made the Top 10 Crain’s Chicago Business Most Innovative Companies List two years running.

Crain’s Chicago Business is a popular resource for latest news and information on business happenings in Chicago, and produces a variety of lists reviewing Chicago companies from the ‘Best Places to Work’ to ‘Who’s Who in Chicago Business.’ Making one of these lists provides a company with wide-spread exposure within Chicago and throughout the Midwest, and adds significant prestige to the company’s work.

“I still get emails from people for making the list last year,” said Sanjay Patel, Personify co-founder and CSL Professor. “To be on the list two years in a row is incredibly meaningful.”

Patel said one of the reasons Personify has managed to stay near the top of the list is because of their commitment to develop new technology for immersive and volumetric video. In addition, they received a number patents in the past year for their latest technology. They are also in the business of creating and licensing technology in addition to products.

Personify’s flagship technology is a virtual green screen that has been licensed extensively by mobile device vendors, PC companies, and video conferencing providers.

“Most of us in the College of Engineering understand what it takes to create technology and are less interested in creating products, particularly consumer products.” said Patel. “That’s a different kind of skill and requires a different kind of infrastructure. To get recognized for technology creation is super meaningful.”

Crain’s isn’t the only one recognizing the innovation happening within Personify. The company was recently acquired by a multinational tech company. The specific company will be announced closer to the end of 2019, but the new company plans to maintain Personify’s team, technology and product portfolio.

“The fact that Personify persisted for ten years in Illinois, and remained was focused on technology creation and has now been acquired is a success story,” said Patel. “This can be done in Illinois, this isn’t just happening in Silicon Valley. This kind of thing happens all the time in out in the West Coast, the fact that we made it happen here is what I personally find extremely rewarding.”

Crain's full list of Most Innovative Companies of 2019 is available here. Patel, Do, and Hwu are all professors of electrical and computer engineering.