By Kelly BurchThe inaugural cohort of the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Engineering (DIAEn)—a partnership between the Thayer School of Engineering and the Magnuson Center—has concluded, awarding $140,000 in funding to two projects and helping facilitate a new co-founder partnership for the winning team. While many Thayer faculty and students have participated in the Magnuson Center’s other accelerators, including the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Cancer and the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Digital Health, the new engineering accelerator opened the door to teams with more varied projects. Broadening the reach of a Thayer innovation for soft tissue repairThe winning project was from Tensara Medical, which is developing reabsorbable scaffolding for soft-tissue repair. “Avitide was born at Thayer of School of Engineering and benefited significantly from the strength of the Dartmouth entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Isett said. Today, that community is strengthened by the addition of the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Engineering.