Seth Miller Revolutionizes Stroke Rehab with Exoskeleton

At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach Campus, students join a community focused on entrepreneurship. They have access to resources like the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the county’s Volusia Innovation Hub, both created to help new businesses grow.

Students regularly pursue their business-building experiences while studying, making it one of the best ecosystems from which to launch a startup, product or service.

The 2025 TREP EXPO, Embry-Riddle's annual showcase of venture concepts, featured a panel of five student entrepreneurs, each of whom has successfully started their own business — a remarkable accomplishment.

Meet Seth Miller (’26), an Aerospace Engineering student saw a need in the realm of stroke recovery and stepped up to fill it.

What is your business, and what inspired you to start it?

Hello, I’m the founder and president of Rise Technologies. My company is developing an upper body rehabilitation exoskeleton to help patients recover from strokes, traumatic brain injuries and surgeries.

While working at a Virginia airport in high school, I met a businessman who had survived a stroke and gone through rehabilitation. After hearing about his journey, I recognized how NASA's patent technology could offer patients faster recovery.

My business proposition placed second at Launch Your Venture, and I’ve spent the past few years developing our prototype.

What was your “Aha!” moment?

For me, it started during my freshman year when I found an exoskeleton patent focused on stroke rehabilitation while browsing NASA's technology portfolio. I recalled my employerin Virginia, who struggled with inadequate rehab equipment. When I returned to Virginia, I asked him about the new technology, and he saw its potential to change lives. That inspired us to partner together to start the company, and now we’re building the device.

What helped you balance classwork, student life and business?

I'm fortunate to learn quickly, which means I usually don't need to study as much. My high stress tolerance and ability to function on little sleep have helped me over the past four years. Most days, I wake up early for a run, work, attend classes and continue working late into the night.

During my internship in Arizona, I took advantage of Eastern Standard Time to work on my business, and then I’d work my full-time internship hours on Mountain Standard Time. It's important to make the most of each 24-hour day.

In hindsight, what would you change?

I should have incorporated customer feedback much earlier in the design process than I did. Instead, I relied heavily on my own perspective as an engineer and online research about industry needs when developing the design.

When I presented it to the customer, they said they didn’t need some features or found parts too heavy, so I had to start over. If I could redo it, I’d integrate customer feedback from the very beginning.

How difficult is it to find funding?

In the medical equipment industry, the challenges are significant. I'm entering a highly regulated field that demands costly hardware — each motor will cost around $1,000, with six needed per device, and FDA approval is estimated at $3 million. Being a young student makes it a challenge to be taken seriously by vendors and investors, who may doubt your credibility. The key is to demonstrate that you are worth their time.

My company is funded mainly by my business partner from Virginia — my angel investor — and some Launch Your Venture money. Raising additional outside capital has been challenging, especially since we’re pre-revenue. While grants like SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) exist, they’re highly competitive. Venture capital (VC) firms usually invest in lower-risk, revenue-generating startups.

Angel investors may be easier to approach if they have a personal interest, but finding them often takes years of relationship-building. In my case, my investor was familiar with me and passionate about the technology I was developing.

Other funding options include using personal savings or support from family and friends. Non-financial resources, such as free or discounted software through programs like SolidWorks for Entrepreneurs, can also help reduce costs and serve as indirect funding.

To attract VC firms or angel investors, you must show your company can deliver five to 10 times the return within five to 10 years. If you can't prove this potential, they'll decline, so make sure your business is truly investable before approaching them.

How do you define success?

To me, business success means your company is no longer dependent on any single customer or investor. If you can reject a bad deal from an investor and still be confident in your company's future, that's true independence. Many startups, like Uber, have had to accept whatever investors offered just to survive or risk collapse if a major client leaves. To me, real success is having control over your business without constantly catering to demands that may not align with your interests.

What’s next after graduation?

We'll still be in the R&D phase when I graduate next year, and I'll need to hold a  full-time engineering job to cover student loan payments. My startup can't pay me enough yet, so both my co-collaborator, another Embry-Riddle student who is writing my software, and I will work at Honeywell during the day and develop our rehabilitation device in our Phoenix apartment at night.

How has entrepreneurship changed you?

I've grown a lot as an engineer. I realize now that it's not enough to focus only on exciting technology — what matters is designing products that are safe, cost-effective and meet customer needs. Speaking with industry leaders reinforced for me that engineers often create impressive things no one wants, so it's essential to prioritize what customers value along with practical manufacturing concerns, especially when safety is critical in fields like aerospace.

Being self-taught is extremely helpful. When I founded this company, I had no idea how to build an exoskeleton or even a basic robot. Now we're building hardware. Initially, it was just ChatGPT and me, researching online and verifying its responses with more credible sources. Eventually, I consulted with others at Embry-Riddle, where top-notch engineers and computer scientists on campus are always willing to answer any questions I have — that’s a huge benefit of being here.

Why did you choose Embry-Riddle?

I chose Embry-Riddle because of its prestige in aerospace and connections to several different engineering industries.  Their engineering programs are also highly ranked. I have benefited from the expert professors at Embry-Riddle, such as Dr. Shuzhen Luo, an assistant professor who has conducted significant research in exoskeleton technology.

If you’re passionate about transforming lives or supporting groundbreaking startups, get involved with Embry-Riddle’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — you could make the next big breakthrough.