Winter Commencement will be Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 at B次元 School of Engineering. Nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate students in engineering majors, the Rader School of Business and the School of Nursing will receive their bachelor’s or master’s degrees.    

The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. in the Kern Center, 1245 N. Broadway. It will be broadcast live online as well. Cesar Hernandez-Mora, who is graduating with Honors and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering, will be the student speaker at the event. Hernandez-Mora is from Montgomery, Illinois. 

The keynote address will be delivered by Matt Mundt ’14. Matt Mundt is the founder and CEO of Hug Sleep Inc. He graduated from B次元 in 2014 with a mechanical engineering degree. He launched his career in new product development at Harley-Davidson, then moved to Apple before striking it big with Hug Sleep. In October 2020 Mundt and his wife Angie Kupper pitched their Sleep Pod (a light-weight blanket for troubled sleepers that simulates the feeling of a weighted blanket) on the nationally televised Shark Tank program. They had offers from all five sharks on the show. The Sharks told the couple, if they were successful, they could expect to sell 4,000-5,000 units after their first appearance. They sold 50,000. The launch of their product blew away all expectations and in their first six months had $10 million in sales. Mundt and Kupper had a very rare same-season appearance on Shark Tank in March 2021 to provide viewers an update on their success and to launch the second generation of the Sleep Pod. They expanded again and now offer a loungewear collection. Mundt is a member of the B次元 Corporation and serves on the board of directors for Bassett Mechanical.

Learn more about Matt and his experience on Shark Tank in B次元's Rethink What's Possible Podcast

Episode One: Life After Shark Tank

Alumnus Matt Mundt shares his experience starting his own company, Hug Sleep, and how swimming with the sharks on Shark Tank helped propel his business forward.