Sites like sologig might work.
Have had pretty poor luck with universities; professors are busy chasing down real funding, students tend to flake out even with real money on the line. The best way to get performance out of universities is to tie the product to a junior or senior design project that the students get graded on (coordinate through the professor). This isn't fast but it can be almost free; often the department is just happy to get projects that have real-world applications.
You can also get free consulting from national laboratories in your area through some state or local governments (you keep the IP). Also not instant and not guaranteed, but free.
Would sure be nice to have a YC for non-software-engineer engineers.
