• Architects Anonymous - Architects Anonymous is a software platform (smartphone app and website) that provides customized, location-specific energy-saving information to both homeowners and building professionals. Current and future homeowners can use the app to make smarter home-related decisions (to modify stock plans, choose climatically-appropriate products and systems, access rebate information, etc.) and potentially save up to 50% of their monthly utility bills at little to no additional initial cost. Building professionals (architects/builders/contractors) can use a more advanced 'professional-version' of the Architects Anonymous platform to offer a value-added addition to their business model.
• CloudPod - This technology is a water-generating device at CloudPod. The team has created this device to harness moisture out of the air in a means to provide its user a renewable resource of clean, drinkable water with no harm to the environment or water sources.
• D-PowerNet - This team is developing a software solution that enables the integration of battery storage with connected electric loads, e.g., electric water heaters, and/or distributed generation technologies, e.g., solar photovoltaic. Its proprietary technology reduces electricity service costs for commercial and industrial buildings while providing flexibility to the electrical grid by utilizing the untapped potential of battery storage systems.
• Ecophyrin - This technology can break down biomass into sugars and lignin in a more cost-effective and eco-friendly manner. The sugars and lignin can then be used to produce biofuel and commodity chemicals, respectively.
• GoGreen Sensing Technologies - GoGreen Sensing Technologies is an entrepreneurial effort that focuses on providing state, county, and local governments with low-cost traffic-sensing technology in lower-traffic density areas to save the environment, fuel, and time. The team's solution to the problem of unnecessary emissions from idling cars in lower-traffic density areas is to wire embedded vibration sensors to a programmed traffic light control board for fully-actuated control, where the sensors register the presence of vehicles approaching the light from different directions and change the light to allow the more imminent vehicle to go through the light without having to brake or stop.
• Hillside Hydro - Hillside Hydro has developed a portable hydroelectric generator for backpacking and camping. The generator harnesses small bodies of moving water to charge your portable electronics. Simply place the lightweight and portable generator in a small stream or pull it behind a kayak to charge the powerful internal battery. Once removed from the water, the system can be used to charge any device via USB.
• Hydro Pod - The team's product is a small, portable hydro-power generator that can be easily installed in shallow flowing rivers, streams, and brooks. The extra energy generated from these previously untapped power sources can offset energy costs for homeowners or generate usable power for remote villages and park ranger stations.
• Kiefer - The technology is a mobile robot that moves on caterpillar tracks that can grab certain waste materials in landfills through the use of sensors and then incinerate the garbage items to generate electricity for the robot to power itself without any external energy source. All the extra electrical energy produced that is not needed to the power the robot will be stored in attached batteries and sold to electrical grid companies.
• LnR Technologies - The team's technology is a multi-channel copper tube heat exchanger that is up to 30% more energy-efficient and up to 75% more cost-effective than current solutions.
• Lobster TrApp - The future of the lobster industry is a sensor system added to lobster traps that alerts lobster fishermen, through an application on their smartphones, about traps that need to brought in. Adding the team's sensor technology will enable lobster fishermen to use their time more efficiently, which in turn increases their yield per trap checked, decreases fuel and labor costs, and improves overall quality of life.
• MPEL-EVtech - Electrical Vehicle technology, bi-directional, high efficiency, multi-functional EV charging system, lab prototype ready for commercialization.
• Phospholutions - Phospholutions has a patent-pending technology used to reduce water and fertilizer usage, particularly in turf grass, greenhouse, and agricultural systems. Over 60% of the fertilizer applied to the soil is washed out before the plant even has the opportunity to catch it; with fertilizers being a finite resource requiring large amounts of energy to mine, produce, ship, and apply, the cost-effective soil additive that Phospholutions produced is necessary.
• ReEmpower - ReEmpower's vision is to help eradicate energy poverty by providing clean, affordable and reliable energy to customers in developing economies through the installation of renewable energy power systems. ReEmpower will achieve this using the most readily available renewable resources in a community and developing innovative financing mechanisms to make our products and services accessible to all customers.
• Retractable Wind Turbines - In a microgrid, a set of households share energy harnessed locally from renewable sources. Renewable power (e.g., wind power) is well known for being intermittent and for creating audio and visual pollution. An advantage of intermittency is that renewable-energy harvesters may be stored /retracted during lulls, which also allows for complying with potential requirements/ordinances for minimizing the visual and audio effects on the local population. Our tool discovers retractable wind harvester parameters, such as harvester size and deployment/retraction speed, while also creating algorithms that adjust how to filter data to affect energy harvested and neighborliness and determine when it is best to deploy retractable wind harvesters.
• Robert Morris University - The team's transformative technology incorporates existing hybrid and electric technology, utilizes our own new innovations, and applies it to heavy industries. Robert Morris University's goal is to break into the heavy truck market with hybrid technology in order to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase fuel economy.
• RMU Tiny Homes - This team's technology is innovative, sustainable tiny homes that will serve as permanent or temporary housing for homeless veterans in Pennsylvania. The tiny houses will be created by volunteers and donated to The Veterans Place on Washington Blvd.
• RoBotany - RoBotany Ltd. is an indoor vertical farming company that is transforming the industry with automated robotics and software analytics. Vertical farming is the future because year-round, optimal growing conditions combined with superior plant density and the ability to grow vertically allows for yields that can reach 100x per square foot compared to traditional, outdoor agriculture. Additionally, it uses 95% less water and avoids the degradation of top soil and runoff pollution. Despite these benefits, there are a number of key problems that exist today. RoBotany's patent-pending technology is solving these problems in a unique way and allows for yields that can reach 180x per outdoor square foot (1,000x including crop loss). Vertical farming is the future, and RoBotany is the future of vertical farming.
• RVS Rubber Solutions - The team's technology is called the RVS Tech, and in short, it recycles a currently unrecyclable tire component back into its base pieces without degrading their quality. This means that using this tech we can eliminate 100 tons of rubber waste product going into landfills while also selling the high quality rubber at a fraction of the current market cost.
• SatData - This project aims at making better weather forecasts for solar and wind generation facilities by means of exploiting data from satellites with the help of machine learning and data mining techniques.
• SMT - SMT provides the energy consumption saving and measuring solutions to the clients using its advanced sensor and software.
• Stabilization Simulator - This team will be developing a model for evaluating the effective implementation and cost of combination renewable and battery storage power systems to accommodate user input loads. The goal is to allow users to determine what size system they need to have reliable and stable power generation.
• Steel City Conversion - This project focuses on the development of Gallium Nitride-based power electronic converters, designed to achieve higher voltages, efficiency, and power density in aerospace applications. Taking advantage of the modular multilevel architecture, this class of DC-DC and DC-AC converters promises to reduce the size and weight of power management and distribution systems in spacecraft while providing inherent radiation resistance for the converter.
• Teratonix - Teratonix develops an energy harvesting device that can convert ambient radio-frequency radiation into useful DC power. This new device will replace batteries and provide a lifetime maintenance-free power supply to millions of low-energy IoT sensors, beacons, and actuators being used for industrial, building and retail automation.
• TurBinD - TurBinD would like to make wind energy more personal by creating the first wind-powered outdoor charging station. Its charging station, which will be launched as a portable version for use at concerts and festivals and eventually expanded to include permanent installations, aims to add to the sustainable aesthetic of any location while providing charging, WiFi, and weather data reports.
• Wastefu(e)l - System to convert organic waste without water. Aside from producing energy, this method helps minimize CH4 in the atmosphere.

Are you a student who is passionate about working in the energy sector? If so, you won't want to miss The Energy Industry Career Fair on March 27, 2017 at CMU! There will be employers from the energy sector who are interested in recruiting students for internships and full-time opportunities. Students from all majors and institutions are welcome to attend. The Career Fair is in partnership with CMU's Energy Week,  Energy Science, Technology, & Policy Program and Career & Professional Development Center and the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Career Development and Placement Assistance. Register for the event on our Energy Week website. 

On the same day at an evening reception, you will also have the opportunity to meet investors who are participating in the Energy / Environmental Equity Conference at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Please save the date and sign up here to receive updates. The Allegheny Region Cleantech University Prize Collegiate Competition will take place the next day, March 28, 2017, during Energy Week. 

• FLoW's DOE Cleantech UP Business Plan Competition - Submit your Statement of Intent by February 1, 2017! 

Applications Now Open for the 2017 Rice Business Plan Competition
 

The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which is Rice University's internationally-recognized initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship, and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. With $1,500,000 in PRIZES, 42 Startup Teams will be invited to compete in front of hundreds of investors, mentors, and partners to help launch their startups! Apply here by Friday, February 10, 2017.

Possible Travel Option for the ARPA-E 2017 Summit Student Program


 

If you applied for the  2017 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Student Program and are considering transportation options to the Summit, the Scott Institute is looking into renting a bus to travel from Pittsburgh to DC for the event (depending on student interest and subsequent selection to the program). Interested students and faculty can write to us at thescottinstitute@gmail.com. The program is a unique opportunity for graduate students to network with organizations searching for new talent and learn about advanced energy technologies.

 

SunShot Initiative Seeks Next Generation of Technology Policymakers

Applications for SunShot fellowships are currently open to college graduates with B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. degrees. SunShot fellowships are paid positions that provide an opportunity for scientists, engineers, and researchers to lead and improve projects to meet the goals of the SunShot Initiative. Fellows have the opportunity to contribute to a wide range of policy-related projects and issues. Applications for the SunShot Science and Technology Policy Fellowship are due January 15, 2017. Learn more about the application process.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) Announces Internship Program
 

Apply Now to the Sixth Annual 2017 Shale Gas Innovation Contest
 

McGinnis Venture Competition 2017 Registration Now Open 
 

Registration for the annual McGinnis Venture Competition, a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon's community of student entrepreneurs, began on November 1, 2016. The competition, which kicks off in early January, brings together CMU's best and brightest student entrepreneurs to compete for $60K in investments. Participants receive crucial interaction with alumni entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, an opportunity to raise capital, and valuable feedback about ventures. The multi-round competition starts with two virtual rounds and culminates in a final, live-round celebration at CMU on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Register.

Apply Now for the Clean Energy Trust Challenge
 

Get Involved in the AlphaLab Gear National Hardware Cup
 

Have a Chance to Win $35K at the Penn State EdTech Network’s BIG IDEA Contest