This video features a current (2011-2012) Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program project to improve a new hyrbid bike developed by Fruitland, Md.-based BIKETOO Inc. The company is working with University of Maryland associate professor Chandrasekhar Thamire to decrease the weight and improve the performance of the vehicle.

For more information about MIPS, visit: http://www.mips.umd.edu.

For more information about BIKETOO, visit: http://www.biketooinc.com.

Craig Dye, director of the Mtech VentureAccelerator Program at the University of Maryland, reveals the secrets to crafting a great executive summary. The workshop is prefaced by Culin Tate, co-founder of CoFoundersLab (http://www.cofounderslab.com).

Executive summaries should all provide the same basic information (company description, value proposition, etc.), but presenting that information in an exciting and memorable way is difficult. Learn here how to intrigue judges with your executive summary so they want to see your full entry in business plan competition finals.

This workshop was established to prepare applicants for the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition (http://www.bpc.umd.edu) and the $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge (http://www.accnrg.com).

Nearly a Quarter-Million Dollars in Prizes to be Awarded at Four Events Encompassing Startups, Business Plans, Healthcare and Clean Energy

The University of Maryland will host four business competitions this spring, including two new, nationwide competitions focused on healthcare and clean energy. Prizes totaling $230,000 will be awarded across the four competitions spanning just over three weeks from March 30 to April 25, 2012. This new series of competitions is a collaborative effort among multiple schools and departments and aligns with UMD President Wallace Loh’s strategic priority of entrepreneurship and innovation and the university’s goal of creating 100 new companies over the next decade.

• March 30, 2012 – Cupid’s Cup, a business competition for student and alumni entrepreneurs, began in 2006, thanks to the generous support of one of UMD’s most successful entrepreneurs, Kevin Plank (’96), founder and CEO of Under Armour. The competition is designed to identify and support students and young alumni who have already started their own businesses and will be held at the Stamp Student Union. A total of $25,000 will be awarded as part of the annual UMD Entrepreneurship Invitational. The application deadline is Feb. 19, 2012.  Candidates must have generated at least $5,000 in revenue, won funding through a university-sponsored business competition, or have a completed product and proof of traction.

• April 20, 2012 – The University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition, now in its 12th year, encourages UMD students, faculty, researchers, and recent alumni to leverage their talent and ideas to create compelling business plans for tomorrow’s leading companies. Since its founding in 2001, $627,000 in prizes has been awarded. Five previous winners are now multi-million dollar ventures, including current and former Inc. 500 companies Squarespace and Lurn. Executive summaries are due Feb. 26, 2012. Finals will be held at the university’s Riggs Alumni Center.
• April 20, 2012 – The inaugural Innovate 4 Healthcare Challenge inspires students nationwide to develop solutions that radically improve healthcare outcomes by using information technology to improve patient engagement with health care providers.  Universities nationwide have been invited to enter teams of as many as five members to compete for a $20,000 first prize and a pair of $5,000 runner-up prizes. The final round of presentations will be at the University of Maryland’s Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center campus in Washington, D.C. Competitors have until Feb. 24, 2012 to register and March 6, 2012 to submit a plan for a patient-centered, healthcare business model.
• April 25, 2012 – The inaugural $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge is a result of UMD’s selection by the Department of Energy to be part of its National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition to support and empower the next generation of American clean energy entrepreneurs. The ACC Clean Energy Challenge is open to students from all Atlantic Coast Conference schools, as well as other universities in the southeastern U.S. Executive summaries and a video of an investor pitch are due March 23, 2012. The ACC Clean Energy Finals will be held at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, with the winner receiving $100,000 and moving on to the DOE Grand National Finals in Washington, D.C., in June 2012.

About Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland educates the next generation of entrepreneurs, creates successful ventures, and connects Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed. UMD is ranked as one the nation’s top schools for entrepreneurship and innovation as a result of 25 years of collaborative effort from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Highlights include: three experiential entrepreneurship learning programs and 30 entrepreneurship and innovation courses serving more than 1,200 students at the pre-college, undergraduate, graduate and executive education levels; monthly entrepreneur office hours and mentoring/pitch programs with experienced entrepreneurs-in-residence; a global entrepreneurship program with partnerships in China and Israel; a technology incubator/accelerator startup program with more than 100 graduates including billion dollar companies such as Martek Biosciences and Digene; and an on-campus angel network of more than 40 active, accredited angel investors and venture capitalists for early-stage capital. UMD has had a $25.7 billion impact on the Maryland economy and helped create or retain more than 5,300 jobs. Top-selling products such as MedImmune’s Synagis®, which protects infants from a deadly respiratory disease, and Hughes Communications’ HughesNet®, which brings satellite-based, high-speed Internet access to the world, were developed through or enhanced by UMD programs.

More information is available at:

http://www.mtech.umd.edu
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/chids
http://www.umd.edu

The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Program, a high-impact economic development initiative fostering innovation and new jobs in the State of Maryland, has approved 16 new technology product development projects worth $4.1 million.

Teaming companies and faculty throughout the State of Maryland, the projects include: floating islands to clean the Chesapeake Bay, a hyper-local and responsive climate control system for residential and commercial applications, a system to remove CO2 and other harmful nutrients from industrial flue gas, a mobile facility for processing fresh heirloom tomatoes from Maryland farmers, an electronic baseball home plate, pest-resistant soybeans, monitoring devices for freeze-sensitive biopharmaceutical and food products, a vertical-axis wind turbine, low-inertia running shoes, and a synthetic filtration system for stormwater runoff. Therapeutics or treatments are being developed for anthrax, esophageal cancer, stress and autoimmune disease.

An initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland, MIPS provides grants for projects that team Maryland companies with researchers in Maryland public universities.

Projects are co-funded by MIPS and participating companies. All of the funding goes to support the work of faculty and graduate students for each project.

For this round of projects, companies contributed $2.9 million and MIPS $1.2 million. TheMaryland Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency provided additional funding.

Companies and faculty for each project include:

• Beacon Research Inc. (Columbia) and Allen Davis, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($109,683): developing a geosynthetic filtration system to mitigate urban stormwater runoff.
• Bluewing Environmental Solutions & Technologies LLC (Ellicott City) and Joshua McGrath, assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($134,560): developing floating treatment wetlands to remove harmful nutrients and improve water quality in areas such as the Chesapeake Bay.
• Captain’s Choice Food Products (Princess Anne) and Thomas Rippen, seafood technology specialist, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore ($486,586): developing a food processing line for high quality, safe seafood soups with extended shelf-life properties and strong retail market appeal.
• Corridor Pharma (Towson) and Gerald Rosen, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($134,999): developing a new class of antibiotic drugs by testing the mechanism of action and efficacy of the company’s arginase inhibitors against anthrax.
• CSA Medical Inc. (Baltimore) and Bruce D. Greenwald, professor of medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore: evaluating the long-term efficacy and safety of endoscopic spray cryotherapy for esophageal cancer in a phase II clinical study.
• Earth Networks Corporation (Germantown) and Jungho Kim, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($1,411,963): continuing the development of residential and commercial advanced climate control systems that enable automated energy efficiency and demand response based on real-time, hyper-local weather.
• HY-TEK Bio LLC (Dayton) and Feng Chen, associate professor, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, ($223,112): optimizing a technology to sequester CO2 and additional harmful nutrients from flue gas produced from burning fossil fuels using enhanced micro algal growth, simultaneously creating clean energy from fossil fuels.
• Imagilin Technology LLC (Frederick) and Martin Furr, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($85,456): developing probiotics as therapeutic agents to fight against stress and autoimmune diseases in humans and animals.
• Instant Access Networks LLC (Cumberland) and Hilkat Soysal, lecturer, Frostburg State University ($224,949): developing an economically viable electric backup system combining battery and hydrogen storage with intermittent renewable energy sources to power mission-critical infrastructures during disasters.
• Luke’s Premier Foods LLC (Princess Anne) and Jurgen Schwarz, associate professor, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore ($329,315): developing and testing a fixed, then mobile processing facility prototype for processing fresh heirloom tomatoes from Maryland farmers.
• Omic Biosystems Inc. (Rockville) and Mark Marten, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County ($182,880): validating a method for the detection of low abundance proteins in a more effective and more economical way, making it useful for basic antifungal agent research, as well as broader applications in discovery efforts in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
• Plant Sensory Systems LLC  (Baltimore) and Nadim Alkharouf, associate professor, Towson University ($139,110): developing pest-resistant soybeans.
• Prasidiux LLC (Bowie) and Srinivasa Raghavan, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($226,000): validating the operation of the company’s Time-Temperature Indicators, which employ “smart polymer gel” materials to indicate exposure of freeze-sensitive products for ultimate use in the biopharmaceutical and food industries.
• Spessard Manufacturing LLC (Hagerstown) and Christopher Davis, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($134,999): developing a simple, low-cost baseball electronic home plate that will detect and indicate the presence of a baseball passing over.
• Sustainable Systems Inc. (Frostburg) and Mohammed Eltayeb, assistant professor, Frostburg State University ($160,995): developing a prototype vertical-axis wind turbine with an innovative, active, aesthetically pleasing turbine design that is lower cost, lower noise, performs well in low and high winds, and is safer to people, birds and bats living around it, for deployment on residential and commercial buildings and cell phone communications towers, as well as utility-scale wind farms.
• Under Armour Inc. (Baltimore) and Jae Kun Shim, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($206,400): conducting a biomechanical and physiological assessment of shod running and comparing the differences between traditional running shoes and newly designed low-inertia running shoes.

This is the 49th round of MIPS funding. Companies participating are from the following regions:

• Three are in Baltimore;
• Three are in Howard County;
• Three are in western Maryland;
• Two are in Montgomery County;
• Two are on the Eastern Shore; and
• One each is in Towson, Bowie, and Frederick.

Seven of the projects will take place at the University of Maryland, College Park, while two each will launch at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and Frostburg State University. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Towson University, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science are hosting one project each.

Blockbuster products developed by Maryland companies have benefitted from MIPS, including Martek Biosciences’ nutritional oils, Hughes Communications’ HughesNet™, MedImmune’s Synagis®, Black & Decker’s Bullet® Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit, WellDoc’s mobile diabetes management platform, and CSA Medical’s diseased-tissue ablation device. Products with MIPS projects have generated more than $23.6 billion in revenue and added thousands of jobs to the region.

MIPS has supported research projects with more than 500 different Maryland companies since 1987.

Projects are subject to final contract negotiations.

By Martha Connolly

Mtech’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships program (MIPS) is working to fuel the innovation economy in Maryland. As the weather turns cold, we want to highlight MIPS projects with the promise to reduce energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, and explore new and alternate sources of energy.

We’re working at this by funding the development of promising new energy-related products. If these projects are successful, you’ll see new energy-related solutions, technologies, products and jobs in Maryland to help create a more energy-efficient world.

Takoma Park-based CoolCAD Electronics is working with Shuvra Bhattacharyya, professor of electrical and computer engineering and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, to develop a cost and power-consumption-optimized wireless sensor network for monitoring energy use in residential and commercial buildings. Sensing power needs and automatically adjusting for them will reduce energy consumption in unused parts of buildings.

Jewel Barlow, director of the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at the University of Maryland, is working with Genovation Cars to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for the company’s new plug-in electric hybrid G2 automobile.

Baltimore-based ProParts is also teaming up with Barlow to bring low-cost wind turbines to market that work under low-wind conditions and are easily mounted in residential or urban markets. These turbines could also be used as portable turbines for the military.

Germantown-based Renewable Energy Solutions and Barlow are performance-testing the company’s small-wind, scalable, vertical-axis turbine. Results show that the turbine performs well in a broad range of wind conditions for residential, small commercial building and other distributed wind applications.

Frostburg State University is building strength in alternate energy systems, and is working through MIPS on two commercially-directed projects.

Frostburg-based Sustainable Systems is working with Mohammed Eltayeb and Julie Wang, both assistant professors at FSU, to develop a prototype vertical axis wind turbine. This new turbine will have an innovative, active, aesthetically pleasing design that is lower cost, produces lower noise, performs well in both low and high winds, and is safer to people, as well as birds and bats living around it. The turbine will be able to be deployed on residential and commercial buildings and cell phone communications towers, as well as utility-scale wind farms.

Instant Access Networks partnered with Hilkat Soysal, a lecturer in physics and engineering at Frostburg State University, to develop an economically viable backup electricity system by combining battery and hydrogen storage with renewable energy sources to provide power for mission-critical infrastructures in case of a disaster or when the conventional electric grid becomes unavailable for a long period of time.

Owings Mills-based Differential Dynamics Corporation is working with Weidong Zhu, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, to develop a new type of wind turbine with a speed converter and a variable-torque generator that can reduce failure rates and maintenance costs, harness more energy, and reduce unit cost.

College Park-based FlexEl and Victor Granatstein, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland, are working together to develop an integrated battery management system for FlexEl’s thin-film batteries. These light-weight batteries, first invented at UM, incorporate upstream energy scavenging circuitry and downstream load management circuitry to give end users an ultra-thin, plug-and-play power solution.

Dayton-based HY-TEK Bio is working with Feng Chen, associate professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, to optimize HY-TEK Bio’s technology to sequester CO₂and additional harmful nutrients from industrial flue gas. This is done by enhancing micro algal growth, simultaneously creating clean energy from fossil fuels.

MIPS is addressing some of the most critical problems in today’s complex world. These MIPS projects we’re funding all have the potential to lead to new products, create jobs, and enhance Maryland’s energy future, today and beyond. Check on our progress to see which of these projects will change Maryland for the better. The results: better products, better energy solutions, and a better economy in Maryland.

Peter Kelley, communications mentor to the UMD Solar Decathlon team, gives a Climate Reality Project update and Dean Chang, director of Mtech’s Venture Programs, kicks off the ACC $100K Clean Energy Challenge.

The success of the University of Maryland’s entrepreneurship programs drew invitations to 35 students from the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP)to visit the White House on November 28 as part of the “I Am an Entrepreneur” event.

Sponsored by the Young Entrepreneur Council and MTV, the event served as a platform for more than 150 aspiring and current entrepreneurs from universities across the country to learn from successful young entrepreneurs. YEC founder Scott Gerber kicked off the event, while MTV’s Sway Calloway moderated a series of panels featuring business leaders and entrepreneurs such as Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv.

“This was the most inspiring entrepreneurship-related event I have been to,” said EIP student and marketing and psychology major Melinda Pandiangan. “The sheer amount of wealth and talent they had packed into one room made everyone want to go out and do something, not just talk about it. They gave you the impression that anything really was possible.”

EIP student and electrical engineering major Shrey Tarpara, who is in the early stages of starting a company, found the event especially valuable. “It gave me the chance to meet entrepreneurs and learn from their successes and their mistakes,” said Tarpara. “A lot of us young entrepreneurs have so many questions about even the smallest things and they were able to answer them for us.”

Students also recognized the White House’s support for the event.

“During a time when people are losing faith in government, it is reassuring to know that the administration recognizes the importance of entrepreneurship in growing the economy and creating new jobs,” said EIP student and computer science and finance major Raja Ayyagari. “The advice from the speakers was realistic and appropriate. They demonstrated that starting a company is a practical and reachable goal for college youth.”

Students gained direct access to entrepreneurs during networking time after the event. “They were amazingly open and approachable,” said Pandiangan. “You could ask them questions about their personal lives and how they balance things. It was both humbling and encouraging.”

Students attending from EIP included: Raja Ayyagari, Sara Bleistein, Christopher Bohlman, Alex Chepkoit, Kyle Dailey, Lindsay Djuhadi, Pratik Gandhi, Benjamin Gelinas, Stephen Gheysens, Pamela Gorgei, Stephanie Graf, Zachary Hutcheson, George Kemp, Vasudha Kowtha, Micaela Larson, Zachary Lenkiewicz, Ningwei Li, Sara McVeigh, Allan Nicholas, Isaura Romero, Daniel Pacious, Melinda Pandiangan, Vinod Pinto, Pavan Rangachar, Alma Rashid, Matthew Richardson, Eliza Roberts, Meredith Russell, Rebecca Salzman, Neel Sanghvi, Ashmi Sheth, Shrey Tarpara, Geoffrey Wang, Jazmyn White, Whitney Wilson.

Students were accompanied by EIP Director Jay Smith and EIP Coordinator Jaclin Warner.

“Entrepreneurship is baked into our DNA,” said Ronnie Cho, the White House’s associate director for the office of public engagement. “It is a proud tradition we have in this country. It is my belief the folks in this room, this generation, will unleash innovations, launch companies that will change the world.”

View photos of EIP students at the “I Am an Entrepreneur” event here: http://bit.ly/uKsiyk

Watch the official White House video of the event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2uY9JK8n-Q

Mtech’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program is working to fuel the innovation economy in Maryland. We’re enhancing health care while we’re at it by funding promising new products in the area of cancer diagnosis and treatment.  If these projects are successful, you’ll see new technologies and new jobs in Maryland and a healthier population, here and in the world.

A&G Pharmaceuticals (Columbia, Md.) is working with Dr. Katherine Tkaczuk from the Department of Medicine and Oncology in the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore to study a novel breast cancer marker (GP88) that could be used for the early detection of breast cancer using a simple blood test. By correlating GP88 serum levels with information on the stage of disease, therapy response and survival, they hope to establish the usefulness of their GP88 blood test to detect the disease and to monitor response to therapy disease progression and recurrence in breast cancer patients, providing a much needed boost to the detection of breast cancer.

Comprehensive Cancer Cells Diagnostics LLC (Baltimore, Md.) is a diagnostic service company developing technology to assist physicians in designing personalized treatment regimens for patients fighting cancer. They are working with Dr. Katherine Tkaczuk from the Department of Medicine and Oncology in the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore to establish the Drug Response Indicator Test (DRIT) as the foundation of personalized anticancer chemotherapy. The drug response test can predict the sensitivity or resistance of the tumor to several FDA-approved drugs for patients with advanced-stage breast, lung, and GI cancers. The goal is to make sure that patients will be treated only with drugs that are effective for their particular cancers.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Rockville, Md.) is working with Dr. Anjan Nan from the Center for Nanomedicine and Cellular Delivery at University of Maryland, Baltimore to develop a novel targeted cancer therapy.  Using a water-soluble, polymeric carrier attached to anticancer drugs, the treatment can be localized in the area of the tumor. Then, cancer cells engulf the polymer-drug conjugate, cleave the bond between the drug and the polymer and release the drug inside the tumor cells to kill the cancer cells. By selectively targeting cancer drugs to tumor cells, there will be a lower toxicity of these drugs to patients and increased effectiveness in treating cancer.

Xcision Medical Systems (Columbia, Md.) was founded by Dr. Cedric Yu, a scientist and entrepreneur at the University of Maryland Baltimore, who invented a radiosurgery device for breast cancer called GammaPod. GammaPod uses tens of thousands of radiation beams to focus radiation at a tumor to kill tumor cells and reduce the average treatment length from three months to three hour-long, non-invasive procedures. Xcision has further developed the GammaPod system and shown the feasibility based on calculations and measurements. Working with Dr. Steven Feigenberg of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland Baltimore, this project aims to test the clinical feasibility of GammaPod for use in breast cancer patients. Successful completion of the proposed research will potentially revolutionize breast cancer care.

Amplimmune (Rockville, Md.) is developing a novel therapeutic drug for the treatment of cancer and chronic infections. The company’s drug, AMP-224, works to allow the immune system to fight successfully against cancer and chronic infections. Amplimmune is working with Dr. Dean Mann of the Department of Clinical Pathology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, to assess the ability of AMP-224 to stimulate the human immune system. The goals of the collaboration are to measure the activity of AMP-224 on human immune cells and to determine what types of immune responses are enhanced by AMP-224.  This project is a key step in proceeding towards human clinical trials.

Assay Biomarker (Baltimore, Md.)  was founded by Dr. Bingren Hu, a scientist and entrepreneur at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who discovered a method to make glycoform-specific antibodies for detecting cancer biomarkers. These cancer-specific proteins are in high market demand for research, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications. Glycoform-specific antibodies are extremely difficult to make and thus they are not currently available. To meet with this unmet market need, Assay Biomarker has developed a proprietary technology for making glycoform-specific antibodies. The company’s MIPS project will use this technology to make antibodies for developing cancer biomarker assays and selling them directly to research institutions, as well as diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies. These new tools will help researchers discover new treatments for cancer.

MIPS is addressing some of the most critical problems in today’s complex world. These MIPS projects we’re funding all have the potential to lead to new products, create jobs, and enhance health in Maryland and beyond.  Check on our progress to see which of these projects will change Maryland for the better.  The results: better products, better cancer diagnosis and treatment, and a better economy in Maryland.

As part of the Obama Administration’s effort to support and empower the next generation of American clean energy entrepreneurs, the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) awarded $360,000 for the ACC Clean Energy Challenge and a total of $2 million to the ACC and five additional regions in the U.S. as part of its inaugural nationwide network of student-focused clean energy business plan competitions over the next three years. A national grand prize competition will be held in Washington, D.C., in summer 2012.

“By promoting innovation at our nation’s universities and cultivating America’s next generation scientific and technical leaders, we will ensure our nation’s competiveness in the clean energy economy of tomorrow,” says U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “The awards announced today support the Administration’s continued effort to ensure that America has the workforce we need to secure our energy future, create jobs here at home, and win the future.”

The ACC Clean Energy Business Challenge combines the technology, business, and student strengths of all the ACC schools in the Southeast region, including Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

Together, these schools conduct more than $4 billion in cutting-edge research each year, with clean energy a clear focus in organizations such as UNC’s Solar Energy Research Center, the University of Maryland Energy Research Center and Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute. ACC schools are also home to hundreds of student researchers in the energy field and numerous student energy clubs, including Duke’s Fuqua Energy Club, Virginia’s Darden Energy Club, the Energy Club at Georgia Tech, and Maryland’s Smith Energy Club.

The ACC Clean Energy Challenge targets and is open to all ACC schools, as well as other universities in the southeastern United States. The ACC Clean Energy Challenge finals event will rotate among three sub-regions with nearby ACC schools co-hosting each year. Maryland, Virginia, and Virginia Tech co-host in Washington, D.C., in year one; Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest co-host in the Research Triangle region in year two; and Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Miami will co-host in Atlanta in year three.

All full-time undergraduate and graduate students registered for the current semester at any university listed above are eligible to enter the competition.

Judging for the ACC Clean Energy Challenge will be conducted by external parties from relevant professional industries with the appropriate skill sets and understanding of entrepreneurship and commercialization. Executive summary and semifinal rounds will be judged online, while the finals will be judged live, in-person.

Details about the ACC Clean Energy Challenge will be made available shortly atwww.mtech.umd.edu including information for organizations interested in partnering with or sponsoring the ACC Clean Energy Challenge.

“We often see the most determined efforts and most spectacular achievements in sports in conference rivalries, and this ACC Clean Energy Challenge harnesses that competitive but friendly spirit and directs its potential and power towards solving some of this nation’s toughest challenges,” says Mtech Ventures Director Dean Chang. “Just about every single one of the Deans of the engineering schools in the ACC thought this was a perfect way to show pride in our individual ACC schools while also working together in a collegial and impactful way to unite the best and most promising faculty innovations in clean energy with entrepreneurial students and student groups from across the ACC and the Southeast.”

Additional regional winners included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Northeast Region; the California Institute of Technology in the Western Region; Rice University in the Western Southwest Region; Chicago-based Clean Energy Trust in the Eastern Midwest Region; and the University of Colorado in the Western Midwest Region.

Mtech’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships program (MIPS), is working to fuel the innovation economy in Maryland. We’re working to restore the Chesapeake Bay while we’re at it. MIPS, through support from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’Innovative Technology Fund, is funding some promising potential new products. If these projects are successful, you’ll see new products and new jobs in Maryland and a healthier Chesapeake Bay.

AviHome (Salisbury, Md.) worked with Professor Harter-Dennis, a poultry expert at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. AviHome has developed (and manufactures) a new type of flooring for chicken houses that  they thought would reduce ammonia formation and lets birds grow in a healthier environment. During the company’s MIPS project, Dr. Harter-Dennis discovered that this new flooring completely eliminated ammonia formation. What’s more, the birds gained more weight than birds grown with traditional litter flooring. By potentially reducing a major source of ammonia-sourced runoff into the Bay, AviHome could help solve a major environmental challenge and as a bonus, grow healthier chickens.

Maryland Environmental Plastics (Easton, Md.) is developing new seed pots made of biodegradable plastic. These pots have the potential to accelerate the restoration of coastal vegetation around the Bay. The goal of the MIPS project was to figure out what shape the plastic pots should have, so they would degrade only after plants had time to establish their root systems and take hold. Would the plants survive? Could this product be used to re-populate the Bay with grasses that are otherwise disappearing? Stay tuned!

BlueWing Environmental (Elicott City, Md.), is developing a treatment for stormwater retention ponds that collect water from areas surrounding poultry production. Their product is a Floating Treatment Wetland (FTW) made of recycled plastic fibers that remove nitrogen and phosphorus from the stormwater. For BlueWing’s MIPS project, a UM team has installed the company’s floating islands in a pond on a poultry farm on the Eastern Shore. They will study how much nitrogen and phosphorous is taken up by the islands’plants above the water, the microbial biomass below water, and how much nitrogen is de-nitrified, or blown off as inert gas.

Hy-Tek Bio (Baltimore, Md) is working with scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences to use microalgae to remove CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-burning facilities. The UM scientists are testing various strains of algae to achieve the best performer in HY-TEK Bio’s unique photo bioreactors. By-products of these algae could also be used in pharmaceuticals, bioplastics and biofuels as well as other useful products. This new approach could help reduce air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, natural gas and methane. HY-TEK Bio’s process also reduces nutrients in waste water by using it as effluent for the algae.

Blackrock Algae (Baltimore, Md.) is working with UM scientists from College Park to test a new system that uses aquatic biomass to remove pollutants from water. This system has a high rate of removal of pollutants and reduces sediment and nutrient runoff into the Bay. Tests are being conducted on-site at Constellation Energy’s Crane Power Facility to compare this new system to ones previously used.

MIPS is working to address some of the most critical problems in today’s complex world. These MIPS projects all have the potential to lead to new products, create jobs, and enhance the health of the Bay. Check on our progress to see which of these projects will change Maryland for the better. The result: Better products, better Bay, and better economy.