On the evening of February 5, a dozen student teams from across campus jumped into a shark tank. Their goal was to convince a tough set of savvy judges that a technology idea they are working on has real technical and market potential. Each team gave a one minute elevator pitch to set the tone, and then presented a poster that fleshed out
their tech idea in greater detail. Chemical Engineering student teams took two of the top three prizes.
FindNano, the third place finisher, was the brain child of Ph.D. student Charlie Corredor. Charlie and his advisor Jonathan Posner have developed a simple visual test for detecting nanoparticles in water---no small feat for particles that are 1/1000th the size of a hair.
Second Place, and the "Best Market Strategy" Prize went to a ChemE/MBA team called, "Electro Metal Solutions (EMS)". Undergrads Alison Keeney, Britton Stamper, and Andrew Carlson are working with Ph.D. student Trevor Braun and MBA student Pritam Das to demonstrate a new method for repairing expensive semiconductor test boards instead of scrapping them. The technology is related to Trevor's Ph.D. work in Dan Schwartz's lab. The undergraduates on the EMS team are getting their senior design credits as part of the new ChemE Innovation Program, and Trevor is funded by the Department of Education to get experience teaching innovation and entrepreneurship to chemical engineers.