The UW Foster School of Business announced the top 16 teams of the UW Business Plan Competition on Wednesday.
All 3 ChemE Entrepreneurial Design teams that entered into the competition made the sweet 16! Out of the 96 teams, 36 were selected to go through the Investment Round on Wednesday, further narrowing the group to the top 16. All three ChemE teams made the cut.
335 judges were on hand at this tradeshow-style investment round where the 36 teams pitched their technologies.
This year, a total of $85,000 will be awarded. ChemE team and now a startup company, Vie Diagnostics, won the Grand Prize and the Best Innovation Idea (along with a $27,000) check at the 2015 BPC. The selected 16, including our own three teams below, will compete for top spots on May 26.
Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business
Advisor: Prof. Lilo Pozzo
Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.
Ionic Windows
Anthony Moretti, Ian Hochstein; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business
Advisor: Prof. Lilo Pozzo
Ionic Windows provides membranes to flow battery manufacturers that enable a 25 percent capital cost reduction, making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.
Smart Charger Pro
Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian, Samson Smith, Niccolo Fortes, Nannan Jiang; UW Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Profs. Dan Schwartz and Venkat Subramanian
The Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter and customizable way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible rates, a quicker charge or a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved while reducing battery waste.
See the complete list of the 16 teams on the BPC blog post.