The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) announced three winners and five runners-up in the inaugural EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Faculty Track.
Office of Technology Commercialization
April 22, 2024
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Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) announced three winners and five runners-up in the inaugural EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Faculty Track. OTT awarded each faculty competitor a cash prize for showing promising interest, ideas, and/or materials advancing energy entrepreneurship at their collegiate institutions.
EnergyTech UP is a collegiate competition for both students and faculty, aimed at growing clean energy entrepreneurship. The Faculty Track aims to support faculty members at collegiate institutions as they explore, develop, and implement educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship at their institution.
This track is designed to incentivize and support faculty directly, offering $100,000 in cash prizes throughout the prize.
As part of EnergyTech UP, faculty develop a proposal throughout three phases of competition: the Explore Phase, the Develop Phase, and the Implementation Phase. In January, 10 faculty members were selected as Faculty Explorers, earning $4,000 each for their plans to increase energy entrepreneurship topics at their schools. Faculty Explorers, as well as any other interested faculty, received access to training sessions and other resources, and were encouraged to submit a plan to reflect how their idea could be integrated into educational activities for students.
“We were extremely pleased with the performance and enthusiasm of the faculty competitors in the first year of the EnergyTech UP Faculty Track,” said DOE Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan. “We recognize that so many educators out there have ideas around how to increase student access to energy entrepreneurship activities, and we hope this competition acts as a catalyst to put those ideas into motion.”
The EnergyTech UP 2024 Faculty Winners are as follows:
- First Place, earning $25,000: Maryam Younessi Sinaki, PhD, Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH)
- Second Place, earning $15,000: Brien Walton, J.D. Ed.D., Husson University (Bangor, ME)
- Third Place, earning $10,000: Kassandra McQuillen, J.D., Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)
Additionally, five faculty were identified as runners-up, earning $2,000 each (organized alphabetically by last name):
- Derek Abrams, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX)
- Mohammad Biswas, University of Texas at Tyler (Tyler, TX)
- Gary Koenig, the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
- Dawen Li, The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)
- Irene Reizman, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, IN)
EnergyTech UP also recently completed the Student Track, announcing 13 National and Bonus Prize Winners at the Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas. Student teams developed and presented business plans around emerging energy technologies. Throughout the competition, they received mentorship and materials to help them succeed, all while competing for part of $450,000 in cash prizes.
Also announced at the Energy Thought Summit was the upcoming launch of EnergyTech UP 2025, which will again offer students and faculty members cash prizes for their efforts in energy entrepreneurship. The 2025 program will open in fall 2024 and both tracks will begin competing in early 2025. Follow EnergyTech UP on HeroX, the official prize platform, for updates on the 2025 competition.
About the Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions
The Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) is one of the largest supporters of technology commercialization in the federal government. Founded in 2015, OTT bolsters the technology industry's market skills and enables clean energy technologies to progress through research, development, demonstration, and to deployment into the private sector to meet our nation’s climate goals. Visit us at energy.gov/technologytransitions to learn more, and subscribe to receive our latest opportunities and accomplishments via email. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.