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Media Contact: Mike Bradley
Communications and Media Relations


Purdue team wins ORNL Global Venture Challenge

Tom Ballard, (left), director of ORNL Partnerships, and ORNL Director Thom Mason (far right) present $25,000 to Purdue University team members Isaac Wildeson and Carlos Kemeny for winning the 2009 Global Venture Challenge.
Tom Ballard, (left), director of ORNL Partnerships, and ORNL Director Thom Mason (far right) present $25,000 to Purdue University team members Isaac Wildeson and Carlos Kemeny for winning the 2009 Global Venture Challenge. (hi-res image)
 
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 27, 2009 — A Purdue University students' business plan for making low-cost, energy efficient lights has won first place in the Global Venture Challenge Idea to Product Competition at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The winning team took home the grand prize of $25,000 for a presentation on their company, SiMetal, which specializes in fabrication of low-cost, light-emitting diode, or LED, chips. The Purdue team members are James Cruse, Carlos Kemeny, Matthew Lynall and Isaac Wildeson.

Second place and a $10,000 prize went to the Clark Atlanta University-Morehouse College team for a presentation on their company, Apex Plastics. The Clark-Morehouse team members are Donald Hylton, Kamau Sewell, and Yemaya Stallworth-Bordain.

Third place and $5,000 went to the Duke University team and their company, CPS Biofuels. Duke team members are Jacqueline Coates, Lauren Knish, Hosoon Lim, Takayuki Yamazaki, and Gerry Grune.

The teams were judged by panels of energy executives, venture capitalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and legal experts.

ORNL Director Thom Mason and Tom Ballard, director of ORNL Partnerships Directorate, presented the team prizes.

The Global Venture Challenge, now in its third year, is an educational contest featuring entrepreneurial and technology-based business proposals presented by students from around the world.

This year's challenge, supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies and UT-Battelle, also included an Energy Venture Showcase of energy efficiency products and services from several participating companies.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.