Hyliion from Carnegie Mellon University won the 2015 top student DOE cleantech entrepreneur prize. Who will win in 2016?
Tomorrow marks the beginning of a very exciting collegiate season. No we aren’t talking about softball, baseball or tennis—it’s innovation season.
On Thursday, February 18th, the Department of Energy’s Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP) will kick off its first competition in Berkley, California, with seven additional contests happening through May in regions across the country. The winning teams from each region receive cash prizes and advance to the national competition in Denver, CO – hosted by Cleantech UP Hub Spark Clean Energy – for a shot at the $100,000 prize on June 23.
The Cleantech UP competition aims to inspire the next generation of clean energy entrepreneurs and innovators by providing them with competitive funding for business development and commercialization training. The initiative builds on its predecessor, the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, which expanded student engagement in clean energy technologies from 2011 to 2015 and attracted more than 1,000 teams, resulting in more than 70 ventures, 120 jobs, and $60 million in follow-on funding.
Universities provide an essential pipeline of talent and fresh ideas to address today’s most pressing issues. Through this initiative, the Department brings students exposure and awareness to the cleantech market, and it offers the resources and incentives necessary to attract top talent to a sector that can keep America at the forefront economically and environmentally.
The competition is intense… just to get to the starting line.
For example, the first of these eight competitions – the Berkeley Cleantech University Prize (Berkeley CUP) – requires that each fall, student teams across California and the West Coast apply for a chance to showcase their innovative technologies. Then, the selected teams receive extensive mentorship, entrepreneurial training and access to fabrication and prototyping spaces at the University of California-Berkeley. These teams also benefit from the competition’s dedicated mentors and educators which include the world-class professionals from the Haas School of Business’s Cleantech to Market, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cyclotron Road, the American Jobs Project, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) Foundry, the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, SkyDeck, and the BECI Energy Challenge.
That training culminates in the competition for the Berkley CUP and the seven subsequent competitions of Cleantech UP. The winners will receive a $100,000 prize, and all of us will receive the promising ideas and technologies that they and their fellow competitors create while participating in the Cleantech UP.
Below is a listing of this year’s competitions and hosting institutions (by date). The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will be highlighting the winners in their blog, so stay tuned.
- University of California-Berkeley
Berkley Cleantech University Prize
February 18, 2016
- Carnegie Mellon University
Allegheny Region Cleantech University Prize
March 16, 2016
- Clean Energy Trust
Clean Energy Trust Challenge
April 12, 2016
- Rice University
Rice Business Plan Competition
April 14-16, 2016
- Rutgers University
LaunchR
April 22, 2016
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Clean Energy Prize
April 30- May 1
- California Institute of Technology
First Look West Competition
May 18, 2016
- University of Central Florida
Megawatt Ventures
May 2016
