Gecko Robotics' proprietary magnetic adhesion technology works much like the sticky foot of a gecko, allowing its robots to crawl up walls to inspect for damage in power plants. This technology helps ensure safety and increase efficiency by deploying robots rather than humans.
Forty-two companies with promising energy and other cutting-edge technologies collected more than $1.69 million at the 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston, Texas, capping an annual event billed as the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup contest.
The April 14-16 competition marked the fourth of eight regional competitions in the Energy Department’s Cleantech University Prize. Announced last summer, the new and expanded Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP) competition calls for eight institutions to host regional, collegiate challenges that award cash prizes. These contests conclude with a national competition in June, growing America’s pipeline of student clean energy entrepreneurs.
TriFusion Devices from Texas A&M University walked away with nearly $400,000 in cash and prizes as the grand prize winner of the Rice competition. The 3D-printed products startup was named overall winner by more than 300 judges, primarily venture capitalists and other investors.
For the second straight year the top place in energy at the Rice competition went to a startup from Carnegie Mellon University, Gecko Robotics, whose technology offers a safer method for infrastructure inspection. Last year’s winner was Hyllion.
Gecko won $150,000 in individual prizes including the Cleantech UP. The startup formed in 2013 also took third place overall in the Rice competition, along with a $10,000 3rd Place Cisco Internet of Everything Prize, and $10,000 Shell Technology Ventures Prize. Its proprietary magnetic adhesion technology works much like the sticky foot of a gecko, allowing its robots to crawl up walls to inspect for damage in power plants.
Today, U.S. power plants spend $15 billion annually to perform safety inspections of their industrial infrastructure. These inspections can take seven days, with plants losing $1 million per day in business, and they are dangerous. Gecko’s technology helps ensure safety and increase efficiency by deploying robots rather than humans. Second place in energy went to MDAR Technologies, which develops next generation 3D vision systems, from the University of Michigan. Where conventional imaging systems fail in common situations like sunlight, reflections, motion, and precipitation, MDAR’s technology images accurately, improving vision for autonomous vehicles and industrial automation control.
Capturing third place in energy was Ivy Creative Labs, Inc., with its BlueWave Cleaning System. Based out of the Innovation Hub at the University of Florida, the company’s deodorization and disinfection device cleans items that are hard or impossible to clean with a washer and dryer – in as little as five minutes – with far less energy from conventional cleaning processes. The device also has been proven to kill 99.9% of bacteria (such as MRSA and E. coli), viruses, and fungi.
Congratulations to all the winners! We can’t wait to see what the coming Cleantech UP regional competitions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first-time host Rutgers University, and the University of Central Florida bring to the clean energy table.
