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Bio- and electrical engineers take top prizes in business tech contest
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CET director Ikhlaq Sidhu (far left) presents an award check to EECS graduate students (from left) Josephine Chang, Brian Mattis and Steve Molesa, winners in the 2005 Technology Breakthrough Competition for their gas sensors project.
VIVEK RAO PHOTO
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Two engineering teams outhustled the competition at the second annual Technology Breakthrough Competition last November, held at the Berkeley Art Museum, to rise above a field of 41 entries seeking recognition and support in commercializing their products.
Both the grand prize and Science Breakthrough Award ($10,000) went to James Kirby, postdoctoral scholar with the Keasling Research Group, and Eric Paradise, ChemE graduate student, whose work on the metabolic engineering of yeast could reduce by 90 percent the cost of manufacturing therapies for malaria, cancer and AIDS. (See spring 2005 Forefront cover story for more details.)
The top information technology prize ($5,000) went to EECS graduate students Josephine Chang, Brian Mattis and Steve Molesa and EECS professor Vivek Subramanian, who developed a method for manufacturing gas sensors based on printing technology, which lowers their cost 10 to 200 times below current methods. Gas sensors can sniff out anything from contraband to spoiled milk and, if manufacturing costs were lowered, could be widely distributed for monitoring environmental toxins.
The competition is sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET), Berkeley’s new academic/industry partnership program that has earned the attention of Bay Area investment firms and business executives. The program is designed to help engineers and other scientists make the transition from student researchers to business leaders in an increasingly global entrepreneurial marketplace.
“This was a difficult competition to judge,” said Ikhlaq Sidhu, CET director. “Many of the applicants’ projects have the potential to make significant contributions to the world.” The competition’s goal, he added, is to recognize in their early stages highly promising innovations that have the potential to be adopted in the next five years.
Two other teams won $1,000 awards. EECS professor John Canny and EECS doctoral student David Nguyen took the Director’s Award for MultiView, their videoconferencing display designed to improve communications between distant locations. The Greatest Social Impact Award went to Forest Kaser, Micah Lang and Fermin Reygadas for the UV Tube, their inexpensive water disinfecting unit that could have wide application in developing countries.
On top of the cash awards, all four teams as well as four finalists also won the chance to work with CET’s Venture Lab (V-Lab), a nonprofit advocacy program for budding entrepreneurs. V-Lab partners judge the competition and help identify venture capitalists and business leaders to assist the winning research teams with company launches and product licensing.
Go to http://cet.berkeley.edu for more information.
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