Sessions
Successful Case Studies
The session highlights successful cases of the transfer of technologies focused on cleaner, more efficient energy and environmental technologies to protect and clean our environment. Discussion will highlight the development of such technologies and their application and commercialization in the marketplace.
Featured Speakers:
CHAIR
Acting Director
David Specca
Rutgers EcoComplex
David Specca is the Acting Director of the Rutgers University EcoComplex. The EcoComplex is part of the NJ Agricultural Experiment Station System and is focused on applied research, demonstration and business development for environmental technologies. The facility is located adjacent to an active landfill and contains 60,000 square feet of laboratory, tech scale-up and high tech greenhouse space. Since starting in 2001, the Rutgers EcoComplex has graduated three environmental technology companies and currently has 10 other companies in various stages of development. One of the companies that graduated has a landfill gas cleanup system that allows for the production of LNG for refuse truck fuel. Another company has developed a national brand of organic fertilizer derived from vermi-compost. The third company developed small scale arsenic removal filters for drinking water for home use. Dave will discuss some of the attributes he sees as being important to offer startup environmental businesses.
President, chief Scientist and technologist
Stanford Ovshinsky
ECD Ovonics
Stanford R. Ovshinsky is President and Chief Scientist and Technologist of Energy Conversion Devices (ECD Ovonics). His originating and pioneering work in amorphous/disordered materials since 1955 has become the enabling technology in four major areas: energy generation including photovoltaics and fuel cells; energy storage including Ovonic nickel metal hydride consumer and electric and hybrid vehicle batteries and solid hydrogen storage; information systems, including amorphous semiconductors, switching and phase change memories both optical and electrical; and atomically engineered synthetic materials for a wide variety of uses.
He has over 300 U.S. patents and is the author of over 275 scientific papers ranging from neurophysiology to amorphous semiconductors. He has received numerous awards, the most recent are: “Hero for the Planet” by Time Magazine (1999); the Karl W. Boer Solar Energy Medal of Merit awarded jointly by the University of Delaware and the International Solar Energy Society (1999); the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) Sir William Grove Award (2000); Hero of Chemistry 2000 with his wife Dr. Iris Ovshinsky by the American Chemical Society; Recipient of the Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award presented by the American Solar Energy Society (2004); and The 2005 Innovation Award for Energy and the Environment by The Economist for "his pioneering work in the development of the high-powered NiMH battery" (November 2005).” He was profiled in Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse, published by MIT Press in association with Lemelson-MIT Program (December 2001), as one of the 35 American Inventors over the past century “who helped to shape the modern world.” The Stanford R. Ovshinsky Award for Excellence in Non-Crystalline Chalcogenides was established in 2001 to honor Stan Ovshinsky’s pioneering work in the field of Non-Crystalline Chalcogenides. Three festschrifts in honor of Stan Ovshinsky’s 80th birthday were dedicated to him (November 24, 2002).
Jiann-Yang (Jim) Hwang
The Institute of Materials Processing (IMP) Michigan Technological University
Dr. Jim Hwang was born in Taiwan. He came to United States in 1977 and received his PhD degree from Purdue University in 1982. He joined Michigan Technological University afterwards and is currently a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Director of Institute of Materials Processing. His research interests are truly multi-disciplinary. This is the reason why he has also been recruited as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering, the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. Dr. Hwang has 15 U.S. Patents and more than 100 publications. His research in the environmental related areas include the recycling of various kind of materials such as fly ash, glass, tires, automobile shredding residues, plastics, aluminum slags, steel slags, foundry sands, etc. His patents in fly ash processing have been licensed by CEMEX, the second largest cement company in the world. He is going to share his experience in fly ash with us.
Scott Inwood
Technology Transfer and Licensing Office University of Waterloo
Waterloo EmitterTM - Commercialization via a “Virtual Company” model
The groundwater remediation market is heavily influenced by regulations and liability issues. Against this risk adverse backdrop, it is generally very difficult to find commercial receptors to either license or invest in new and unproven environmental technologies and thus a proactive market-push strategy is often required to commercialize such technologies. The University of Waterloo has a deep history in patiently supporting and commercializing eleven (11) environmental technologies that are currently on the marketplace providing significant environmental and economic benefit. The University recently expanded its technology transfer tool chest to include the creation of a “virtual company” to commercialize its Waterloo EmitterTM technology used for the treatment of a variety of groundwater contaminants. A case study will be presented highlighting the creation of an internal University virtual company to perform product development, marketing, and sales functions to establish initial technology market and customer validation as a precursor to ultimately completing to a successful licensing relationship with a private sector company.
