A 麻豆原创 student is taking the lead on propelling his professor鈥檚 energy-storage invention into the marketplace and, with the help of several of the university鈥檚 innovation support programs, is getting noticed.
Capacitech Energy LLC, led by CEO and 麻豆原创 electrical engineering junior Joe Sleppy and co-founder nanoscience Professor Jayan Thomas, has licensed Thomas鈥� invention to design easily customizable capacitors necessary for electronic circuits and market them to manufacturers.
Both credit 麻豆原创鈥檚 entrepreneurial support services 鈥� specifically the Office of Research and Commercialization鈥檚 I-Corps program and the College of Business鈥檚 Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership — with helping them grow the business.
鈥淭he university and the I-Corps program have given us a place and time to explore different business models to ensure we had a feasible path forward,鈥� Sleppy said.
麻豆原创 is one of 37 universities nationwide selected by the National Science Foundation as an I-Corps site in 2015. It is one of NSF鈥檚 signature programs to foster entrepreneurship that will lead to the commercialization of research.
Thomas developed a technique for manufacturing a copper wire-based capacitor that holds the potential to help manufacturers significantly reduce the cost of producing electronic devices.
Because a typical electronic device can require many different size capacitors, each performing important tasks such as power conditioning by reducing voltage spikes, manufacturers will typically stock different sizes of capacitors to be certain they have the size required for each role a capacitor plays.
Since Capacitech is enmeshing capacitor functions in a wire, an electronics manufacturer could buy a spool of the cable capacitor and cut the wire at customized lengths to meet their needs, which reduces unit costs and inventory cost.
They found multiple potential uses for the cable, including replacing capacitor banks on cell towers to reduce the rent paid on the tower, using the cables in transmission lines that are capable of storing solar energy in homes and offices, sewing clothes with an energy-absorbing thread that would allow a cell phone to be charged in a suit pocket, and manufacturing smaller and lighter electronic devices.
Capacitech won the 麻豆原创 College of Business Joust award in 2016 and Thomas鈥� technology has been . The technology was also recognized with an Oscar of Innovation at the 2015 R&D 100 Awards and was named a finalist at the 2014 World Technology Network Awards.
The company has applied to 麻豆原创鈥檚 Business Incubation Program and is working with a potential customer to raise seed funding. The company is also a finalist for the Orlando-based FireSpring fund, which invests in promising technology companies in Central Florida.