NCET

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We’re hearing a lot these days about the wide range of high-tech, clean energy advances being made throughout Nevada. While we’re making impressive strides, perhaps even more encouraging is the volume and quality of grass-roots, forward-thinking ideas and business models coming out of our Greater Reno-Tahoe’s colleges and universities.

NCET will present the 2008 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Business Writing Competition awards Friday in Las Vegas. The Governor’s Cup is a statewide collegiate business plan competition where students compete for nearly $110,000 in cash awards. I’d like to share with you a few highlights found in the business plan submissions of this year’s Governor’s Cup graduate and undergraduate finalists.

University of Nevada, Reno is home to the largest number of finalists in this year’s competition. To facilitate collaboration between researchers worldwide, UNR’s SciSpace team created a literature-based networking Web site for scientific engineering and medical research professionals.

GoGreenOutdoors.com also launched into the online arena with its Web site that connects people to green culture through eco-tourism and adventure information.

Renewables and sustainables were a hot commodity among this year’s participating collegiate teams.

The UNR More Water Company team proposes a form of atmospheric water-generation technology to produce drinking water from the air, diminishing the reduction of natural resources. Also at UNR, a Sierra Biofuels team created a renewable resource company specializing in sustainable transportation fuels.

On the medical technology front, the UNR Wolfpack Works team developed a product to improve quality of life for individuals with communication disorders through an augmentative and alternative communication device. From Sierra Nevada College, we saw KG BioSolutions offering a self-sufficient cogeneration product marketed toward restaurants. The system processes crude vegetable oil and burns the processed biodiesel in an industrial generator, providing supplemental on-site electricity.

While student teams found innovative ways to merge their academic knowledge with enterprising high-tech concepts, we also saw submissions that drew upon elements often associated with college life.

UNR’s Bio-grounds LLC devised a method of using spent coffee grounds to produce high-quality, eco-friendly and low-cost biodiesel, while WunderBeer uses organic waste from the beer-making process to power fuel cells in creating renewable energy.

This year’s Governor’s Cup enjoyed record-setting participation across a wide variety of academic disciplines, with 48 business plans submitted by a total of 146 students. We also saw an increase in submissions for the Lt. Governor’s Award, which goes to the business plan that best employs clean, renewable or efficient energy technologies and services. I think you’ll agree that the entrepreneurial spirit, paired with a desire to find high-tech solutions to complex issues, is quite evident in this generation of college students.

To learn more about all of NCET’s 2008 Governor’s Cup finalists, visit www.2008govcup.com