Members in ME Professor Hayden Taylor’s Group Win Berkeley Cleantech University Prize

Members in ME Professor Hayden Taylor’s group, Liam Berryman and Lance Brockway, have won the&nbsp“Berkeley Cleantech University Prize CUP“” – a competition put on by the&nbspBerkeley Energy and Climate Institute BECI&nbspand&nbspBerkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative BERC, and sponsored by the&nbspDepartment of Energy DOE. After four months of mentorship and training from the competition’s&nbspdedicated mentors and educators, the team won&nbspthe $100,000 Berkeley CUP for their company, Nelumbo, which will be awarded in conjunction with the annual BECI Philomathia Forum and BERC Energy Summit. The team will also&nbspadvance to the DOE’s Cleantech University Prize National Conference hosted by&nbspSpark Clean Energy.

&nbsp

What is Nelumbo?

“”Nelumbo has developed an omniphobic nanocoating which&nbspaccelerates&nbspwater shedding and reduces contaminant build-up on surfaces. We are using our&nbspOMNIPHOBE^TM&nbspcoating in air conditioning systems to raise efficiency by up to 25%.&nbspOur&nbspcoating is 200X thinner than a human hair, conducts heat,&nbspand adds less than 2% to the manufacturing cost of an AC unit, allowing for cost-effective universal application on any scale or geometry.&nbspBy applying OMNIPHOBE^TM,&nbspwe can&nbspreduce maintenance costs, decrease energy consumption, and improve air quality for the next generation of air conditioning.””

&nbsp

The research that led to the invention of the technology was supported by the Singapore-Berkeley Building Efficiency and Sustainability in the Tropics SinBerBEST program, part of the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore BEARS, which is funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation NRF.

&nbsp

Check out their prize-winning concept in action on our YouTube page!

&nbsp

Congratulations, Nelumbo!