Portland State University issued the following announcement on Apr. 20.
A showcase of invention projects born from the creativity and passion of Portland State University students was held on April 15 at the Native American Student and Community Center on the PSU campus.
Now in its tenth year, the Cleantech Challenge, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at PSU, is a competition for PSU innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to solve an environmental problem. At this year’s challenge undergraduate and graduate students with bold ideas and the drive to make them a reality pitched their projects for a panel of judges, competing for $10,000 in grants and prizes.
“The Cleantech Challenge continues to grow and amaze. For the last ten years we have posed a challenge to students: what can you build with $1,500 dollars in 90 days?” said Abigail Van Gelder , assistant program manager at the Center for Entrepreneurship and lead organizer of the Cleantech Challenge. “Over the past few months each team has been performing the groundwork to launch a product through design, research, and prototyping exercises.”
Six teams competed in this year’s challenge, and their projects were evaluated by a panel of judges who reviewed their pitch, impact, prototype, and progress. Teams who placed in the top three were awarded prize money, and the first and second place teams will represent PSU at Invent Oregon, a statewide collegiate invention competition taking place this June.
Taking first place was “Fungivores” – a team made up of two female graduate architecture students. Fungivores is looking into renewable construction materials and exploring ways to produce materials from mycelium.
“How can we push sustainability in architecture and effectively create synergy between nature and our built environment?” asks Nancy Barakat Adams, a member of Fungivores. “Our product proposes biodegradable bricks that can be used in gardening and landscape design with environmental benefits to the soil and living organisms. Mycelium bricks can promise great solutions against the stressors threatening our bee population.”
Second place went to team “Copiosus”, whose name is a direct translation of the Latin word for abundance. Team Copiosus is examining ways to maximize the production of sustainable food using the help of artificial intelligence. They hope to meet what they see as a planetary need and a societal need for easily accessible food that is produced using a smaller bio footprint.
“There are 38 million people in America who are experiencing food insecurity, 12 million of which are children. That’s a massive problem,” shares Copiosus project manager Amanda Mays. “Our approach to tackle this is through aquaculture – a centuries old technique which uses fish and plants side by side to develop a constant source of food.”
The Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to support students whose ideas and innovations are shaping the future. The Cleantech Challenge is just one of the many programs that the Center for Entrepreneurship hosts and makes available to students.
“This year’s slate of finalists represents a cross-section of innovation at Portland State,” said Juan Barraza, director of student innovation at the Center for Entrepreneurship. “Each prototype represents the hard work of our students building a greener, more sustainable future for all. These are the kinds of ideas that will lead Oregon toward a brighter, better economic future.”
Fungivores and Copiosus will now take their innovative prototype to the next level, as they aim to solve their identified, significant environmental problems. Their success at the Cleantech Challenge has earned them the opportunity to represent PSU at the state-wide Invent Oregon invention competition this June.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Portland State University
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