Day 2 - A Summary of the Energy & Environment Track

Tonight we had a distinguished panel of judges and a great group from Duke leading the event.

Our judges for the night were:
Van Morris ‘78, CEO of US Microgrid
Stacy Glass ‘99, President of CaraGreen
Jeff Keller, External Technology Initiatives at GE

Also front and center we had:
Track Lead and Timer - Nick Donowitz
Floor Manager - Joe McMahan
Presiding President - Steven Pal

After brief introductions, Van Morris gave a great talk on the Business Plan. Specifically, he passed on his advice that it's not about the plan itself but the thinking behind the plan that helps a startup succeed. Great firsthand advice from Van.

Tonight we heard from:

Gurpreet Singh Neeraj who pitched Urja Rural Energy Solutions - We propose solutions to energy needs of rural India by identifying alternative energy generation methods and promoting them among investors.

Mike Stanton who pitched PowerDown - We merge social networking and behavioral economics to create green communities that compete to conserve energy and donate to social causes.

Andrew LeBlanc who pitched Token Energy - We are developing real time building energy use displays, which allow residents of dorms to see exactly how much energy the dorm is using.

Shawn George pitched who Green Energy Team - Our technology utilizes solar energy to its fullest by providing point-of-use solar thermal energy for home heating and electricity.

Kapil Ramachandran who pitched SwitchEnergy - Building commercial refineries that will convert switchgrass, a carbon-sequestration energy crop, to ethanol, to provide clean power to cars and home generators.

Hudson Levy who pitched MethaneCap - Environmental degradation from hog waste is a major issue. We've developed a technology to capture methane gas generated from hog farms.

Remya Narayanaswami who pitched Charge - Battery swap infrastructure to enable small electric vehicles in developing countries.

Emily Sherman who pitched Smartlet - Smartlet is a cost- and energy-saving system that reduces your phantom energy waste at the touch of a button. No installation needed.

Joshua Moore who pitched SolOrganic - SolOrganic designs and manufactures photovoltaic polymers for the production of energy-efficient and cost-effective solar cells.

Sarah Musser who pitched SolAir Share - SolAir Share is a solar "cooperative" that allows its members to enjoy solar electricity without the barriers in the residential solar market.

Tyler Cantarano who pitched Aurora Networks - Networks smart-outlets to a web-based, intelligent system to optimize energy-efficiency.

David Benson who pitched CarBone - Our innovative process recycles waste bone, converting it into porous carbon electrodes for use in oxygen batteries and modern electronics.

Beibei Lu who pitched Magic Meter - Smarter than Smart Meter - Magic meter is a super intelligent smart met

The winners from the night were:

Judges Choice Award: Token Energy
Audience Choice Award: Token Energy

Judges Runner Up: CarBone

A big thank you to all of the entrepreneurs, judges, audience members, and organizers for helping make this a wonderful event. We hope to see you at the finals event on November 20th, from 5:30pm – 9:00pm at Fuqua in the Geneen Auditorium.