The School of Environment, Enterprise and Development was well represented at the finale of the Jack Rosen Memorial Award for Environmental Innovation. The event, which took place last night in the new Board and Senate room of Needles Hall, was a “pitch-style” competition where the winning team walked away with a $2,000 grand prize.
In order to be eligible to compete in last night’s event student teams were required to submit an application in early October. Once selected, they attended a workshop to learn how to craft and deliver their pitch for the main competition.
The students from SEED proposed a variety of different ideas tackling many environmental issues.
Michael Allen (Environment and Business) was the solo member of team FlitterMouse. His idea was to develop a bat box (called an EchoHouse) that would create a safe habitat for the declining North American Bat population.
Team Living Biofilters (Callum Gaskin (EB), Jeremy Naster (EB) and Daniel Schissler (Biology)) proposed the modification of mussels and oysters to assist in solving the issue of microbeads into marine and freshwater environments.
Team Distribics Tenchology Inc (William Seaward (MEDI), Mark Beylin (CS and Business Admin)) pitched a micro-carbon-credit assignment, validation, and trading platform for households. This would allow households and small firms to be included in the carbon credit economy.
Team Cellabrite (EB students Jody Fennel, Kristina Tisma, Carter Kirilenko and Geoffrey Norton) proposed constructing microbial fuel cells that turn organic matter into electricity. Their idea would help the 1.3 billion people globally that live with no access to electricity.
Joanna Hausen (International Development) pitched Re-Brew, a network of partnerships to re-purpose and re-sell spent coffee grounds. The coffee grounds could be repurposed for different applications such as exfoliates and wood stain. This network would redirect waste from landfills and create another profit stream for businesses.
Although none of the SEED teams walked away with the grand prize, all of them left with increased experience in public speaking, time management, research, and presentation preparedness. For some of them, this pitch competition may be the first of many steps towards fulfilling their goal of solving an important environmental problem.
Congratulations on your hard work!