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A University of Louisville student-led startup has won $200,000 in a prestigious U.S. Department of Energy competition focused on next-generation energy technologies and now will compete for an additional $500,000. SoFab Inks LLC was founded by UofL graduate students Blake Martin, Peter Armstrong and Sashil Chapagain, who won DOE's American-Made Perovskite Startup Prize for technology they helped develop along with UofL Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research investigators Thad Druffel and Craig Grapperhaus. SoFab Inks is one of only three companies currently moving on to the final stage of the competition. Solar panels today are typically made of single-crystal silicon, which requires expensive processing using clean room environments. The American-Made Perovskite Startup Prize is designed to accelerate the use of perovskite crystalline semiconductor materials that can be produced using simpler known printing techniques, resulting in improved efficiency, durability and affordab ....
Several University of Louisville researchers, innovators and healers have been recognized by Louisville Business First as 2022 Health Care Heroes. The awards honor "those who have made an impact on health care in our community through their concern for patients, research, innovation, management skills and being on the frontlines fighting the Covid-19 pandemic," according to the publication. The UofL honorees are: Front-Line Hero: Andrew Odom, emergency room charge nurse with UofL Hospital. Health Entrepreneur: Mahendra Sunkara, director of UofL's Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research and professor of chemical engineering, who worked to develop, commercialize and produce reusable N95-style masks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Equity Champions: Suzanne Kingery, director of the UofL Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program; and Keith Miller, a trauma surgeon with UofL Health. Health Innovator: Mark Slaughter and Siddharth Pahwa (dual award), cardio ....
A group of students and faculty members from the University of Louisville's Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research recently had the opportunity to participate in the Solar Decathlon Middle East competition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The event, the largest solar decathlon competition for international universities, featured 14 international teams and took place Oct. 20 to Nov. 21 at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Over the last 2 years, teams designed and built high energy-efficiency, grid-connected, solar-powered houses, which were set up together in a public showcase village during the World Expo. UofL teamed up with Higher Colleges of Technology, American University of Sharjah and American University in Dubai to form "Team Desert Phoenix." The team fused talents of faculty, staff and students from all four universities to design, build and compete with a state-of-the-science 1,000-square-foot house. UofL's Conn Center for Renewable Energy R ....
A University of Louisville research-backed startup has secured $2 million in funding to further development of a technology meant to make solar power more accessible. The startup, Bert Thin Films, plans to use the new funding via a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and $1 million in angel investment to further their copper-based paste technology, called CuBert, invented and patented at UofL. The paste can replace silver components currently used in solar panels, making them less expensive to manufacture. "Silver is a huge issue for the industry because the price volatility and there may not be enough to produce the amount of solar panels needed," said Thad Druffel, theme leader for solar manufacturing R&D at UofL's Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research. "We can solve it by changing one simple ingredient." Druffel invented the technology with former post-doctoral research associate, Ruvini Dharmadasa, and now is CEO of Bert Thin Fil ....