EnergyTech UP team members Dominic Frisone, Spencer Frase and John DiPaolo.
Recently, University of Akron (UA) engineering students Dominic Frisone, John DiPaolo, and Spencer Frase, and intellectual property law student SaiPranay Vellala were selected as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Winner in the EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) competition. Their team also included members from The Ohio State University.
As the regional winner, they received $3,000 for their entry “Direct Recycling of Battery Manufacturing Waste,” an innovative business solution for bringing cutting-edge energy tech to market, and moved on to compete at the national event in Austin, TX. At the regional event, they competed against teams from Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, MIT, and many others.
Their group also consisted of UA technical team members Duncan Welch, Ryan Ohlin, and Jared Vance who continually worked behind the scenes designing and fabricating parts for the project.
About the project:
Currently, battery manufacturers are being incentivized to produce more volume, allowing the United States to be less reliant on fossil fuels. All-electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries will play a huge role in the transition to green energy. To continue to support this growth, efforts are being made to recycle battery waste to be reused in the manufacturing process.
The team’s innovation uses an environmentally friendly solution, and the process helps ensure that the battery manufacturer retains the material while keeping it in its refined state. This will save the company money and time while continuing to support the rising demand for EV batteries. Not only will this benefit manufacturers, but it will also help achieve renewable, clean energy in the United States.
Dominic is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and his focus of research is battery recycling. John and Spencer are pursuing B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and their roles in the project were to develop and improve the business model and acquire funds to build a prototype. Vellala is a third-year law student. His role was to convey his knowledge of intellectual property to the group and warn of any adverse implications of forgoing patent protection.
EnergyTech UP is a collegiate competition challenging multidisciplinary student teams to develop and present a business plan that leverages National Laboratory-developed or other high-potential energy technologies, including university-developed technologies or other technologies of interest to student competitors. This competition is sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This year’s competition featured 184 teams from 124 schools around the United States.
Special thanks to Energy Harbor for sponsoring the team’s travel, and congratulations again to the group for their hard work and achievement!
Vellela (above) is a third-year law student who was part of the project team.
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- Learn more about our mechanical engineering programs.
Story by CEPS Marketing.
Media contact: Cristine Boyd, 330-972-6476 or cboyd@uakron.edu.