Mesdi Systems, founded by Brandon Lojewski, is competing in the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Student groups from more than 300 universities competed. Now the final six need their friends, families, colleagues and alumni to help them win one part of the competition. Supporters need to “like” the company on the competition’s website. Click here to vote.
The contest’s goal is to promote entrepreneurship in clean energy technologies that will boost American competitiveness, bring cutting-edge clean energy solutions to the market, and strengthen our economic prosperity, according to the department of energy. During the event, teams will vie to present the best clean energy business plan to a distinguished panel of expert judges and invited guests from federal agencies, industry, national labs and the venture capital community.
Aside from UCF, the other finalists hail from Northwestern University, University of Utah, MIT, Stanford University and Columbia University.
Each team of students identified a promising clean energy technology from a university or national lab and created a business plan around the technology that detailed how they could help bring it to market. This includes financing, product design, scaling up production and marketing.
The final six teams have already received $100,000 in prizes to continue plans to commercialize their products. At the national competition June 12-13 in Washington D.C., they will compete for sponsor prizes and unique technical, design and legal assistance. The grand prizewinner as well as the winner of the online contest will be announced June 14 at the White House.
Mesdi Systems’ launch in 2011 was a result of competing in a similar clean energy business plan competition, Megawatt Ventures, sponsored by DOE and UCF. In that event, Mesdi Systems won $10,000 as a finalist.
Mesdi has developed revolutionary equipment for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and other high precision products that will improve their performance and lifetime thanks to advanced coatings and other factors unique to the company.