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Summer 2004
Business Plan
Competition Picks Acid Fuel Cell Team Powered by Haas MBAs
A new economically
viable acid fuel cell technology that will save long-haul
freight truckers thousands of dollars in diesel fuel every
year has won the $25,000 grand prize at the sixth annual UC
Berkeley Business Plan Competition.
The
winners were announced at the UC Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum,
hosted by the Lester Center, on Thursday, April 29.
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Executive Director Jerry Engel congratulates the Proton
Power team
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First prize winner Proton Power
has developed a solid acid fuel cell technology that will
initially be marketed as auxiliary power units (APUs)
for long-haul freight trucks. The APUs will mean truckers
don’t have to idle their diesel engines to power
heat, air, and electricity in their cabins during layovers,
saving the average trucker $2,600 per year in diesel fuel.
The fuel cell APUs also significantly reduce noise and
pollution.The technology was developed by Drs. Calum Chisholm
and Dane Boysen of the California Institute of Technology
and transformed into a commercially viable business idea
with the help of four Haas MBA students: Kornelijus Chelutka,
Marek Fibrich, Andrei Marinescu, and Jeff Renaud.
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Analog Micro Display (AMD) won the second prize
of $10,000. The venture has developed a Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System
(MEMS)-based projection technology that allows the design
of miniature projection systems that offer UXGA or HDTV resolution
color imaging at low cost and low power consumption. The technology
is aimed at the data projector and TV projection markets.
DFM Technologies won both the third prize and
the People’s Choice Award, the latter voted on by the
audience at the award ceremony; each prize is worth $5,000.
DFM’s patent-pending Pattern Matcher software seeks
out flaws and optimizes design of semiconductor chips before
they are manufactured. According to the team, the software
will not only create huge cost savings but will also significantly
reduce time to market. One current DFM customer estimates
that it shaves three months off of every design cycle.
New this year was the Best of UC Berkeley/UC
San Francisco Technology Prize sponsored by Sevin Rosen Funds.
The $7,500 prize was awarded to the team with the best plan
that employs technology research currently under way in a
UC Berkeley, UCSF or affiliated laboratory. Silicon Clocks,
from the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, was awarded
the prize for developing a MEMS-based timing component for
cell phones and microprocessors so tiny that it can fit any
where on a chip.
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By reducing cost and size and improving
performance over conventional quartz-based timing components,
this technology increases battery life and allows for
added functions.
The competition is organized by Haas MBA
students and hosted by the Lester Center in collaboration
with the Haas School, the College of Engineering, the
School of Information Management and Systems and the
University of California, San Francisco. Each venture
must have at least one student, alumnus/a, or faculty
member from UC Berkeley or UC San Francisco’s
Life Sciences campus on its management team.
This year’s competition enjoyed
the support of more than 40 judges from leading venture
capital firms and donations from 14 sponsors. The sponsors
include: |
Sunil Bhave of Silicon Clocks demonstrates
a prototype using their technology
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Gold Sponsor: Sevin Rosen Funds; Silver Sponsors:
Allegis Capital and Intel Capital; Bronze Sponsors: Foundation
Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, New Path Ventures,
Pillsbury Winthrop, Qualcomm, Reed Smith, Ritchey Fisher Whitman
& Klein, Sirenza Microdevices, and Versant Ventures; other
sponsors were Kevin Warnock, Palo Alto Software and Silicon
Valley Bank.
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The AMD team (Dr. Sunghoon Kwon of Lawrence
Berkeley Lab; Paul Hung, Ph.D. candidate from EECS; and Haas MBA Sander
Grubbens) with their 2nd place award.
The DFM team (Michael Lam, Ph.D. candidate in Electrical
Engineering; Ya-Chieh Lai, Haas MBA; Frank Gennari and Greg McIntyre,
Ph.D. candidates in Eingineering) show off their 3rd Place and People's
Choice awards.
Steve Domenik of Sevin Rosen Funds (right) presents the
Technology Prize to the Silicon Clocks team of Emmanuel Guevy and Sunil
Bhave
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