UTEP Team's Project Wins Venture Titles - El Paso Times

5/20/13 UTEP team's project wins venture titles - El Paso Times

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UTEP team's project wins venture titles

By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES Posted: 05/20/2013 12:01:13 AM MDT

Three University of Texas at El Paso students hope to turn a Nobel Prize-winning material into a multimillion-dollar business tied to a low- cost, environmentally friendly technology for recycling water. They are off to a flying start with two wins and a top 10 finish in recent weeks at three venture competitions -- college versions of TV's "Shark Tank," where entrepreneurs try to convince investors to buy into their companies and ideas. More headlines The students received an $100,000 investment in their recently formed Human calculator: Fabens High math whiz earns titles, company, American Water Recycling, by winning the University of MIT scholarship Texas System Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition this Dangerous drug: Family believes 'designer' form of LSD month in Austin. Sixteen teams from 10 UT System schools competed. killed teen UTEP team's project wins venture titles They finished in the Thousands of El Pasoans attend 7th annual Braden top 10 among 39 teams from Aboud run-walk Reporter around the world in what is billed Eva Deemer, center, a graduate 2-year-old girl may have been abducted by father in 1997 Vic Kolenc as the Super Bowl of venture student in Material Science & Former US customs agent accused in document fraud competitions -- the annual Global Engineering at UTEP shows a piece Tornillo Port of Entry area zoning bill is stymied Venture Labs Investment of Graphene in a UTEP lab with Reps cross party lines, push Texas priorities fellow graduate student Diego Competition, also at the University Mexican revolution left mark on El Paso diocese of Texas at Austin this month. Capeletti, left, and undergraduate Alex Pastor. Fort Bliss Maj. Gen. Pittard 'has all the traits you look for in They won $10,000 in March by winning the student portion of the Paso a military leader' del Norte Venture Competition at UTEP. Most Viewed Most E-Mailed "We want to start here and operate here. It should be really fun to hire people from UTEP," said Eva Deemer, a UTEP doctoral student in materials science and engineering, and inventor of a patent-pending (From the last 12 hours) membrane that may filter water more efficiently and more economically than filtration devices now on the market. 1. Dangerous drug: Family believes 'designer' form of LSD killed teen Bryan Allinson, executive director of the UT Horizon Fund, said judges in the fund's 2. View El Paso public employee salaries second annual venture competition determined the UTEP team "had the best opportunity for 3. Human calculator: Fabens High math whiz Advertisement investors to recover their investment, and the earns titles, MIT scholarship best opportunity to commercialize their product. 4. Former US customs agent accused in We believe their company can be successful, document fraud but they need more (startup) money to be 5. UTEP team's project wins venture titles successful." 6. 2-year-old girl may have been abducted by The fund, started in 2011 to make investments father in 1997 in companies spun out of UT System schools, 7. Man found dead in Central El Paso is giving the UTEP startup company $100,000 in 8. KFOX: Man stabbed outside south Central El seed money for their victory. Paso bar Last year, Deemer had no visions of starting a 9. Firefighter takes a chance on Northeast El business when she began lab experiments with Paso skateboarding business graphene -- a super-thin, almost transparent, 10. Manhunt Monday seeks man who skipped super-strong, light and flexible form of carbon court appearances that won two Russian-born scientists the 2010 Nobel Prize.

The scientists discovered how to extract graphene from graphite, the material in lead pencils, into a form expected to be used to make a variety of innovative products -- from transparent touch screens and faster computers to light, but strong materials for aircraft. Experts have labeled graphene a "wonder material" that could revolutionize electronics and other industries. Deemer's doctoral-thesis work is focused on using graphene for solar cells and electronic applications. But she began reading about other graphene properties, and that led her to conclude the material could be turned into "the world's best water filter," she said. "It's really a simple material" with a lot of "crazy, amazing properties," Deemer said last week in a UTEP lab as she held a piece of graphene she made. It looked like a piece of paper. She also displayed other graphene she made for her experiments that looked like thin sheets of plastic. www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23279862/utep-teams-project-wins-venture-titles?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com 1/3 5/20/13 UTEP team's project wins venture titles - El Paso Times "The first experiment I did was extremely successful," Deemer said. And while researchers at Lockheed Martin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have been studying ways to use graphene filters for water desalinization, no one, as far as Deemer knows, is using the material for water extraction as the UTEP team plans to do, she said. Jobs Homes The UTEP startup's first niche market is grease-collection companies that need to separate huge amounts of grease from huge amounts of water, she said. 3200 GREENOCK ... (Homes) Deemer, 28, an El Paso native and Franklin High School graduate with a UTEP degree in chemistry, late 1937 SEAGULL last year learned about the Paso del Norte Venture Competition and jumped at the chance to enter it. DR... (Homes) However, while she had a good idea and technical expertise, she needed others with more business ALL LISTINGS acumen.

She was introduced to Alex Pastor, a UTEP marketing student interested in getting involved in a water- recycling project.

Pastor, 22, also an El Paso native and Coronado High School graduate, once operated an El Paso seafood stand, which earned him an entrepreneurial scholarship. He's an intern at the Hub of Human Innovation, an El Paso technology incubator where American Water Recycling is now being mentored -- one of their prizes for the team's El Paso venture competition victory.

Pastor recruited another Hub of Innovation staffer, Diego Capeletti, onto the team. Capeletti, 32, moved to the United States from Argentina several years ago with his wife, and came to El Paso in 2011. He received a master of business administration degree from UTEP on Saturday. He also has an accounting degree from an Argentina university.

When they started formulating a business plan early this year, the UTEP students were only focused on competing in the El Paso venture contest, Capeletti said.

After their wins, Deemer chimed in, "everything got real." Their business dreams began. They've already lined up their first customer.

"I told them I would buy the first two systems they get," said Greg Jarvies, owner of American Waste Removal in Albuquerque. The company pumps grease out of traps from restaurants and other places, and also operates two New Mexico plants where grease haulers each day dump thousands of gallons of grease/water gunk. The plants uses a slow heat process to separate grease from the water. "It's a nightmare to get it (water) cleaned up. I've been trying to find something better for 30 years," Jarvies said. "With this, we would just have to run it through the filter and it could go into the city water supply." Deemer said her graphene membrane can extract grease from the water and clean the water much faster than existing water-filter membranes. Other membranes can process about 30 gallons a day while hers can do 30 gallons per hour, she said. "Our niche market is a nasty little market nobody has heard of. But the water-treatment market is huge," Deemer said.

Gary Williams, director of the UTEP Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which helps nurture UTEP-based startups, said the UTEP team's technology comes at a time when drought is on the top of minds across the nation.

"This can be part of the solution," Williams said. The team is made up of hard workers and Deemer does an impressive job of conveying her technical knowledge, Williams said.

This is the first UTEP team to ever compete in the Global Venture competition, he added. The UTEP students are now armed with business cards carrying their executive titles in their young company. But their pay for now is "sweat equity," Pastor noted. They are now pursuing a $300,000 state grant to help pay for a proposed, year-long test of the graphene- membrane technology at a septic-tank pumping company in Las Cruces.

They also are honing their business plan, which calls for hitting sales of $33 million in a five-year period as the company branches out in the future to various water-treatment and water-recycling markets. The young entrepreneurs will likely tap into the leads to investors and others they collected at the venture El Paso Local Guide competitions. Search by keyword or Zip Search "We have a lot of cards and a lot of people to contact," Deemer said. Vic Kolenc may be reached at [email protected], 546-6421. Follow him on Twitter @vickolenc Ritchie Bros Auctioneers (Ame Red Parrot Flores Jewelers Learn more For more information logon touthorizons.com; www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/Venture-Labs- El Paso Gold Buyers Investment-Competition.aspx; utep.edu/creie Sunland Park Racetrack Print Email Font Resize Return to Top

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