News Releases from Region 04
EPA Awards Grants to University Teams in Georgia for Innovative Technology Projects
ATLANTA – (March 22, 2018) Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded Georgia Technology Research Corporation, $14,995 and Kennesaw State University, $14,977 through the People, Prosperity, and Planet (P3) grants program. Nationally, over $463,000 in funding for 31 Phase I student teams was awarded through this program. These teams, made up of college students from across the country, are developing sustainable technologies to solve current environmental and public health challenges.
“This year’s P3 teams are applying their classroom learning to create valuable, cutting-edge technologies,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “This next generation of scientists is designing sustainable solutions that will help protect public health and the environment and ensure America continues to lead the world in innovation and science for decades to come.”
Funding for the P3 competition is divided into two phases. Teams selected for Phase I awards receive grants of up to $15,000 to fund the proof of concept for their projects, which are then showcased at the National Sustainable Design Expo. The 2018 Expo is scheduled to be held at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC, April 7-8. Phase I teams are eligible to compete for Phase II awards of up to $75,000 to further develop and implement their designs.
“These grants will allow the Georgia Tech, and Kennesaw State student teams to apply their classroom experiences, and to develop innovative solutions to improve their communities and the environment,” said Regional Administrator Trey Glenn.
“Unlike a typical class project, the P3 grant has enabled the students to work on an interdisciplinary team, manage a budget and tight timeline, delegate tasks with significant overlaps, and apply environmental design techniques," said Dr. Cassandra Telenko, Assistant Professor, Georgia Tech, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. "They are not only concerned with the product’s function, but also what materials are included and how it is made. They are considering the full life cycle and supply chain impacts.”
"By integrating these partially-translucent solar cells to the existing windows of a building, this technology promises to substantially increase the energy harvesting capacity and improve the energy efficiency of a building. The team ’s innovative approach is to selectively absorb the invisible near-UV and near-infrared spectrum of the sunlight by engineering nano-crystalline semiconductors and organic polymers within a new hybrid solar cell structure," said Dr. Sandip Das, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Kennesaw State University.
To learn more about the projects of the 2017 Phase I winners, visit: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipients.display/rfa_id/632/records_per_page/ALL
For more information on the P3 Program, visit: http://www.epa.gov/P3