Georgia Institute of Technology Materials Science and Engineering

The $1B+ Startup Hackathon took place virtually November 5-7th where students leveraged GT research patents to envision startups and receive cash prizes. MSE had its own track for the first time. 

Team Gradbies consisting of Troy Batugal, Joseph Boone, and Narayan Shirolkar won first place for their proposal of producing  low-cost Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)/lignin composite fiber precursors to produce high strength carbon fibers while reducing fiber manufacturing cost by 23% for automotive applications.

Texture Wizards, a two person team of Rupesh Rajendran and Krishna Moorthi Sankar, won second place introducing nanotextured stainless steels to be used in medical and food industries with high anti-wetting properties, low bacterial adhesion and low cost.

Third place went to team Glassteroid with members Dylan Cheung, Gerard Spooner Martinez, Leon Chen, and Patrick Hultquist, and Varun Mehrotra. Their startup proposed utilizing solar-powered electrochromic Windows to build glass panels for self-sufficient greenhouses. 

See their video submissions