School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
May/June 2012

Yale engineers receive funding

Three separate Yale Engineering entrepreneurial teams have received funding through the Connecticut Innovations TechStart Fund. The teams each received $25,000 in financial assistance and are participating in the fund’s ten-week accelerator pilot program.

Seldera, a technology developed by associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science Andreas Savvides, develops intelligent sensing solutions for building energy and efficiency and other applications that involve rapid reasoning and automation using sensor and online data. Red Ox Technologies is developing a desalinating fuel cell that produces energy and inorganic salts. The technology was developed by Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering; Andre Taylor, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering; David Kohn ’11; and Claire Henly ’12. Scaled Liquid Systems, created by John Scrudato ’11 and Max Sutter ’11, is developing scalable, low-cost liquid cooling solutions for data centers.

Launched in January, the TechStart Fund was created to spur technology innovation and business formation. The intent of the funding is to allow start-ups to pursue the viability of a technology concept or business and determine whether additional funding might be obtained to launch a business.

Graduate student wins national award

Meagan Mauter, a graduate student in environmental engineering, has received the 2012 First Place Academic Achievement Award for doctoral dissertation from the American Water Works Association. Her dissertation, “Implications and Applications of Nanomaterials for Membrane-Based Water Treatment,” advances the concept that nanomaterials and other emerging technologies present a tradeoff between applications and implications and concludes that membranes are a uniquely promising platform for realizing nanomaterial application in a low impact, effective, and cost-efficient manner. The award will be formally presented at the AWWA annual conference and exposition in Dallas in June.