Welcome

Onat Dogruer is the President and co-founder of Archer Power Solutions. Onat has been in the entrepreneurial space for over 15 years. He received his MBA from Fordham, and has been boating since he was five. He has been in the marine air conditioning service field and moved to the Chesapeake area seven years ago. He realized the need for a smarter, more efficient air conditioning option while anchored in the Bay in the still August heat.

Based in Maryland, Archer Power Solutions has designed and developed an innovative battery-operated air conditioner system for "off-grid" use that can be used with any DC power, including solar. The smart system utilizes proprietary electronics that control the system by collecting data from sensors and constantly calculating and calibrating the compressor's performance and other unique electronic components based on environmental needs. These advanced electronics also minimize the amount of power draw the unit needs. Archer Power Solutions’ design also focuses on ease of installation and user-friendly maintenance.  The company has already commercially manufactured a drop-in, install-it-yourself marine air conditioner. Air conditioning without the dependence on noisy, carbon-heavy, oil-based, and fuel-consuming generators is possible.

Dr. Dung Minh Hoang aims to develop innovative, nature-based solutions for nutrient recycling, water processing, and waste treatment. Dr. Minh has over nine years of experience as a research scientist at the New York University – School of Medicine. His academic background includes an Engineering and a Master's degree in microelectronics from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse (INSA de Toulouse, France) and a Ph.D. in Bio-Medical Engineering.

Aquatic Circle is an advanced water filtration system that provides water clarity without chemicals. Aquatic Circle has designed a nature-based water filter with limited maintenance. The product has a modular design with a patented coupling method between modules facilitating the swapping of dirty filter modules for clean ones while keeping the biological filter chamber intact.  The Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) has already proven Aquatic Circle technology in aquaponics farming. While customer survey at the fish-keeping expo AquaShella shows customer potential for large fish tanks. 

Team Leader Professor Ning Zeng

Ning Zeng is a professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at UMD and the founder/director of the Carbon Lockdown Project (CLP). He is the progenitor and world’s leading expert in a carbon sequestration technique called Wood Harvesting and Storage (WHS). It’s a hybrid natural/engineering technique, combining the best of human ingenuity with natural efficiency by burying woody biomass for long term sequestration.

Cooling-X co-founder Xingpeng Zhao is a research scientist in the lab of Dr. Liangbing Hu at the University of Maryland College Park.  Cooling-X has developed the world’s first paint made from glass. This paint exhibits excellent solar reflection capabilities and provides radiative cooling to surfaces. The paint can be brushed and spray painted onto any surface, comes in various colors (not just white) and will become an important material in the fight against global warming.

Team Leader Professor Deepa Madan

Deepa Madan is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  FlexiCharge is a novel technology that generates power by utilizing the temperature difference between the human body and ambient air called a thermoelectric generator (TEG). TEGs are integrated with a step-up voltage circuit that will charge a capacitor or battery, enabling “off-grid” power production for wearable devices.

Team Leader Keith Gregorczyk

Ionic Devices is commercializing a novel methodology to produce lithium-ion batteries by leveraging semi-conductor manufacturing methods. These batteries have energy and power metrics that are orders of magnitude higher than conventional solid-state systems and are comparable to current market standards for liquid systems. 

 CEO Frank Yang 

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Liatris Inc. is a start-up company based in Bethesda, MD, USA developing advanced materials for thermal insulation which are easy to install, efficient, non-flammable and non-toxic. 

  Sustainabli’s mission is to decarbonize scientific research. Fume hoods consume as much energy as 4 American houses and are a significant driver of energy waste within research labs. Sustainabli has built a fume hood management platform, Sashimi, to help research organizations reduce mechanical energy use by up to a third and meet energy reporting benchmarks. Sustainabli completed the MEIA Pre-Accelerator in 2021 and won the 2023 Pitch Dingman Competition and 2023 Do Good Challenge, the two premier pitch competitions at the University of Maryland.

Sustainabli was founded by Kevin Tu, an alumnus of the University of Maryland and a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge; he is a published green chemistry researcher with 7 years of research experience at Johns Hopkins University and Duke University. 

Team Leader Professor Weidong Zhu

Weidong Zhu is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMBC and inventor of a novel technology to measure the full-field vibration of a rotating wind turbine blade. Using a camera to measure the rotation speed of the blade via a novel edge detection method and a long-range laser vibrometer to rotate with the blade and scan over the blade surface to measure its full-field vibration, the technology can detect local damage such as delamination in the blade.  

    Terra Fusion is a spinoff project from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the University of Maryland College Park. The technology will generate a competitive energy source through plasma confinement at thermonuclear conditions to gain net energy from fusion energy. Terra Fusion approach has simplified the approach by developing a centrifugal supersonic magnetic mirror. This design will deliver a simple magnetic confinement configuration that can scale to a viable fusion power source at a fraction of the cost of competing technologies. 

Terra Fusion was founded by Professor Carlos A. Romero Talamás, whose research has focused on plasma physics and engineering, including high temperature plasma confinement, fusion energy, diagnostics, low temperature dusty plasmas, and magnet technology. 

  Uplift Geosystems has developed a process to store CO2 and co-produce value add metals for clean technology supply chains. The venture has adapted methods proven to work in metallurgical and water treatment industries to store CO2 as solid magnesium carbonate, which can be used as a construction material. Uplift’s technology stems from research at the University of Pennsylvania supported by an ARPA-E award. Dr. Daniel Nothaft, Uplift’s founder, is a geochemist and entrepreneur experienced in carbon mineralization, environmental tracers, and R&D management.

 Team Leader Professor Bing Hu

Professor Bing Hu is Professor of Materials Science Engineering at UMD-College Park and co-founder of WH Battery,  a battery technology company that will commercialize electrolytes developed by Professor Chunsheng Wang and a cellulose-based ion conductor developed by Professor Hu. These drop-in technologies are suitable for high-power extreme temperature uses as well as for long duration grid storage applications.

Team Leader Joe James

Joe James is ATP-MD, LLC’s founder and inventor of its patented Combined Remediation Biomass and Bio-Product Production (CRBBP) Process, by which one plants and then multi-tasks special bio-crops to do good things for the health and well being of people, the planet and communities, less expensively.  Those good things include capturing lots of atmospheric and flue gas CO 2, to combat Climate Change, while remediating air, soil and water, then converting the resulting biomass, sometimes using a patented carbonization technology, he has licensed, into a variety of cost-advantaged, circular economy bio-products, including a superior, bio-based alternative to carbon black filler powder.

In Baltimore, ATP-MD, LLC, with Exelon Foundation Climate Change Investment Initiative help, is commercializing an urban CRBBP Process application, capturing atmospheric CO 2, when remediating brownfields, and large-emitter flue gas CO 2, using Vertical Bio-Crop Farms (VBF’s).

 Team Leader Sergio Baron

Sergio Baron is co-founder and CEO of Dynami Battery Corp. Dynami has created the first industrial scale technology to produce microstructured lithium battery electrodes. The Honeycomb Electrode(tm) has  secondary pore networks which create up to 80% faster charging/higher power, and potentially longer cycle life. Dynami's production technology is cost neutral compared to traditional battery manufacturing techniques. Honeycomb electrodes are compatible with most current and future battery chemistries including solid state and the performance gains are additive to the specs of the materials to which it is applied. Fast charging/high power and longer cycle life are enabling technologies for the EV market, aerospace, and grid storage markets.

 Team Leader Professor Chao Wang

 Chao Wang is Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Wang's direct air capture of CO2 approach is based on electrochemical systems designed to operate under ambient  conditions and is fully compatible with renewable electricity. This reduces energy consumption, lowers capture cost, and makes the process  scalable.