UA Students Make Solar Waves at Competition

A group of graduate students from the University of Arkansas recently won first place in the Licensing Executives Society Foundation’s International Graduate Student Business Plan Competition, with cash and in-kind rewards totaling $50,000.

Held May 18-21, the annual competition attracts student entrepreneurs from around the world. The students responsible for the forward-thinking concept are Douglas Hutchings, Stephen Ritterbush, Seth Shumate and Brent Bertelsen.

Silicon Solar Solutions is working to commercialize a patented process for creating large grain polysilicon that attempts to increase the efficiency of solar panels while also reducing manufacturing costs.

According to Hutchings, the next step “is trying to license this technology to manufactures. We’re trying to get it into production. We flew out to San Jose to meet with Sanyo and have gone to Memphis to meet with Sharp, and done other competitions across the country. We even ended up in Canada at one point.”