A team of University of Alabama students and professors is competing for up to $100,000 in funding for its start-up company, e-Electricity, through the 2013 Alabama Launchpad Start-Up Competition, and the group has reached the final stage of the competition.
Sloan McCrary, a second-year MBA and CEO of e-Electricity, said the company’s product would allow smartphone users to charge their devices without using an outlet.
“Our technology is an antenna design that has the ability to receive radio frequency waves and … convert them into electricity that can be used immediately or stored in your phone’s battery,” he said. “It’s an antenna that can actually charge a battery.”
The device was invented by Jaber Abu-Qahouq, a professor in the University’s College of Engineering.
Will Sanders, a senior majoring in business and the CMO of e-Electricity, said he sees a large potential market for this product if they are able to begin producing it.
“It can apply to a huge demographic, seeing as everyone has smartphones,” Sanders said.
The funding e-Electricity is seeking from the competition would allow the company to continue to develop its product with the hopes of one day being able to market it.
“We’re basically asking for $50,000 out of the $100,000, which would be the funding we would need to have the proof of concept with the prototype development we’re looking into,” Sanders said.
Both McCrary and Sanders work at the UA Office for Technology Transfer, which helps to commercialize technology from University staff, students and other residents of the Tuscaloosa area.
McCrary said the Office of Technology Transfer has been instrumental in getting their project off the ground.
“We were given the opportunity to look through technologies and this technology really stood out,” McCrary said. “The idea of the technology kind of shocked us.”
Sanders said e-Electricity is putting the finishing touches on the presentation for the Launchpad competition.
“The main thing was that we had our initial business plan that we had done for the first and second rounds,” Sanders said. “We’ve already got our final business plan submitted, and all we need now is a 10-minute presentation that we’ve been working on. … Our main focus now is just getting some more definitive data as far as where we are [with] the proof of concept and what we can do going forward with prototyping.”
The team is making sure they come prepared, McCrary said.
“We’re working on an additional presentation,” McCrary said. “We’re also making sure that we get more statistics based on simulations conducted for the technology. We want to come with everything, all guns loaded, to this competition. It’s sort of a benchmark. Even though it’s a proof of concept, we’ve taken steps in advance to show that the technology is feasible.”
He also said e-Electricity would like to use other UA resources to enhance their presentation.
“There’s a 3-D printer on campus,” McCrary said. “We’re trying to get prototypes for the enclosure of the device developed so we can show our device when we present.”
