UTEP students launch tech startup – El Paso Inc 5-19-13

Posted: Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:00 pm

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

UTEP team’s project wins venture titles – El Paso Times 5-20-13

Eva Deemer, center, a graduate student in Material Science & Engineering at UTEP shows a piece of Graphene in a UTEP lab with fellow graduate student Diego Capeletti, left, and undergraduate Alex Pastor. Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times

Three University of Texas at El Paso students hope to turn a Nobel Prize-winning material into a multimillion-dollar business tied to a low-cost, environmentally friendly technology for recycling water.

They are off to a flying start with two wins and a top 10 finish in recent weeks at three venture competitions — college versions of TV’s “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs try to convince investors to buy into their companies and ideas.

The students received an $100,000 investment in their recently formed company, American Water Recycling, by winning the University of Texas System Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition this month in Austin. Sixteen teams from 10 UT System schools competed.

They finished in the top 10 among 39 teams from around the world in what is billed as the Super Bowl of venture competitions — the annual Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, also at the University of Texas at Austin this month.

They won $10,000 in March by winning the student portion of the Paso del Norte Venture Competition at UTEP.

“We want to start here and operate here. It should be really fun to hire people from UTEP,” said Eva Deemer, a UTEP doctoral student in materials science and engineering, and inventor of a patent-pending membrane that may filter water more efficiently and more economically than filtration devices now on the market.

Bryan Allinson, executive director of the UT Horizon Fund, said judges in the fund’s second annual venture competition determined the UTEP team “had the best opportunity for investors to recover their investment, and the best opportunity to commercialize their product. We believe their company can be successful, but they need more (startup) money to be successful.”

The fund, started in 2011 to make investments in companies spun out of UT System schools, is giving the UTEP startup company $100,000 in seed money for their victory.

Last year, Deemer had no visions of starting a business when she began lab experiments with graphene — a super-thin, almost transparent, super-strong, light and flexible form of carbon that won two Russian-born scientists the 2010 Nobel Prize.

The scientists discovered how to extract graphene from graphite, the material in lead pencils, into a form expected to be used to make a variety of innovative products — from transparent touch screens and faster computers to light, but strong materials for aircraft. Experts have labeled graphene a “wonder material” that could revolutionize electronics and other industries.

Deemer’s doctoral-thesis work is focused on using graphene for solar cells and electronic applications. But she began reading about other graphene properties, and that led her to conclude the material could be turned into “the world’s best water filter,” she said.

“It’s really a simple material” with a lot of “crazy, amazing properties,” Deemer said last week in a UTEP lab as she held a piece of graphene she made. It looked like a piece of paper. She also displayed other graphene she made for her experiments that looked like thin sheets of plastic.

“The first experiment I did was extremely successful,” Deemer said. And while researchers at Lockheed Martin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have been studying ways to use graphene filters for water desalinization, no one, as far as Deemer knows, is using the material for water extraction as the UTEP team plans to do, she said.

The UTEP startup’s first niche market is grease-collection companies that need to separate huge amounts of grease from huge amounts of water, she said.

Deemer, 28, an El Paso native and Franklin High School graduate with a UTEP degree in chemistry, late last year learned about the Paso del Norte Venture Competition and jumped at the chance to enter it.

However, while she had a good idea and technical expertise, she needed others with more business acumen.

She was introduced to Alex Pastor, a UTEP marketing student interested in getting involved in a water-recycling project.

Pastor, 22, also an El Paso native and Coronado High School graduate, once operated an El Paso seafood stand, which earned him an entrepreneurial scholarship. He’s an intern at the Hub of Human Innovation, an El Paso technology incubator where American Water Recycling is now being mentored — one of their prizes for the team’s El Paso venture competition victory.

Pastor recruited another Hub of Innovation staffer, Diego Capeletti, onto the team. Capeletti, 32, moved to the United States from Argentina several years ago with his wife, and came to El Paso in 2011. He received a master of business administration degree from UTEP on Saturday. He also has an accounting degree from an Argentina university.

When they started formulating a business plan early this year, the UTEP students were only focused on competing in the El Paso venture contest, Capeletti said.

After their wins, Deemer chimed in, “everything got real.” Their business dreams began.

They’ve already lined up their first customer.

“I told them I would buy the first two systems they get,” said Greg Jarvies, owner of American Waste Removal in Albuquerque.

The company pumps grease out of traps from restaurants and other places, and also operates two New Mexico plants where grease haulers each day dump thousands of gallons of grease/water gunk.

The plants uses a slow heat process to separate grease from the water.

“It’s a nightmare to get it (water) cleaned up. I’ve been trying to find something better for 30 years,” Jarvies said. “With this, we would just have to run it through the filter and it could go into the city water supply.”

Deemer said her graphene membrane can extract grease from the water and clean the water much faster than existing water-filter membranes. Other membranes can process about 30 gallons a day while hers can do 30 gallons per hour, she said.

“Our niche market is a nasty little market nobody has heard of. But the water-treatment market is huge,” Deemer said.

Gary Williams, director of the UTEP Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which helps nurture UTEP-based startups, said the UTEP team’s technology comes at a time when drought is on the top of minds across the nation.

“This can be part of the solution,” Williams said.

The team is made up of hard workers and Deemer does an impressive job of conveying her technical knowledge, Williams said.

This is the first UTEP team to ever compete in the Global Venture competition, he added.

The UTEP students are now armed with business cards carrying their executive titles in their young company. But their pay for now is “sweat equity,” Pastor noted.

They are now pursuing a $300,000 state grant to help pay for a proposed, year-long test of the graphene-membrane technology at a septic-tank pumping company in Las Cruces.

They also are honing their business plan, which calls for hitting sales of $33 million in a five-year period as the company branches out in the future to various water-treatment and water-recycling markets.

The young entrepreneurs will likely tap into the leads to investors and others they collected at the venture competitions.

“We have a lot of cards and a lot of people to contact,” Deemer said.

Hard Work, Passion Propel ‘Underdog’ Trio to Venture Victory UTEP News.com 5-10-13

Hard Work, Passion Propel ‘Underdog’ Trio to Venture Victory

Last Updated on Friday, 10 May 2013 15:58

A trio of UTEP students at different points in their academic journeys decided six months ago to create a business, where a new technology would recycle water in an affordable, environmentally-friendly way. They have refined their business plan and earned praise for their poise and passion in several competitive presentations.

They also have won a lot of money.

Diego Capeletti, Eva Deemer and Alex Pastor, the founders of American Water Recycling, recently won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition in Austin, which netted them $100,000. Earlier, they won the Paso del Norte Venture Competition and now have collected approximately $122,000 since last March for their incorporated business.

The prize money will be invested in a pilot program to test the process and validate the technology on a commercial level. The first test will be at a Las Cruces, N.M., business. A Killeen, Texas, company that hopes to produce 2 million gallons of drinking water per day wants to be part of the second trial. Deemer, a doctoral student in material science and engineering, said the trio could expand into petroleum distillation.

The future is bright for the AWR team, but they remember the words of encouragement they received from UTEP President Diana Natalicio during a chance encounter after their May 2 UT Horizon Fund win: “It doesn’t hurt to be an underdog.”

Team formation

Alex Pastor grew up on El Paso’s West Side idolizing his grandfather, who started as a shoeshine attendant and built himself into a successful businessman. The 2008 Coronado High School graduate operated his own seafood stand, Don Camaron, for two years. As a result he earned a Growing Up CEO Award, a national recognition for entrepreneurs under 21, and a McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial Scholarship.

Once at UTEP he received a market analyst internship at the Hub of Human Innovation, an El Paso-based technology incubator that helps develop technology-based businesses. His duties included proofreading and editing business plans, conducting market research, and helping develop financial statements for thriving new companies.

Last year Pastor heard about the Paso del Norte (PDN) Venture Competition, where entrepreneurs and business leaders judge a company’s business plan, and was interested in working on a project that involved recycled water. He went to UTEP’s Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises (CREIE) and was given a list of projects it was trying to develop, including one proposed by Deemer, who happened to be in the office that day.

Eva Deemer graduated from El Paso’s Franklin High School in 2003. She left town briefly to study chemistry and play soccer for a small, private university in San Antonio. Disappointed with the undergraduate research opportunities, she enrolled at UTEP and began to work with Wen-Yee Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry. The two share a patent in an analytical method for measuring bound glycerides in a biodiesel composition. Deemer earned her bachelor’s in chemistry in 2008, entered the job market and worked in research and development for several El Paso-based energy companies. During that time she was able to see how business collaborations worked, including alliances with government entities interested in environmental technologies.

After a few years she returned to UTEP to begin her doctoral program under Russ Chianelli, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and director of UTEP’s Materials Research and Technology Institute. Chianelli suggested she study graphene, a carbon-based substance that is thin, strong and an efficient conductor of heat and electricity.

Deemer was speaking with CREIE Director Gary Williams, Ph.D., about creating a business to capitalize on her research when she was introduced to a fellow student interested in technology and entrepreneurship: Alex Pastor.

Pastor was excited about marketing Deemer’s technology, but recognized they would need someone with a stronger financial background. He suggested an M.B.A. student he knew from the Hub: Diego Capeletti.

Capeletti, who graduates May 18, is an international student from Tandil, Argentina, a city about 200 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. His interest in business comes from his father, a former banker who is CEO of a private hospital in Argentina. When possible, he joined his father at work and saw how business was done.

The young man earned his undergraduate degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Rosario and joined the workforce. After his decision to pursue a graduate degree, he contacted a close, childhood friend – a UTEP M.B.A. student – who suggested he apply for the program. He did, and was accepted in 2011. He joined the Hub as an intern and participated in the 2012 Paso del Norte Venture Competition. His team did not win, but his written business plan was judged the best.

Married in 2011 and expecting his first child in March 2013, Capeletti initially rebuffed Pastor’s invitation to join American Water Recycling because he understood the level of commitment for a venture project. Despite his concerns, he met with Pastor and Deemer to discuss the project at Deemer’s home. The meeting lasted four hours and left Capeletti a bit shell shocked by the science, but interested in the potential. He also was intrigued by the doctoral student’s passion and gregarious nature, which was unlike the doctoral students he knew. He decided to join the team.

Deemer registered the team after Thanksgiving for the March PDN contest. The easy part was over.

“It was just fun”

The trio got serious after winter break with the help of UTEP’s CREIE and The Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce, which offered structure and deadlines for progress. The AWR team agreed that the constant feedback and attention to detail kept them vigilant for technological advances and financial factors that could alter their business plan. The team learned how and when to refine their plan on the fly.

The team was confident after it won the March PDN competition, but it continued to refine its presentation as necessary up to the day before the UT Horizon contest held at the UT System headquarters in Austin.

Pastor called the presentation hall “the most intimidating room in the country.” It was two-stories tall with crimson walls and large video monitors throughout. They presented before about 10 judges, and sitting in the audience as they presented were fellow contestants and well-wishers, including other UTEP students participating in the competition. As with most presentations, theirs went well. Often it is during the usually tough question-and-answer session that many teams wither. UTEP’s AWR team, each holding an aquamarine crystal charm for good luck, seemed to get stronger.

“There was no question (Deemer) couldn’t answer,” Pastor said. “I got the feeling after a while that (the judges) didn’t want to ask more questions because they might look (unprepared).”

Deemer added, “At that point it was just fun.”

The team made a quick exit after their presentation because it had to set up for a trade show in a different building as part of a separate contest, the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition. That competition is considered the Super Bowl of its genre and involved 45 top teams from around the country and throughout the world. AWR finished as a Top 10 semi-finalist in that contest.

UT Horizon Fund officials announced their winner at about 7:30 p.m. May 2. Capeletti stayed behind to represent the team. He accepted the oversized check and tried not to faint.

“I almost had a heart attack,” he said, adding that he quickly sent a text message to his teammates and word spread quickly. Pastor and Deemer began to get congratulatory messages on their phones.

The team, still on a visible high from the experience, encouraged UTEP students to participate in future venture competitions because of the benefits, including the opportunity to network with entrepreneurs. They said every participant is a winner.

As for the team, it is back to work to get the commercial pilot project going.

“Now things get real,” Deemer said.

UTEP students win venture competition – El Paso Times 5-4-13

By Vic Kolenc/El Paso Times
Posted: 5/04/2013 12:00:00 AM MDT

American Water Recycling, a UTEP student venture team, won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition on Thursday in Austin and the $100,000 first prize, the university announced Friday.

It beat out 16 teams from other UT System schools, and advanced to the semifinal round of this week’s Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, considered the Super Bowl of investment competitions. The winner of the 45-team competition at UT Austin will be announced today.

The UTEP team has formed a startup company aimed at using technology to provide water recycling options at affordable prices. Team members are Eva Deemer, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Diego Capeletti, a master of business administration student; and Alex Pastor, a junior economics student.

UTEP student startup wins $100K competition – El Paso Inc._ 5-5-13

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

From left: Business Dean Robert Nachtmann with members of the American Water Recycling team, Diego Capeletti, Eva Deemer and Alex Pastor, and Engineering Dean Richard Schoephoerster. Team members hold the $10,000 check they won in a March competition.

A startup company founded by students at the University of Texas at El Paso has won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition in Austin.

The win by El Paso-based American Water Recycling on Thursday includes $100,000 and advancement into the semifinal round of the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, considered by some to be the “Super Bowl” of investment competitions.

The team, “competed well. They were the best of the best. This is a big day for UTEP,” said Bryan Allinson, founder and executive director of the UT Horizon Fund. The company uses the latest materials and technology to provide environmentally sound water recycling options at affordable prices, according to a press release.

The team is comprised of Eva Deemer, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Diego Capeletti, an MBA student; and Alex Pastor, a junior economics major. They beat 16 competitors representing other UT System schools.

The team qualified for the UT Horizon Fund competition by winning the regional Paso del Norte Venture Competition last March at UTEP.

“We are on the verge of something big. This is not a joke,” said team member Deemer. “The sky is the limit.”

The team was assisted by Laura Bosworth of the Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce and Russ Chianelli, director of UTEP’s Materials Research and Technology Institute, as well as Gary Williams and Jeni Clark, directors of the Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises.

The next step is to go through the disclosure process, write patents for the technology and create new materials based on graphene, a carbon-based substance that is light and strong, according to a press release.

“Thanks to Mike Loya’s gift to UTEP’s colleges of Business Administration and Engineering, we have now planted the UTEP flag as a leader of academic integration that will result in market success for the state of Texas and the nation,” said Robert Nachtmann, dean of UTEP’s College of Business Administration.