DOE Announces EnergyTech University Prize Faculty Explorers and Unveils Two Insightful Reports

Washington, D.C.— Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) announced 10 Faculty Explorer award recipients in the 2025 EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Faculty Track. Each winning faculty member was awarded $5,000 for showing promising interest, ideas, and/or materials promoting energy entrepreneurship at their collegiate institutions. OTT is excited to support these faculty as they work to effectively develop and refine high-quality and impactful activities in the coming months. 

EnergyTech UP is a collegiate competition for both students and faculty, aimed at growing clean energy entrepreneurship. Those competing as faculty develop and implement educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship at their institution. The Faculty Track is designed to incentivize and support faculty directly, with $110,000 in cash prizes available for their efforts. The outcomes of this track aim to increase market research skills for a student population that maynot currently have access to these kinds of opportunities. 

“As the need for education around energy and entrepreneurship continues to grow, OTT is looking for creative ways to encourage academia to increase access to career-building opportunities,” said DOE Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan. “The Faculty Track rewards the educators who are taking steps to get students involved in the energy sector, especially in areas where students have historically lacked access to programs in this space.” 

The 10 prize winning EnergyTech UP 2025 Faculty Explorers are as follows:  

• Sevki Cesmeci, Georgia Southern University (Statesboro, GA) 
• Developing programming to equip students to bridge technical innovation and market application, preparing future leaders in the energy sector. 
• Jeff Dusek, Baldwin Wallace University (Berea, OH)  
• Creating a pathway for energy innovation in the Baldwin Wallace Engineering program through industry-engaged curricular enhancements and entrepreneurship. 
• Pejman Kazempoor, The University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)  
• Combining technology and business strategies to explore innovative entrepreneurship in green energy solutions. 
• Charles McElroy, Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH) 
• Engaging students, faculty, government, nonprofit stakeholders in the use of AI to make business plans for commercializing energy technologies. 
• Selvaprabu Nadarajah, University of Illinois Chicago (Chicago, IL) 
• Creating a digital badge to train students in energy technology commercialization, bridging education and clean energy careers. 
• Nelson Pizarro, University of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, VI) 
• Integrating energy technology and entrepreneurship at the University of the Virgin Islands to foster innovation, resilience, and equity in tackling Caribbean energy challenges. 
• Amy Quarkume, Howard University (Washington, D.C.) 
• Developing a 7-week accelerator empowering students to create energy technology solutions for underserved communities, fostering equity and impact. 
• Arif Rahman, Hawai’i Pacific University (Honolulu, HI) 
• Empowering students to develop market-ready clean energy solutions by integrating entrepreneurial fundamentals into curriculum. 
• Jian Shi, University of Houston (Houston, TX) 
• Creating an energy technology commercialization course and certificate that will enable students to develop business plans, receive mentorship, and participate in pitch competitions. 
• Liwei Zhou, The University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX) 
• Developing a 4-step program to educate, research, and commercialize energy technologies, bridging students with industrial practice for a sustainable future. 

The Faculty Track continues through the Spring. Faculty, whether they participated in the Explore Phase or not, now work to refine programming and curricula to promote entrepreneurship and commercialization of energy technologies.  All interested EnergyTech UP faculty participants will be provided with targeted access to a DOE mentors and DOE resources to support in this refining phase. In the Spring, select faculty will compete for a split of the $60,000 prize pool, based on most promising energy commercialization programming and curricula proposals. 

A Look Back - EnergyTech UP 2024 Reports Published 

As we kick off the 2025 round of the EnergyTech UP program, we reflect on last year’s program accomplishments. The 2024 round of EnergyTech UP offered student teams a total of $450,000 in cash prizes, the largest prize pool in program history. This was made possible with the support from nine partnering DOE technology offices, which contributed $25,000 each across eleven bonus prizes for the best teams in their respective energy fields. The 2024 program also included the first ever OTT-funded Undergraduate-Only Team Bonus Prize to further incentivize and support teams who are participating as undergraduates.  

To date, this competition has awarded more than $1.1 million in funding to students and faculty ready to catalyze the clean energy market. The reports described below offer a high-level look into each track and the impact of OTT funding on developing the engineers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, market analysts, and project developers of tomorrow. 

Learn more about EnergyTech UP 2024’s impactful outcomes and key successes in this 2024 annual report. 

New in 2024: Inaugural Faculty Track & a New Faculty Resource 

Students weren’t the only ones awarded impactful funding for their innovative ideas around energy technology commercialization. 2024 was the inaugural year of the EnergyTech UP Faculty Track. This track offered $100,000 in cash prizes to individual faculty members and faculty teams for winning proposals to develop and implement educational activities (e.g., coursework, accelerators, programs) that introduce or expand energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship (ETCE) topics at their institutions. 

The Faculty Track included over 100 eligible faculty team members throughout two phases: an initial Explore Phase to encourage idea growth, and a final Implementation Phase, wherein faculty were expected to submit developed proposals that they had worked on throughout the competition.  

The strategies detailed by faculty in their proposals touch on several broad themes of curriculum development, including multidisciplinary experience, interactive experience, modularity and flexibility, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dive deeper into the innovative strategies proposed and the different ways funding from this competition has propelled faculty initiatives at their home institutions in this 2024 report. We encourage faculty to use this report as a resource to inspire potential energy commercialization ideas to implement at your institution! 

About the Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions 

The Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) plays a pivotal role in expanding the public impact of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) portfolio. Founded in 2015, OTT aids in developing and overseeing the delivery of DOE's strategic vision and goals for technology commercialization and business and industrial sector engagement across the nation. Visit us at energy.gov/ott to learn more, and subscribe to receive our latest opportunities and accomplishments via email. Follow us on X and LinkedIn.