Mesdi Systems specializes in the production and implementation of advanced spray equipment used to manufacture nano-materials and ultra-thin coatings.

The agreement gives Mesdi the tools it needs to scale-up its proprietary equipment that is currently being implemented to manufacture next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

鈥淢esdi is a clear example of the benefits of helping our student entrepreneurs enter the marketplace,鈥� said Svetlana Shtrom, .

The company is now in position to dominate the world market in the production of large-area electrospray coating equipment that can be used to lower the manufacturing cost of high-technology products such as lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, fuel cells, and energy efficient glass. The spray technology can also improve the quality of medical products such as pharmaceuticals.

Mesdi鈥檚 Chief Technology Officer, Brandon Lojewski, co-developed the idea for Mesdi while working on the spray technology as a research assistant in Weiwei Deng鈥檚 Droplet and Energy Lab. Lojewski realized the great potential for this technology in large-scale industrial applications and formed Mesdi by winning a $10,000 award in the inaugural Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Megawatt Ventures competition.

Lojewski explained, 鈥淚 am very fortunate to have the resources provided by and . Being a UCF student and an entrepreneur allowed me to leverage assistance with company formation, venture pitch coaching, document preparation, and introductions to a network of professional start-up mentors. The relationships with these mentors led to building the Mesdi executive team and has moved the company forward in many aspects.鈥�

Mesdi went on to win $100,000 in the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition last year and has recently opened a manufacturing center in Brevard County.

Since the license was signed, Mesdi initiated a strategic partnership with a key player in the field of energy storage. It is Mesdi’s goal to manufacture key materials and components in next-generation energy storage devices such as lithium-ion batteries and super-capacitors. Future plans for Mesdi are to implement advanced spray processes for nanotechnology and advanced materials in a wide variety of medical, industrial and energy applications.

Scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the Student Union, the Graduate Research Forum is an excellent opportunity for you to showcase your research and creative projects in poster format while receiving valuable feedback from faculty judges. Cash awards of $800 for best poster submission in each category are given, and all participants receive university-wide recognition.聽Current UCF graduate students from all studies and disciplines are encouraged to participate.

Brandon Lojewski, a previous Graduate Research Forum winner, took what he learned from the Forum and went on to win a $100,000 competition for his 鈥済reen鈥� research-based company. 鈥淲inning the Graduate Research Forum supported and substantiated my research, proving that this research is not only potentially commercializable, but it is also academically important,鈥� shares Lojewski. Winning the Graduate Research Forum gave him the boost he needed, encouraging him to pursue his research further, and he was rewarded greatly for it.

If you have a research or creative project that you would like to share with the world, submit your proposal today! All you need is your abstract of 250 words or less, along with your name, contact information, and the title of the presentation. There is no cost for submissions. Proposals must be received by Monday, February 11, 2013. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Don鈥檛 wait鈥攕ubmit your proposals today and share some of the success of former Graduate Research Forum winners!

For more information on the Graduate Research Forum and submission guidelines, please visit www.graduate.ucf.edu/ResearchForum or email researchweek@ucf.edu.

UCF鈥檚 Student Research Week is a time to celebrate the research and creative projects of UCF students. From April 1 鈥� 4 at the UCF Student Union, you can check out the remarkable cutting-edge research 鈥� many times using the most advanced modern technology 鈥� that students are undertaking to explore community challenges and help solve real-world problems. Research presentations will be displayed during the Graduate Research Forum and the Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE). Student Research Week also features a great assortment of helpful professional development workshops and The State of STEAM, a unique art exhibit containing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) inspired artworks. All events are free and open to the public. For more information and a complete schedule of events, please visit .

The contest鈥檚 goal is to promote entrepreneurship in clean energy technologies that will boost American competitiveness, bring cutting-edge clean energy solutions to the market, and strengthen our economic prosperity, according to the department of energy.聽 During the event, teams will vie to present the best clean energy business plan to a distinguished panel of expert judges and invited guests from federal agencies, industry, national labs and the venture capital community.

Aside from UCF, the other finalists hail from Northwestern 海角直播, 海角直播 of Utah, MIT, Stanford 海角直播 and Columbia 海角直播.

Each team of students identified a promising clean energy technology from a university or national lab and created a business plan around the technology that detailed how they could help bring it to market. This includes financing, product design, scaling up production and marketing.

The final six teams have already received $100,000 in prizes to continue plans to commercialize their products. At the national competition June 12-13 in Washington D.C., they will compete for sponsor prizes and unique technical, design and legal assistance. The grand prizewinner as well as the winner of the online contest will be announced June 14 at the White House.

Mesdi Systems’ launch in 2011 was a result of competing in a similar clean energy business plan competition, Megawatt Ventures, sponsored by DOE and UCF. In that event, Mesdi Systems won $10,000 as a finalist.

Mesdi has developed revolutionary equipment for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and other high precision products that will improve their performance and lifetime thanks to advanced coatings and other factors unique to the company.

The team won the $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a competition of student business plans for companies focused on renewable energy and other “green” energy solutions. UCF’s team bested nine other southeastern regional finalists, including teams from Georgia Tech, Duke and the 海角直播 of Virginia.

The UCF team will now compete in the National Clean Energy Business Plan Finals in Washington, D.C. June 12-13.

Their winning business plan for a start-up company, Mesdi Systems, Inc., founded by Brandon Lojewski, a graduate student in UCF’s Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering (MMAE), centers on the use of electrospray technology to vastly improve the manufacturing process for making lithium ion batteries and other products to ultimately reduce production costs and increase product life. For example, an electric car battery made with the UCF process would be able to travel for hundreds of miles on a single charge.

Many products and parts, such as solar cells and batteries, are made with coatings or particles that require materials to be uniformly distributed, or sprayed, during the manufacturing process. The technology that produces the spray can dramatically affect the end product. Current technology uses pressurized gas to spray the liquid resulting in large non-uniform droplets and significant manufacturing waste.

Electrospray technology uses electrical charge to create uniform, ultrafine droplets with precision control. The technology can be applied to making batteries, photovoltaic solar cells, as well as medical devices, pharmaceuticals and much more.

And UCF is taking electrospray technology to levels never seen before, due to the pioneering research of Weiwei Deng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UCF. Deng is renowned for his work in “multiplexed” electrospray techniques, which use thousands of tiny spray nozzles on a single chip. The patent-pending platform results in superb droplet deposition uniformity and high throughput spray production capable of meeting manufacturing demands.

Deng is the technical adviser for Mesdi Systems. He brought the multiplexed electrospray technology from Yale 海角直播. His work is an extension of the Nobel Prize-winning electrospray work developed at Yale by the late Professor John Fenn.

“We see huge potential for this technology and the great value of student entrepreneurship,” said Suhada Jayasuriya, MMAE department chair. The MMAE department sponsored the team with $1,000 to participate in the competition.

“We plan to invest our $100,000 prize money to help raise more money to launch our production facilities, hire a highly trained staff and garner our first customers,” said Lojewski, president of Mesdi Systems.

The company’s goal is to sell the multiplexed electrospray equipment to manufacturers and offer maintenance and servicing contracts.

Mesdi Systems’ launch in 2011 was a result of competing in a similar clean energy business plan competition, Megawatt Ventures, sponsored by DOE and UCF. In that event, Mesdi Systems won $10,000 as a finalist. The winning business plan was developed from tools that Lojewski learned in Tom O’Neal’s Technology Entrepreneurship class offered by UCF’s College of Business Administration.

As part of the Obama administration鈥檚 effort to support and empower the next generation of American clean energy entrepreneurs, the Department of Energy selected the ACC Clean Energy Challenge and five additional regional competitions in the U.S. as part of its inaugural nationwide network of student-focused clean energy business plan competitions during the next three years.