Honolulu CC shows promise at clean energy business challenge

Team eHale receives 2012 Promising Idea Award

Honolulu Community College
Contact:
Billie K T Lueder, (808) 845-9187
Communications & External Affairs, Chancellor's Office
Posted: Jul 19, 2012

Congratulations to eHale!
Congratulations to eHale!
R-L: Ryan Rutenschroer, Juantez Williams, Mei Wang and Guy Hamilton
R-L: Ryan Rutenschroer, Juantez Williams, Mei Wang and Guy Hamilton
Two Honolulu Community College students, Juantez Williams and Ryan Rutenschroer, were recently recognized with a team award at the 2012 FloW National University Clean Energy Business Challenge.
 
FLoW represents the Western Region of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (NCEBPC). The DOE developed the National University Clean Energy Business Challenge under the Obama Administration’s Startup America initiative to broaden innovation and commercialization efforts, and to champion a nation-wide energy entrepreneurship ecosystem.
 
Team eHale, as they call themselves, brought home the inaugural Promising Idea award given to companies whose business vision showed potential but is not quite a ready-to-go business.
 
eHale is a Hawaiian alternative design group, integrating sustainable materials, ergonomics and S.E.E. (Spot Energy Enabling)© energy storage units within innovative indoor and outdoor, home and office furniture.
 
Williams and Rutenschroer are students in Honolulu CC Lecturer Mei Weng’s Accounting 201 Distance Education course. Rutenschoroer organized the team that included Weng, and business partner, Guy Hamilton, who assisted them in the creation of a prototype product.
 
eHale participated in two rounds of competition over a six month process. The first round consisted of a presentation of a business plan. As the team advanced to the second round, they were required to provide a more detailed business plan, along with a demonstration of their prototype product to a panel of 15 industry experts. Both phases of competition were held at California Institute for Technology in Pasadena, California.
 
This year FLoW awarded $200,000 in prize money, as well as other prizes, including “pitch time” with top investors to three top student teams from 34 universities and 12 states totaling 83 applicants. eHale was honored to receive the Promising Idea award among all the entries.
 
The mission of FLoW is to support the development of entrepreneurial talent within American universities, and to accelerate the movement of leading edge technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace. FLoW’s region stretches from California to Alaska, Idaho to Hawai‘i, and embraces a wide diversity of academic talent and business acumen, bent on devising new clean energy solutions to our power problems.
 
 
 
ABOUT HONOLULU COMMUNITY COLLEGE
For more than 90 years, Honolulu Community College has been serving the community as a comprehensive community college in the heart of Honolulu meeting the post-secondary educational needs of individuals, businesses, and the community. A member of the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers, Honolulu Community College has been continuously and fully accredited since 1970 by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges. For more information, visit http://honolulu.hawaii.edu.