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MBA Team Wins Second Prize in Worldwide Intel Competition for Renewable Fuel Business Plan

MBA Team Wins Second Prize in Worldwide Intel Competition for Renewable Fuel Business Plan

July 30, 2008

Alternative Energy, Business & Management, Press Releases

NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 19, 2007 – A team of four Honors MBA (HMBA) students from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev won second place in the Intel Education® and University of California Berkeley competition last week at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. The results of this prestigious worldwide business plan competition were announced last Friday, in Berkeley California following the event, which was held Nov.13-15. 


The competition is designed to showcase global business opportunities that exhibit the greatest potential for positive change in society. Teams were judged on emerging technology products and services that could make a significant global impact.


The $10,000 second place prize was awarded for the Negev Renewable Green Fuels (NRG Fuels) business plan.  NRG develops innovative microalgae growth technology for biodiesel production. According to their plan, using NRG’s closed system for microalgae growth, biodiesel production costs can be reduced by up to 40 percent.  NRG Fuels’ system has an output capacity per area of land nearly 15 times higher than the best agricultural feedstock. 


The NRG Fuels project team was innovated and developed by BGU Professor Shoshana Arad, a leading researcher in algae applications at BGU’s Department of Biotechnology Engineering.  The BGU team included four students – Avi Avidan, Daniel Eisen, Noga Bar-El, and Roee Arbel – from the BGU Guilford Glazer School for Business and Management in Beer-Sheva, Israel.  At the finals, 21 teams from 11 countries presented business projects and the best groups were given the opportunity to receive funding for their ideas.  This is the first year that an Israeli team participated.


Prior to the UC Berkeley competition, the team garnered first place in the competition’s European stage in Romania, and third place in the Israel business plan competition (BIZTECH), organized by The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.  The NRG group is one of eight HMBA student teams that participated in a business plan writing course.  Their participation in both competitions was made possible by support from Nina Brink, a Dutch businesswoman and member of the University’s Board of Governors.

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

For all press inquiries, please contact:

James Fattal, J Cubed Communications

516.289.1496

[email protected]