Northern Marianas College’s School of Business has announced that four of its students have advanced to the regional competition of the EnergyTech University Prize 2023. The competition is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) and encourages students to develop business plans utilizing high-potential energy technologies.
NMC School of Business Faculty Advisor Dr. Yunzi Zhang expressed pride in the team, which comprises Student Team Captain Christine Beceril and Student Team Members Anushi Joshi, Duncan Laxa and Eva Levina. The students submitted the abstract of their business presentation in January 2023 and were invited to participate in the regional competition.
The team, which is named “Solar Marianas,” competed in the South Central and US Island Region via Zoom on February 28, 2023 against other institutions, including American Samoa Community College, and other state universities, such as the University of Kansas and Mississippi State University. The participating students represent various degree programs mainly in the STEM fields. Past national winners of the competition included institutions with extremely strong STEM focus, such as Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Our team consists of students from the upper-class and freshman class, representing diverse backgrounds,” Zhang said. “Through this competition, we'd like to expand the conventional understanding of STEM disciplines. Business analytics and organizational psychology are allied fields of the core STEM disciplines. Our business students' participation in a national competition themed in energy technologies echoes this."
In the team’s presentation, the students will be exploring the usage of binary cultivation in photobioreactors proposed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to launch local production of high-value food materials, such as protein products, vitamins and animal foods as well as biofuels in the Northern Mariana Islands. The technology will enable the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation and relevant agencies to transform solar power and municipal waste to reliable energy sources dedicated for consumer products production.
"Our students have the ambition to address energy-related challenges that our community faces,” Zhang said. “The Solar Marianas Business Initiative expects to play a paramount role in cultivating energy resilience in the American Pacific Insular areas, reducing the reliance on imported diesel energy, and building indigenous and local pride among the residents."
For more information about NMC’s business program, visit www.marianas.edu.
Northern Marianas College Business Students recently competed in the EnergyTech University Prize 2023, which is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) and encourages students to develop business plans utilizing high-potential energy technologies. From left are team members Anushi Joshi, Eva Levina, Christine Beceril, and Duncan Laxa.