Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl competition underway

HUNTSVILLE – The kickoff for the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl is still a few weeks away, but the Huntsville-based company is hosting another competition – for the academic side of college.

The Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl, an academic competition sponsored by Radiance Technologies and the Independence Bowl Foundation, features 11 teams from seven universities competing for a $25,000 grand prize.

Teams are competing to develop innovative approaches to a research and development topic selected by Radiance Technologies. 

This year’s topic is parasitic energy harvesting, which is the generation of electricity or capturing of energy from sources that would normally be lost to the environment. These sources can be from a systems motion, vibration, heat, RF emissions or other phenomenon that are by-products to the functioning of the main, designed system and are usually not recovered.

There is a tremendous amount of unused, waste energy in the operation of a system that, if recovered, could increase the overall efficiency of the system, or provide for auxiliary capabilities and functions, i.e., energy or storage for another function (recharge batteries, power sensors, etc.). The applications vary widely from micro-electronics, to wearables, to components to complete systems.

This Innovation Bowl topic is looking for innovative means of recovering this energy into a useful form to provide usable capability. In system design, size, weight, power, and cost is often used to assess alternatives. In this effort, Radiance will evaluate the size, weight, and cost of the proposed approach with the Power that will be generated/collected.  

2024-25 Innovation Bowl Teams

• Power Harvesters (Brigham Young University)
• Transverse Terrapins (University of Maryland)
• The Claw Crew (Marshall University)
• Ohmnious Solutions (University of Memphis)
• Tiger Stripes Energy (University of Memphis)
• RadLab (Syracuse University)
• Team EJAF (Marshall University)
• Team Al-Badri (Marshall University)
• THE Big Green Machine (Marshall University)
• Wolverine Power (University of Michigan)
• GATA Eagles (Georgia Southern University)

Evaluating submissions is a two-step process. Teams submit their initial ideas and approaches during Phase One to Radiance Technologies prior to the end of the fall term. From these submissions, Radiance Technologies scientists and researchers select three teams, which are announced during the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.

These teams then further develop their ideas in the spring semester, Phase Two, through prototypes, models and simulation or experimentation and present their findings in person to a panel of experts. A winner is selected from these presentations for the $25,000 prize.

For more information on the Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl, visit RadianceTech.com/InnovationBowl.

The 48th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl kicks off Dec. 28 at 8:15 p.m. in Shreveport, La. The game will match up a current or former Pac-12 Conference team against the American Athletic Conference. Tickets start at $20 and are on sale now at RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com/Tickets/.

For ticket information, email [email protected] or call the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl office at 318-221-0712.