Student team developing EV charging stations receives awards and recognition

Streamline Charging team members smile for photo

From left are Streamline Charging team members and Penn State students 乔纳森•史密斯, 布莱登里特, 肖恩Magilton, Nathan Vreeland和Mark Yazemboski.

图片来源:乔纳森•史密斯提供

WYOMISSING,爸爸. — Streamline Charging LLC has received national and University-wide awards and recognition for its flexible and affordable electric vehicle (EV) charging solution. 最近, VentureWell加速器的E-Teams计划 给了这个团队2万美元的资助. 该团队还获得了1万美元的奖金 创建bet365中文官网.你的竞争.  
 
乔纳森•史密斯, 首席执行官兼联合创始人, explained that Streamline Charging is revolutionizing EV charging with technology that can service five charging spaces per station. He learned of the grant while presenting the startup at the VentureWell OPEN conference in San Diego in March. 

“这次会议很有趣,史密斯说。, an architectural engineering major who started at 博克斯 and is now at University Park. “There are people from all different backgrounds; it was just great to talk to everyone.” 

去年, Streamline Charging was among 22 national teams selected for VentureWell Accelerator E-Teams Program, 支持学生创业. The team was awarded a $5,000 pioneer grant and an entrepreneurship training workshop at 引擎, a co-working space in Boston built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

Propel is the second stage of the VentureWell Accelerator E-Teams Program, 除了这20美元,000年格兰特, it provides three months of training focused on supporting the teams as they build their business model. 

Within the Invent Penn State entrepreneurship ecosystem, Streamline Charging received the second place $10,000美元的公司奖金.你的竞争. They were one of six student teams invited to pitch their startups and compete for awards. 

“We worked all throughout spring break,” Smith said. “It was a great experience and helped us refine our pitch and build connections with fellow Penn State entrepreneurs.” 

Earlier this year, Streamline Charging was one of nine early-stage startups accepted into the Happy Valley LaunchBox Spring 2024 FastTrack Accelerator 程序, 包括每周小组会议, plus one-on-one mentoring from advisers and experts in business, 法律, 知识产权. Teams also had access to a suite of free tools and co-working space at Happy Valley LaunchBox located in State College. Happy Valley LaunchBox is part of the Invent Penn State initiative. 

Streamline Charging began with a small group of 宾州州立银行 engineering students in the college’s cornerstone engineering design course. Later, they formed a team through a mechanical engineering independent study.

The students enjoyed success at various stages through the course and through the 宾州州立银行 Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) Center.

After completing the CEED Center’s Customer Discovery Lab, the team received an NSF I-Corps microgrant and a seed grant from the CEED Center VentureWell Project titled “Cross-Pollination of STEM Courses to Sustain Entrepreneur Teams Disruptive Technology Solutions.”

Members of Streamline Charging include co-founders 乔纳森•史密斯 and Nathan Vreeland and two other 博克斯 students. The team has expanded to include several students from both 博克斯 and University Park. 他们的工程学院导师是 凯瑟琳·豪泽, assistant teaching professor of engineering, and their business faculty mentor is 萨旦Kulturel-Konak, professor of management information systems and the director of the CEED Center.

“宾州州立银行 is an amazing hub of entrepreneurial cultural and resources,” Smith said. 弗莱明CEED中心,Dr. 萨旦Kulturel-Konak, and Professor 凯瑟琳·豪泽 allowed us to accelerate our project through mentorship, 工作空间和获得补助金和资金. We also never would have met many of our closest advisers and friends, including our mentors.”

蒸汽线收费的下一步是什么? They said they plan to have a completed EV charging system ready for market by July.