Seward Fellows Independent Project: The Ecosystem of the Exhaust Catalysis Industry

“If you walk into a room and tell a group of engineers that today’s task is to increase horsepower in the Corvette engine, there will be a lot of cheers. If you walk into that same room and tell them they have to think of ways to make the engine run cleaner, they won’t be so happy”. With increasingly strict regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the idea of cleaner emissions is no longer an option: it is a necessity. The feat is no small task, in fact it is quite difficult for car manufacturers to keep costs low in this aspect of the design. Following the receipt of a $50,000 grant to participate in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, a group from the Union College Aerogel Lab set out to interview at least 100 companies over the course of seven weeks. The team, who called themselves “AeroPure,” consisted of a post-baccalaureate research student Elizabeth Donlon as the Entrepreneurial Lead, Agnes S. MacDonald Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ann Anderson as the Technical Lead, and CEO of Urban Co-Works Jeff Goronkin as the I-Corps Team Mentor. Throughout the journey, interested students from the lab were able to follow along with the process which began with the development of a business model canvas and ended with a “go” or “no-go” decision. This poster will present an overview of the journey of the AeroPure team through I-Corps program along with specific information about the catalysis industry. Given a particular interest in business related topics, I was interested in the ecosystem of startup technologies and learning about how that process takes place.