Following PSU guidance surrounding COVID-19, the 2020 PSU Cleantech Finals has been moved to an online virtual experience!

About this Event
The PSU Cleantech Challenge is an exciting competition for campus cleantech innovators and entrepreneurs. Seven student teams from Portland State University were selected to advance to the final round of the 2020 PSU Cleantech Challenge and compete for $3,500 in prizes.

The top two teams from the PSU Cleantech Challenge will advance the 2020 Invent Oregon Collegiate Challenge. The finals for that competition will take place in September at the Rogue Community College campus in Medford.

Each team participating in the eighth annual PSU Cleantech Challenge received a $1,500 prototyping grant to develop their ideas, all of which are addressing the social, environmental, and economic challenges of the region. Presented by the PSU Center for Entrepreneurship, the Challenge is an inspirational cornerstone of invention and entrepreneurship education at PSU, driving students to achieve success outside the classroom.

The seven finalist teams represent schools and department from across Portland State and were selected after pitching their ideas to a panel of judges who scored them based on the viability of the concept and its potential to make a positive impact.

The seven competing teams include:

Theory Parking: a team of engineering students with a solution to eliminate the time and wasted emissions associated with driving around looking for parking

UVM: a team of engineering students with an idea for a door mat that would sanitize shoes using ultraviolet light for use in food preparation and medical settings

EnviroPlasma: environmental engineers looking to replace landfills with a closed-loop plasma gasification system that would superheat garbage reducing it to base materials

Eco Archi-Tech: students from the School of Architecture are taking waste plastics and using it as the building blocks for furniture, art and shelter.

Open Source Rocket Academy (OSRA): a multidisciplinary team committed to making amateur rocketry accessible for STEM education

Carbon Negative Basalt Fiber: engineering and chemistry students comprise this team, working on a carbon-negative alternative to fiberglass insulation.

Organic Carbon Capture: Engineering students team up with a botanist to use plants to capture carbon dioxide at scale in a portable system for use in urban areas.

For the safety and health of our community the competition has been moved to an online virtual experience using Zoom Livestream.