Sandia holds its 1st pitch matchup

Program helps take new technologies to market

Sandia National Laboratories engineer Sal Rodriguez says the dimples on golf balls are the key to radically cutting fuel costs for trucks, cars, aircraft and even ships.

Rodriguez told a captivated audience in Downtown Albuquerque Thursday night that his team at Sandia has developed the secret sauce needed to apply custom-sized dimples to transportation systems to cut drag from turbulence and increase fuel efficiency.

“There’s power in these dimples,” quipped Rodriguez, one of six Sandians participating in the lab’s first-ever business pitch competition. “If we applied them to just 1 percent of the U.S. super truck fleet, it could generate about $137 million in fuel savings annually.”

Rodriguez and others were competing for a chance to pitch in the U.S. Department of Energy’s national competition in November, where scientists and engineers from around the country will face off for a $50,000 prize and participation in the DOE’s Energy I-Corp’s boot camp for laboratory innovators.

The top prize went to Sandia mechanical engineer Brent Houchens, who designed a new type of wind power technology to harness energy for individual homes and buildings like today’s rooftop solar systems.

The pitch event is part of Sandia’s new Entrepreneur Exploration Program, aimed at inspiring innovators to take new lab technologies to market, said Jackie Kerry Moore, Sandia manager for technology and economic development.

Sandia received DOE funding for the pitch competition. The competing innovators were mentored and coached by veteran entrepreneurs from the ABQid business accelerator.

“Rather than recreate the

wheel, we partnered with ABQid,” Kerry Moore said. “Their mentors helped our people pitch their ideas to the public. They also provided judges for the competition.”

ABQid will now help prepare Houchens for the national event.

“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Houchens said. “So often, with our expertise, we forget how to tell people why a technical innovation is important. The mentors have provided some pretty tough, constructive criticism.”

More lab innovators can now get similar help at Innovate ABQ’s hightech research and development hub Downtown. Sandia has leased offices at the new Lobo Rainforest building there where lab personnel can work with businesspeople and tech-transfer professionals to commercialize new technologies, Kerry Moore said.