Drexel University P3 team: Sarah Byrnes, Eric Eisele, Daniel Pugh, Courtney Reid, and Charlie Woods

The Drexel University P3 team was awarded in April 2009 for an additional $75K funding for research

The P3 award competition encourages college students to apply technology in innovative ways to tackle global environmental challenges. The P3 Award competition was held at the EPA’s Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., April 18-20. P3 designs must be economically profitable, which is why each winning team receives funding up to $75,000 to commercialize their designs.

Drexel P3 team’s cool roof coating project involves the development of a specialized coating capable of reflecting infrared and visible light from the sun to decrease energy usage in buildings and mitigate the urban heat island effect. They have been working on this project for about a year and it forms the basis of their Senior Engineering Design project. In the early stages of the project, the team applied for the EPA P3 Phase 1 grant and submitted the application in December 2007. The application included preliminary lab results, a research plan, budget, and timeline. In June 2008, the team was awarded the Phase 1 award for $10,000.
www.epa.gov/ncer/events/news/2009/04_21_09_feature.html