AtmoSpark Water Generation, developed at Lamar University by Tejus Mane, a recent graduate with a master’s degree in chemical engineering, and Aniket Khade, a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, has been named a semifinalist in the 2018 Texas A&M New Ventures competition.

The student led team, working with LU’s Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (CICE), will enter into competition for more than $250,000 in prizes before an audience of a thousand. 

The Texas A&M New Ventures Competition is open to all Texas-based companies seeking to bring a new or enhanced technology to the marketplace. Participant companies must be technology- or science-focused independent ventures in the pre-seed/seed, start-up or early growth stages. 

Originally envisioned as a solution to water shortages in developing countries, the technology holds promise as one means of addressing potable water needs in rural areas and mobile recreation activities, Mane said.

“We are an atmospheric water generation company developing technology to bring fresh water to rural and urban communities and hard to reach areas such as offshore platforms, for disaster relief and in maritime,” Mane said.

Mane, CEO of AtmoSpark, and co-founder Khade, submitted the grant proposal with the help of LU’s CICE, the Office of Sponsored Research, and Jerry Lin, senior director of graduate programs, University Professor and Ann Die-Hasselmo Faculty Scholar at LU. Matthew Bukovicky, an M.B.A. student in leadership, joins Mane and Khade on the team.

The team has benefited from a National Science Foundation I-Corps program grant that has helped them identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs. AtmoSpark has also earned top prize in three recent competitions: the 2017 Texas Rural Challenge, the Big Idea Challenge at LU, and the Texas State University Business Plan competition.

The AtmoSpark project gained additional traction last summer by participating in OwlSpark, Rice University’s three-month entrepreneurship accelerator program, where they developed a mock-up prototype of the device.

Mane first had the idea while attending the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship graduate class taught by David Cocke, the Jack M. Gill Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering and associate director of the CICE. The class changed his professional trajectory, Mane said, to a future in entrepreneurship.

“Dr. David Cocke’s class at the CICE was the major reason we were able to start this project, and are now able to bring it to a state that we are able to get NSF funding for customer discovery and other outside funding as well,” Mane said. “The CICE has been a huge support for us.”