HOUSTON – The world is full of good ideas, but only some of them become viable and real.

“You don’t see the full impact of a good idea until someone figures out a way to convert it to a usable product or service that has value, brings it to market and makes money off of it – this is what makes it a sustainable business,” said S. Radhakrishnan, a retired University of Houston business professor and coordinator of UH Energy’s Innovation Commercialization Competition. “To have a successful energy transition, we need many innovative ideas to be commercialized.”

Keeping this in mind, Radhakrishnan worked hard to grow the second annual Energy Innovation Commercialization Competition – from five teams last year to 18 competing teams this year. The competition was open to graduate students from different disciplines working on a broad range of energy-related research across the UH System.