Building a Rainforest in the Desert | June 2024

Sandra Begay, Chair of the UNM Rainforest Innovations (UNMRI) Board of Directors and Researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, is the co-author of a manuscript published in Science exploring the opportunities of renewable energy on tribal lands. Science is one of the world’s top academic journals for scientific news, commentary, and cutting-edge research.

Sandra serves as the lead staffer for Sandia National Laboratories for a program that assists American Indian tribes with renewable energy developments. To date, she has worked with 20 tribes across the country to help them develop 10-year vision, strategy, and action plans. Additionally, she initiated the Sandia-DOE (Department of Energy) Indian Energy Internship Program for American Indian students where she has mentored 50 students studying engineering, energy, and the environment. More recently, she joined the prestigious advisory council of Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability to accelerate its mission of learning more about the earth, climate and society and generating sustainability solutions.

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On April 30, UNM Rainforest Innovations hosted its annual Innovation Awards to recognize the innovative faculty, staff, and students at the University of New Mexico (UNM) who have received issued U.S. patents, registered trademarks, and copyrights within the past year.

Between March 1, 2023, and February 29, 2024, there were 34 UNM inventors who received 27 issued U.S. patents. Of those issued patents, 18 were for technologies developed on UNM main campus, 6 patents were developed on the health sciences campus, and 3 patents were a collaboration between UNM main campus and health sciences.

The event also recognized a UNM inventor selected as a 2023 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Sang M. Han, PhD; the 2024 Rainforest Innovation Fellow, Mahmoud R. Taha, PhD, PE; and Larry Sklar, PhD, who received the second ever UNM Rainforest Innovations Lifetime Achievement Award.

This year’s event was hosted at the Lobo Rainforest Building and welcomed nearly 130 guests to celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s awardees.

See list of honorees

The University of New Mexico (UNM) has ranked #61 on the Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted Utility Patents in 2023, a list published by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Published annually, this ranking serves to highlight and celebrate U.S. universities that play a large role in advancing innovation and invention in the United States.

“As we look at the current and future state of innovation in our nation, we need to ensure that the U.S. is remaining competitive in the international innovation ecosystem,” said Paul R. Sanberg, FNAI, President of the NAI. “Protecting intellectual property is a key component to this, and the Top 100 U.S. Universities list allows us to recognize and celebrate universities and their faculty, staff, and students who are not only innovating at high levels, but taking the additional step of protecting their IP through patenting.” 

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On Thursday, May 2, the New Mexico Economic Development Department, UNM Rainforest Innovations, and the New Mexico Angels collaborated to host the final round of the 2024 New Mexico Research University Team Award Pitch Competition and the New Mexico Angels Quarterly event.

The Research University Team Pilot Program is a competitive, state-funded grant that awards New Mexico university faculty/students for their science and technology commercialization proposals. For the final round, three finalists were selected to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges from the Technology Research Collaborative Board at the Lobo Rainforest Building. Teams were awarded between $100,000 and $200,000 for their proposals and will also receive $50,000 worth of entrepreneurship consultant services to further support their development.

Below are the awardees:

• Sandia Medical Technologies – Prosthetic Implant for CMC Arthritis was awarded $210,000
• This team was awarded an additional $10,000 for best pitch at the finals. 
• Sattwa-toyam – Creating New Fresh Water from Brackish and Sea Water was awarded $200,000
• YEEO (Yeast Encapsulated Essential Oils) Eco-Safe was awarded $200,000

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On Friday, May 3, the Lobo Rainforest Building hosted a pitch event for finalists in the 2024 Advanced Energy Award Pilot Program. This competitive, state-funded grant supports proposals in advanced energy innovation and commercialization from New Mexico small businesses engaged in research and development.

The seven finalists gathered at the Lobo Rainforest Building to pitch their companies’ technologies in front of a panel of judges and were awarded between $250,000 and $1,000,000 in funds to support their proposals by the New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD).

Below are the advanced energy small business awardees:

• Flow Aluminum, Inc. was awarded $400,000.
• GridFlow was awarded $300,000.
• Hydrosonics was awarded $350,000.
• Pajarito Powder, LLC was awarded $766,000.
• Sigma Advanced Technologies, LLC was awarded $300,500.
• TS-Nano was awarded $713,000.
• UbiQd was awarded $567,500.

Additionally, UbiQd was selected for Best Pitch by the panel of judges and received an additional $50,000.

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Congrats to our Intern Graduates!

In this series, we’re reconnecting with former interns at UNM Rainforest Innovations (UNMRI) to explore their professional journeys and career paths. This month we’re catching up with Christian Slough, the new Entrepreneurship Coordinator for the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Office of Strategy, Science, and Technology. His past roles range from supporting the Mayor’s Civil Engagement Office in Albuquerque, to co-founding a medical device startup company, and working with Build With Robots.

Christian Slough joined UNM Rainforest Innovations (UNMRI) as an Innovation Intern during his last semester at the University of New Mexico where he was completing his Master of Business Administration. As an Innovation Intern, he conducted in-depth prior art searches, market analyses, and identified potential commercial partners for local technology startups. Additionally, he drafted non-confidential summaries to position university technologies for external licensing and partnerships.

“The internship showed me that a career in technology and innovation is feasible. Before spending time with technology entrepreneurs, the words ‘start-up’ or ‘innovation’ felt outside of my skill set… UNMRI showed me is that my skills in business development and market research apply anywhere. The fundamentals of understanding an ecosystem, the stakeholders, and how companies are positioned in a market are valuable across any industry.”

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Meet with SCORE mentors at the Lobo Rainforest Building! Dar Johnson and Vik Berniklau will be available for one-on-one, confidential discussions and mentoring to inventors, students, and start-up companies.

SCORE mentors are successful business people and entrepreneurs who want to give back to the community by helping other entrepreneurs become and stay successful. SCORE has been helping small businesses start and grow in the Albuquerque area for over 50 years through mentoring and workshops and seminars. SCORE is the largest National resource partner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) with about 11,000 SCORE volunteers sharing their time and talents to help America's small businesses.

IN-PERSON at the Lobo Rainforest Building. Click "Sign up here" to select the time frame you plan to attend.