University of Arkansas Student Team to Close NASDAQ Market on Friday

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For the third time this summer, a University of Arkansas graduate student team will ring the NASDAQ closing bell. The team, Silicon Solar Solutions LLC, will ring the bell at 4 p.m. EST on Friday, Aug. 20, in New York City.

A Webcast of the ceremony will air live on: http://www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx

Last spring, Silicon Solar Solutions took first place in the Stueart Clark Venture Challenge business plan competition at the University of Manitoba in Canada, winning $15,000 and the invitation to ring the NASDAQ closing bell. Team members include students in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Stephen Ritterbush, Master of Business Administration program, and Brent Bertelsen, Master of Accountancy program; and Douglas Hutchings and Seth Shumate, doctoral students in the College of Engineering. Carol Reeves, associate professor of management, is the faculty adviser for the team. Their advisers in electrical engineering are Magda El-Shenawee and Hameed Naseem.

In addition to the team members and Reeves, Maria Haley, executive director, and Brad Henry, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, will be on hand in New York for the closing bell.

Silicon Solar Solutions’ patented technology will lead to significant cost decreases and conversion efficiency increases in solar panels. The company so far has won more than $65,000 in cash and in-kind awards worth $40,000 in business plan competitions. Moving the business forward, the team has raised more than $400,000 in seed capital and has made pitches to angel investors and venture capitalists across the country. It is working with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office and opened an office in the Genesis Technology Incubator. It is continuing to optimize this and other technologies that will hopefully revolutionize solar panel manufacturing.

The win at the University of Manitoba also qualified the team to enter The Moot Corp competition, the Super Bowl of business plan competitions in May at the University of Texas at Austin — where the team was second runner-up.

This summer, the Silicon Solar Solutions team made it to the semi-finalist stage at the CleanTech Open and became finalists in the MassChallenge, the world's largest global startup competition. Both competitions are open to entrants from around the world and not limited to graduate students.

Other business plan competition wins for Silicon Solar Solutions last spring include: first place at the Licensing Executive Society Foundation graduate student business plan competition in Boston; first place at the Global Venture Challenge at Oak Ridge National Laboratories; second place in the Continent Business Plan Competition; third place in the Arkansas Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Graduate Division Competition; third place in the WBT University Technology Competition; and third place in the New Venture Championship at the University of Oregon.