The Best Pitch Award

During Energy Dialogue PhD students from the doctoral course "Communicating research outside the academy" made a short persuasive presentation ("elevator pitch") of a research idea. The pitch is one of the course outcomes. Three best pitches presented during final examination of the course competed for the prize at the conference. The best pitch was selected by the audience and awarded with the Energy Platform sponsored prize of 10 000 SEK in the form of the grant for a conference expenses.  

The contestants who presented a pitch were Peter Olsen from the Department of Fiber and Polymer technology, Chi Zhang, PhD student at the Division of Energy Processes and Lea Levi, Division of Land and Water Resources.

Based on votes of the Energy Dialogue participants the prize for the best elevator pitch was awarded to Chi Zhang. In her study, she concentrates on potential solutions for a more efficient Photovoltaic (PV) system from academia to industry. The focus of the research is on the policy and economic performance analysis, business model innovation, implementation of Photovoltaic water pumping system (PVWP) of grasslands and farmlands.

In his pitch Peter Olsen talked about “the future of plastic”. How can we develop/or using the available - tools to create a world for tomorrow? It is a joint project together with four other PhD students, supervised by Prof. Ann-Christine Albertsson and Dr Karin Odelius that work towards mimicking nature’s ability to construct materials. “Nature´s trick” is construct materials that are homogenous on a macro-scale but heterogeneous on micro-scale. In order to realize this vision the project has been divided in smaller sub areas where each PhD student has one sphere of responsibility.

Peter Olsen’s sphere of responsibility is in the borderline between polymer synthesis and organic chemistry. The focus is placed on looking at new and simple routes to form functional degradable polymers. The routes pursued will be both from a post- and  pre - polymerization setting with the big emphasis at keeping it green.

Lea Levi’s research is a joint effort between KTH, Stockholm University and University of Split Croatia. She focuses on detecting and quantifying hydro-climatic changes and pollution hot spots caused by human exploitation and changes made in water (irrigation, hydropower) and land –use (agriculture, deforestation) within river basins.  In her pitch she presented an importance of better understanding of how our every-day use of water and electricity is in direct connection with often dramatic and irreversible changes in water on land. The pitch offers options on how can we as humans be more aware and sustainable in use of water and electricity with still preserving pleasant living and leaving the environment preserved for future generations.