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Sep Makhsous on the Grand Prize Winning Team at the 2013 UW Business Plan Competition
EE PhD candidate Sep Makhsous was a part of the winning team that took home the $25,000 grand prize at the 2013 UW Business Plan Competition. The team’s startup company called Pure Blue Technologies is developing a water treatment system targeted for the oil and gas industry; their system uses environmentally friendly dye and visible light to disinfect any type of bacteria in the water up to 99.99%. Their team beat out dozens of other teams around the region and also received a $2,500 idea prize in addition to the grand prize. Pure Blue’s water treatment technology is more efficient and costs less than other competitors in the market, and could even allow oil and gas company producers to treat their injected water and reuse it for their own system.
Sep’s research in the department focuses on sensors and design engineering. As lead engineer, Sep manages the tech side of the team, and works on the industrial model prototyping. Sep is the second EE graduate student in the past three years to be on the winning team at the UW’s Business Plan Competition. In 2011, Charlie Matlack was a part of PotaVida’s victory.
