Since 2010, the Cade Museum Foundation has held an annual competition encouraging Florida’s burgeoning inventors and entrepreneurs. This year, two products originating in Gator Engineering research laboratories made their way to the Final Four. Ultimately, the $50,000 cash award went to NanoPhotanica, a manufacturer of electronic display screens developed by Paul Holloway, Ph.D., distinguished professor in UF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The other team – Green Liquid & Gas, started by Dr. Alex Green, emeritus graduate research professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, won the People’s Choice award.

If you’ve recently held a smartphone, you were probably looking at a liquid crystal display (LCD). Using ink-jet printing methods and a patented liquid material developed at the University of Florida, NanoPhotonica has developed a quantum dot LED display that they say uses less energy and offers better picture quality than any other display on the market. The technology, known as S-QLED, reportedly costs 50 percent less to operate and 75 percent less to produce. NanoPhotonica has also used this material, which is teeming with semiconductor nanocrystals, to manufacture thin film solar panels. In addition to reducing production costs and improving efficiency, they have found that it tripled the life expectancy of the panels. NanoPhotonica’s management team includes Dr. Paul Holloway, the chief scientist responsible for developing the patented material.