Grad student awarded two MTI grants for company founded with fellow alumnus
A University of Maine Ph.D. student has been awarded two Maine Technology Institute (MTI) grants for the business he created with a fellow UMaine alumnus that aims to develop eco-friendly, recyclable and reusable products for several industries.
Nadir Yildirim, a student in the Wood Science and Technology Program in the School of Forest Resources, received $40,000 from MTI to further develop his business, Revolution Research, Inc.
In October, Brunswick-based MTI awarded Yildirim with a $15,000 Business Accelerator Grant for the commercialization of bio-based thermal insulation foam boards. The grant will support market research in the form of prospective customer interviews and will support commercialization studies.
He also received a $25,000 Seed Grant from MTI, which will allow RRI to purchase advanced equipment needed to conduct the research to develop a commercially viable product.
After completing the graduate certificate in Innovation Engineering through the Foster Center for Student Innovation in 2014, Yildirim started the Orono-based RRI to develop and commercialize eco-friendly replacements of petroleum-based thermal insulation products.
Yildirim, who has been working with advanced nanocomposites for more than seven years, started RRI with Alexander Chasse, a 2013 civil engineering graduate from UMaine.
In June 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded RRI $224,996 for research and development. Since the company began, RRI also has received another $5,000 award from MTI and won first place — a $5,000 award — at the 2015 UMaine Business Challenge.
Yildirim is scheduled to present “Maine’s next big forest product; Eco-friendly thermal insulation foam boards,” at the 2015 annual meeting of the Maine Division of the New England Society of American Foresters (MESAF) on Oct. 30 at UMaine’s Wells Conference Center.