{"id":386784,"date":"2023-03-08T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=386784"},"modified":"2023-03-08T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:00:42","slug":"nmc-business-students-compete-in-energy-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmc-business-students-compete-in-energy-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"NMC business students compete in energy competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Northern Marianas College business students recently competed in the EnergyTech University Prize 2023, which is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Technology Transitions and encourages students to develop business plans utilizing high-potential energy technologies. From left are team members Anushi Joshi, Eva Levina, Christine Beceril, and Duncan Laxa.(NMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four of Northern Marianas College\u2019s School of Business students have advanced to the regional competition of the EnergyTech University Prize 2023. The competition is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Technology Transitions and encourages students to develop business plans utilizing high-potential energy technologies.<\/p>\n

NMC School of Business faculty adviser Dr. Yunzi Zhang expressed pride in the team, which is composed of team captain Christine Beceril and team members Anushi Joshi, Duncan Laxa, and Eva Levina. The students submitted the abstract of their business presentation in January 2023 and were invited to participate in the regional competition.<\/p>\n

The team, which is named \u201cSolar Marianas,\u201d competed in the South Central and U.S. Island Region via Zoom on Feb. 28, 2023, against other institutions, including American Samoa Community College, and other state universities, such as the University of Kansas and Mississippi State University. The participating students represent various degree programs mainly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Past national winners of the competition included institutions with extremely strong STEM focus, such as Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team consists of students from the upper-class and freshman class, representing diverse backgrounds,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cThrough this competition, we\u2019d like to expand the conventional understanding of STEM disciplines. Business analytics and organizational psychology are allied fields of the core STEM disciplines. Our business students\u2019 participation in a national competition themed in energy technologies echoes this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the team\u2019s presentation, the students will be exploring the usage of binary cultivation in photobioreactors proposed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to launch local production of high-value food materials, such as protein products, vitamins, and animal foods as well as biofuels in the Northern Mariana Islands. The technology will enable the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and relevant agencies to transform solar power and municipal waste to reliable energy sources dedicated for consumer products production.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students have the ambition to address energy-related challenges that our community faces,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cThe Solar Marianas Business Initiative expects to play a paramount role in cultivating energy resilience in the American Pacific Insular areas, reducing the reliance on imported diesel energy, and building indigenous and local pride among the residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about NMC\u2019s business program, visit www.marianas.edu. (NMC)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four of Northern Marianas College\u2019s School of Business students have advanced to the regional competition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":386764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-386784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-nmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}