Innovators

Andrew Gabor

Andrew Gabor is the chief technology officer and director of business development for BrightSpot Automation, which provides the solar energy industry and photovoltaic researchers with specialized manufacturing and measurement tools. During Gabor's time with West Gate, he will focus on the development of new solar panel defect imaging tools based on UV fluorescence technology and the automated analysis of solar panel and solar cell defect images through machine learning software. Gabor is supported by the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.
 

Grant Gunnison

Grant Gunnison is the founder of Zero, a home-electrification marketplace that simplifies deployments for single-family homes. He previously developed CubeSat laser communication terminals at NASA and MIT and ran a general contracting business. Gunnison understands residential market challenges and leverages his expertise to change how solutions are delivered to accelerate deployments. During Gunnison's time with West Gate, he will further develop his platform and build out his team. Gunnison is supported by the Building Technologies Office.

Mikhail Konev

Mikhail Konev is pioneering a new method to separate and depolymerize polyester plastics from postconsumer synthetic textiles and packaging to enable their full circularity. During his time with West Gate, he will optimize and validate this method from bench to multi-kilogram scale, characterizing postconsumer-sourced inputs and product outputs. Upon successful demonstration of the scale-up and purification processes, he will produce prototype material for engineering-grade 3D printing resins. Konev is supported by the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.

Stefan Streckfus

Stefan Streckfus is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Renewell Energy, which converts inactive oil and gas wells into gravity energy storage. During Stefan's time with West Gate, he will focus on the design and development of Renewell Energy's first to-scale prototype and the creation of the ideal team to build out this concept. Streckfus is supported by the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.