American Airlines offers an easy way to support a Baylor research project

Several years ago, Baylor engineering professor Dr. Walter Bradley began investigating ways to create low-cost products from the simple coconut — a natural, renewable resource found in many poor coastal regions. The idea was to develop technologies and a business model that would multiply the value of coconuts (and thereby multiply the income of the 10 million poor coconut farmers around the world).

Those efforts have been successful. Working with other Baylor professors and even BU students, Bradley and his team have found a number of solutions. In 2008, Whole Tree Inc. (soon to be Natural Composites, Inc.) was incorporated by Bradley; two of his former graduate students, Stanton Greer, MS ’08, and Elisa Guzman-Teipel, ME ’08, joined Bradley as R&D engineers.

Natural Composites is currently one of 50 small companies competing in American Airlines’ “Flights, Camera, Action” contest. Each company has submitted a video (see Natural Composites‘ below); a winner will be determined by Internet voting. The winner will receive free flights on AA and tremendous exposure from the airline, including an ad in AA’s magazine, a free ad on AA.com and an in-flight video testimonial to air for a month.

You can vote once per day until Aug. 26; one voter will win 25,000 frequent flier miles. So what are you waiting for? Go vote!

Sic ’em, Dr. Bradley and Natural Composites!

Previously on Baylor Proud:
* Baylor students take a cue from ‘Gilligan’s Island’
* Researchers’ plan for turning coconuts to car parts benefits those in need