A CleanTech entrepreneur whose energy company has piqued the interest of Microsoft founder Bill Gates has joined the speaker line-up at the Technology Ventures Conference organised by Cambridge University Technology Enterprise Club (CUTEC) next week.

Danielle Fong is the co-founder and chief scientist at LightSail Energy - a cleantech company which develops breakthrough energy storage technology. She was named one of the top ‘30 under 30’ to watch in the energy industry by Forbes. Specialising in smart grid technology, the company aims to utilise the latest power storage methods to balance energy supply and energy demand in the most efficient manner possible.

LightSail has developed an influential profile within the CleanTech industry by cherry picking the experts in thermodynamics, engine development, fluid dynamics, power electronics and control theory to improve its technological potential.

This has attracted interest among notable experts in technology – notably Bill Gates and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khoshla. At the age of 24, Danielle has already had a stellar career in both the academic and entrepreneurial fields. Having enrolled at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, at just 12 years old to pursue a physics and computer science degree, Danielle astounded her peers by graduating at 17 with a university medal.

She went on to perform graduate work in nucleur fusion at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, at the same time working on her PhD in the subject at Princeton University. As well as successfully co-founding LightSail Energy, Danielle is also a mentor for the Thiel20 under 20 fellowship, whilst simultaneously acting as an adviser to several start-ups in CleanTech and physical technologies.

TVC brings together leading minds in the area of technology innovation to debate and discuss the current environment for developing, financing and bringing to market cutting edge technologies.

It has a mix of workshops, exhibitions and keynote speakers such as David S. Rose, the patriarch of Silicon Valley, Julie Meyer, Elizabeth Varley, Jack Lang of Raspberry Pi and Ian Taylor – accomplished individuals at the very top of their fields.

Cambridge-based Blendology Limited, the interactive event solutions company, is supplying conference delegates with interactive badges. Blendology's 'tap to connect' technology will enable over 400 delegates to maximise networking potential during the one-day event.

The technology allows attendees to quickly and easily make quality connections just by tapping their badges together and later adding them to
their contacts and online networks.

Liz Williams, president of CUTEC, said: We are also providing a new Showcase voting system with Blendology's 'tap points' which will allow attendees to vote for their five favourite Showcase companies by simply 'tapping' their PROJOs on the voting posters which will be located at each Showcase stand.

“We are very excited about utilising Blendology's solutions at TVC 2012 and expect it to be an outstanding success.”

• For more information on the event programme, visit www.tvc2012.cutec.org