CSIT R&D Voucher
A $25,000 New Jersey CSIT R&D Voucher supported the university feasibility project.
Sources & further reading
Follow the work.
Explore the research artifacts, project history, proposed methods and independent technical reading behind Solar Revitalizer™.
Completed SBX work & company history
Montclair feasibility research
Completed Montclair State University / CESAC feasibility research combined circular-PV research, solar-data exploration and customer discovery. The May 2023–May 2024 project met its agreed objectives on schedule and within budget.
Recycling Solar Panels for a Circular Economy
Recycling Solar Panels for a Circular Economy. Sarahana Shrestha, Pankaj Lal, Archana Prasad, Frank Jackson and Aparna Varde. A 2024 poster reference on the circular-PV landscape and proposed machine-learning research.
Explore the poster excerptCSIT Clean Tech Seed Grant
A $75,000 CSIT Clean Tech Seed Grant, Round 3, supported SBX’s pre-commercial research and development. The official Round 3 announcement provides seed-program context; it does not document the separate R&D voucher.
Open original public source (new tab)Seed-supported research development
Seed support advanced pre-commercial research capacity across computing, AI/data, sensing and simulation planning, and additive-manufacturing research. That capacity supports preparation for the next module-intake study.
Solar-power model comparison
A retrospective analysis compares three plant-power models across two solar plants using chronological training, validation and test periods. Temperature features did not consistently improve on a simpler quadratic model.
Explore the models, results and codeCustomer discovery and venture development
Northeast regional I-Corps Cohort 13 customer discovery, Cleantech Open and founder-development experience inform SBX’s commercialization approach.
Solar Revitalizer™ concept and inventorship
Frank Jackson originated Solar Revitalizer™. A U.S. provisional patent application dated April 1, 2025 documented the broader closed-loop concept.
Founder University
SBX completed Founder University’s 12-week startup-building program, led by Jason Calacanis, with mentorship and practical founder guidance.
Seed-supported modeling and prototyping
Seed-supported development included internal modeling and early recycled-polymer component prototyping, with iteration on fit, durability and performance.
Circular-solar adoption and workforce questions
SBX explored circular-solar adoption, access and workforce needs in a customer-discovery discussion with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Minority Business and Workforce Division.
Proposed research & development
Diagnostic and routing development proposal
Proposed Solar Revitalizer™ module-intake study of PV-specific sequential optional testing. The research plan links acquisition quality, independent condition/function references, routing, matched error/coverage evaluation and complete operator costs.
Materials and manufacturing research roadmap
The research roadmap connects recovery, materials characterization, additive manufacturing and digital modeling. It defines questions and process options for subsequent physical experiments.
External research & public context
IEA PVPS: Performance and Reliability Aspects of 2nd Life Photovoltaic Modules
IEA PVPS Task 13 report, February 2026. Technical context on testing, sorting, refurbishment and second-life module conditions.
Open original public source (new tab)IEA PVPS: Life Cycle Assessment of Current Photovoltaic Module Recycling
IEA PVPS Task 12 report T12-13:2018, based on recycler inputs from 2015–2016. The study assesses crystalline-silicon and cadmium-telluride recycling separately and provides lifecycle boundaries and inventory context; it is not a current industry-wide performance survey.
Open original public source (new tab)Montclair State University: CESAC
The official CESAC page describes the center’s research and technical-assistance mission.
Open original public source (new tab)NJEDA: Clean Tech Seed Grant, Round 3
The official Round 3 program page describes support for early-stage New Jersey clean-technology development.
Open original public source (new tab)Ani Kannal: Solar Power Generation Data
Ani Kannal’s generation and weather dataset from two Indian solar plants, used in the retrospective power-estimation comparison.
Open original public source (new tab)NJTechWeekly: Founders & Funders profile
Esther Surden’s article includes a dedicated Frank Jackson / Shutterbug Exchange profile, describing the venture’s circularity vision and commercialization-program experience.
Open original public source (new tab)Montclair State University: 2024 summit agenda
Frank Jackson is listed as a presenter in Session 5, Catalyzing Clean Technology Development, at the 2024 Clean and Sustainable Energy Summit.
Open original public source (new tab)NJEDA: Round 3 Catalyst and Clean Tech award announcement
The official awardee list names Shutterbug Exchange, Inc. among Clean Tech Grant recipients.
Open original public source (new tab)Cleantech Open Northeast alumni news roundup
The organizer’s 2024 roundup names Shutterbug Exchange (2023) and links its CSIT Clean Tech award recognition. Authors: Avani Prakash, Sherry Tao and Sindhuri Polavaram.
Open original public source (new tab)NSF I-Corps Northeast Hub regional programming
Northeast Hub regional customer-discovery programming for exploring customer needs, value propositions and commercialization.
Open original public source (new tab)Founder University program introduction
Jason Calacanis introduces Founder University’s 12-week startup-building format.
Open original public source (new tab)2024 AAG Annual Meeting program
The 2024 program lists the circular-PV poster. The Montclair case study includes the research-question excerpt and full coauthor credit.
Explore the poster excerpt and coauthors Open original public source (new tab)UCF/FSEC: PV Module Characterization Facility
The facility describes PV characterization capabilities including luminescence, thermography and electrical measurements.
Open original public source (new tab)Geifman & El-Yaniv: Selective Classification for Deep Neural Networks
Primary research on the tradeoff between prediction coverage and error when uncertain cases may be rejected.
Open original public source (new tab)Education-platform reach: public 2021 context
The platform operator reported that Google Classroom helped more than 150 million students, educators and school leaders worldwide on February 17, 2021.
Open original public source (new tab)Gmail: public platform-scale context
Google’s 2019 anniversary post reported 1.5 billion Gmail users, providing historical context for the scale of the messaging platform.
Open original public source (new tab)Moody’s Corporation: 2025 Annual Report
Moody’s Ratings rated $6.6 trillion of debt during 2025, according to the annual report’s shareholder letter.
Open original public source (new tab)IRENA and IEA PVPS: End-of-Life Management, Solar Photovoltaic Panels
The 2016 study projected 60–78 million tonnes of cumulative global photovoltaic-panel waste by 2050. The projection frames the long-term need for reuse and recovery systems. Executive summary, printed page 13.
Open original public source (new tab)2nd Cycle: Integrated PV module testing
The company describes automated visual/AI, electrical, luminescence and safety testing, nameplate recognition, traceable module identity and classification. The public offering establishes relevant commercial capability; it does not disclose the complete acquisition policy or independently establish comparative performance.
Open original public source (new tab)Valancius, Lennon & Oliva: Acquisition Conditioned Oracle for Nongreedy Active Feature Acquisition
Michael Valancius, Maxwell Lennon and Junier Oliva. Proceedings of ICML 2024, PMLR 235:48957–48975. Primary research on cost-sensitive sequential feature acquisition for prediction and decision-making. This establishes a strong method comparator; PV-specific performance requires its own evaluation.
Open original public source (new tab)