The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the Phase I winners of 19 teams for Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP). The UNLV team from the Active Materials and Smart Living (AMSL) laboratory, led by Ph.D. mechanical engineering student Nazanin Minaian, was selected as one of the 19 winners. Professors Alexandrea Washington and Kwang Kim (both Mechanical Engineering) support this effort as additional members. Their technological advance is to use a lab-developed electroactive polymer to make an effective ocean wave energy converter for various wave types. The UNLV team was awarded $15,000 for this effort.