A group of Biddeford city officials each tentatively placed their cell phone on a tray in a charging cabinet Wednesday night at the DeepCharge open house.

Within seconds, all phones were charging, and there where collective cries of “Whoa,” and “Amazing.”

The charging cabinet, called a DC Rack, stole the spotlight at a ribbon cutting at DeepCharge’s new Biddeford office at 649 Elm St.

 

Biddeford City Officials and members of the DeepCharge team gathered Wednesday for a ribbon cutting. PHOTO BY LIZ GOTTHELF

The DC Rack uses DeepCharge’s proprietary wireless charging system. The idea for the rack came from a request from a Fortune 300 company that needed a solution to replace the tangle of cords for the dozens of devices that are hooked daily at the charging station in their warehouse. With the rack, phones, iPads and the like can be simply placed (no need to plug in) on a shelf in the cabinet and, the company reports, will get charged to 80 percent of its battery life in a fraction of an hour.

DeepCharge’s AI-enabled and software-defined hardware can be installed on surfaces like desks, tables, and café counters. Multiple items – laptops, cell phone, even a coffee cup warmer- can be charged simultaneously when placed on charging tiles.

DeepCharge hardware is installed on a table, powering multiple devices at one time. COURTESY PHOTO

 

“What you see here is all being manufactured in Maine,” said DeepCharge CEO Yousof Naderi at Wednesday’s event. “We are building the charging infrastructure of the future.”

He envisions the technology used in charging stations at airports, hotels, libraries, offices and schools; and someday, in homes. Naderi is part of a team of researchers and engineers from Northeastern University in Boston that founded DeepCharge in 2017.  

Naderi and this team received support through Maine Technology Institute and also collaborated with Roux Institute, Connectivity Point and Maine & Co. and under the guidance of business advisor, Biddeford Mayor-Elect Martin Grohman, chose EtherFab, an innovation center in a former bingo hall at 649 Elm St. as their headquarters.

“This was the perfect location for us,” said Naderi. He said they wanted to be close to Saunders Electronics in South Portland, which is manufacturing its proprietary platform, and have an office with enough space to fit their needs.

"DeepCharge’s venture into Maine highlights our state’s expanding role in tech manufacturing. This is a great opportunity for us and for Maine,” said Paul Meserve, general manager of Saunders Electronics

Grohman said it was an honor to welcome DeepCharge, a group of very driven entrepreneurs, to Biddeford.

“We are so excited to have this team here. It’s amazing, remarkable technology,” he said.

The DeepCharge technology is not only a convenient way to tidy up charging stations. Replacing conventional plug-in charging stations with this technology can reduce waste, said DeepCharge employee Somil Singh, a student at Northeastern University. About 622 million USB cords are used every year around the world. Roughly 43,000 tons of oil and 9,000 tons of plastic are needed to manufacture this number of cords, he said.

Mayor Alan Casavant said he was “completely blown away” by the technology DeepCharge presented on Thursday night.

"Biddeford will continue to be on the move based on people like you who want to invest here and want to imagine new ideas here," he told the DeepCharge team.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.