ORONO – A University of Maine business student and a recent engineering graduate have won a second major business plan competition and have been awarded a grant.

William Sulinski, a senior from Dedham majoring in economics, and Matthew Rodrigue, a 2004 engineering graduate from Wilton, received word recently that they have been approved for a $5,000 seed grant from the Portland-based Libra Future Fund.

The pair conceptually devised a new device to improve the efficiency of home heating oil delivery and have used at least two business plan competitions to hone their presentation and marketing skills.

This spring, they captured first place at the business plan competition held by the Center for Entrepreneurship at the school of business at the University of Southern Maine. The prize was $10,000 cash and $15,000 in legal consulting and other services to help them develop and market their new product.

They recently opened an office in the university’s Target Technology Center on Bennoch Road in Orono to formally move their device toward production and begin talking with potential investors. They have applied for a patent on the device and are discussing a prototype design plan with Enercon Technologies engineering firm in Gray, said Sulinski, whose family owns a local heating oil distribution business.

In December, the concept won first prize and a $5,000 cash award at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Business Plan Competition in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

In the South Portland business plan competition, more than 20 teams competed and five were chosen to present before three judges – a technical consultant, an investor and the manager of a major accounting firm. The competition was open to students from USM, Southern Maine Community College, University of Maine at Farmington and UM.

The Libra Future Fund is a new program of the Libra Foundation created to “combat youth out-migration by supporting initiatives that increase the number of Maine-based professional opportunities,” according to the Libra Fund Web site.

Sulinski and Rodrigue hope to leverage the grant and prize money against a $10,000 seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute, which requires a 100-percent match.

As they move forward with their new company, Consumer Energy Research Corp., Sulinski said, “My ‘to-do list’ is just astronomical, but I think that’s what makes a successful entrepreneur.” He intends to devote the summer to marketing and production planning.

Rodrigue, currently an engineering consultant for Woodard & Curran engineers office in Dedham, Mass., and a member of the UM board of visitors, will begin an MBA program at Harvard Business School this fall, but will continue with Sulinski as an adviser.

“We’re very excited about it,” said Rodrigue.

The partners’ “Heat-Safe 1000” is a wireless device that lets heating oil companies know when customers’ oil tanks get low. With a built-in radio-signal warning device installed in a tank, consumers and businesses will run out of oil less often, if at all. That will reduce emergency deliveries and inconvenience for people who normally would wait without heat while oil companies make the emergency deliveries.

Sulinski is optimistic about getting his product into mass production.

“CIBC, USM and the Libra grant are big steps,” he said. “The resources and visibility from these competitions, and the assistance of Debbie Neuman, Target Technology Incubator director, have been incredibly helpful in the start-up procedure.”

The idea for the Heat Safe 1000 was Sulinski’s original concept, which he further developed with Rodrigue, along with advice from the university’s Target Technology Incubator and the UM Office of Research and Economic Development.

Rory Eckardt of Orono, beginning his third semester in the Maine Business School MBA program, also has received a $5,000 Libra grant to assist with the development of his year-old forestry consulting business.