U.S. DOE Announces Winners of Student Competition to Promote Energy-Efficient Buildings
Baku, March 6 (AZERTAC). U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced the winners of a competition that challenges collegiate students to develop and present real-world solutions to boost the energy efficiency of buildings across the country. Secretary Chu recognized the winners of the Better Buildings Case Competition, part of the Energy Department`s Better Buildings Challenge, at an event at the White House Friday afternoon, and congratulated them for their efforts to tackle some of the most common and stubborn barriers to improving energy efficiency. The winners included Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, The George Washington University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, University of Colorado Denver, and University of Southern California.
This competition provides the next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and policymakers with skills and experience to start careers in clean energy and generates creative solutions to real-world problems to be used as models by businesses and other organizations across the marketplace.
“Through the Better Buildings Case Competition, the Energy Department is inspiring the clean energy workforce of tomorrow to find innovative solutions that will save energy and money for American families and businesses,” said Secretary Chu. “We hope that the high-impact ideas presented by these talented students today will help the companies, cities, universities and other partners participating in the President`s Better Buildings Challenge to identify cost-effective, energy-saving improvements they can make in their own buildings.”
Nineteen university teams—led by their respective energy clubs—analyzed case studies focusing on a range of challenges faced by private-sector organizations and state and local governments, who are looking to improve the energy efficiency of their operations. The case studies consisted of real scenarios, background information, and data provided primarily by Partners in the Better Buildings Challenge program, a broad public-private partnership working to achieve President Obama`s goal of making America`s commercial and industrial buildings 20% more efficient by 2020.
The student teams competed to find the best solutions to the energy efficiency challenges presented in real-world case studies for the City of Houston, the District of Columbia, HEI Hotels and Resorts, and Cassidy Turley, a major commercial real estate firm. Read more information on the specific case studies and criteria for selection.
Secretary Chu first announced the competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in November.
On Friday afternoon, the students presented their ideas and written proposals to a panel of commercial real estate and energy experts at the White House.
The following university teams won their respective competitions.
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