TYLER, Texas — Two teams of mechanical engineering students at UT Tyler earned $30,000 after winning the collegiate track concept phase of the U.S. Department of Energy American-Made Community Energy Innovation Prize.
The goal of the competition is to plan out activities to help make sure the benefits of clean energy are felt in local underserved communities. Each of the teams received $15,000, which will now be used to fund the implementation of the community activities and then compete with three other US-based collegiate teams for $20,000 in the progress phase of the contest, according to UT Tyler.
“We are very proud of our mechanical engineering students and faculty who continue to make a global and national impact through initiating and leading socially responsible engineering projects that demonstrate a strategic goal of their education,” said Dr. Nael Barakat, UT Tyler professor and chair of the mechanical engineering department.
The winning UT Tyler teams and their concepts are:
- Greener CASA, representing the Tyler campus: Pedro Montano and Rafael Reyes, both of Longview, and Diego Diaz of Puerto Rico – Creating an academic community partnership to bring free energy audits to underserved communities to promote energy efficiency.
- GreenSynergy, representing the Houston Engineering Center: Oswaldo Garcia, Matthew Crosley and Armando Mejia, all of Houston – Integrating clean energy into education, utilizing solar panels, fuels cells and other technologies to foster learning and sustainability.
According to the university, the teams will report their progress in March. The competition will later conclude with the impact phase, where the advancing teams will compete for a share of the $100,000 grand prize.