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At the fall 2022 Climate Change Hackathon, seven interdisciplinary student teams presented solutions to climate change problem spaces at the final pitch competition. The teams were mentored by Waterloo Climate Institute members, Juan Moreno-Cruz, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, and Joyce Kim, who supported teams as they explored the problem spaces and worked on the solutions.
Congratulations to the winning team, H2GRO, for securing the top prize of $5,000! They pitched an idea for an external heat pump to extract thermal energy from wastewater pipes and redirect the heat to warm greenhouses. In addition, the group envisioned that produce grown at the greenhouse would be sold locally, and the proceeds would finance a social enterprise which would supply local food banks with fresh produce.
Back row from left to right: Dhruv Gopalakrishnan (H2Gro), Shubham Kumar (WallCast), Andrew Cordssen-David (WallCast), Kade Truman (PowerCell), Klas Bockasten (Judge). Front row from left to right: Oluwanifemi Bamgbose (H2Gro), Lisa Truong (Judge), Tina Wilton (Program Manager), Mulei Mao (H2Gro), Maria Rubiano (H2Gro), Tim Donegani (Judge).
H2GRO team members: Mulei Mao, Oluwanifemi Bamgbose, Dhruv Gopalakrishnan and Maria Rubiano.
H2GRO team members Maria Rubiano, Master's of Environmental Studies student, Mulei Mao Mechatronics Engineering student, and Oluwanifemi Bamgbose and Dhruv Gopalakrishnan, who are both pursuing Masters’ in Electrical and Computer Engineering, said supporting each other was a key ingredient to their success.
“Throughout the hackathon we met a number of times and had several iterations of the problem statement and broke down every step. We met in person to share our ideas and explored how our (cross-disciplinary) knowledge fit together.”
Perseverance and a healthy dose of teamwork — plus keen technical knowledge — proved to be the winning combination. Learn more about the competition and other competitors on Velocity's website.
Since 2020, the Waterloo Climate Institute and Velocity have partnered to bring Waterloo students the Climate Change Hackathon.
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