The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) hosted the second edition of the Coogs for Energy Hackathon on November 21–22, once again bringing together bright student innovators from across disciplines to develop solutions for some of today’s most pressing energy challenges.
The Fall 2025 competition was sponsored by ExxonMobil, Honda, and the Glenn Bailey Foundation, and featured 12 multidisciplinary teams representing various UH schools and colleges. The hackathon’s goal was to give students hands-on experience in ideation, design thinking, teamwork, rapid innovation, and hands-on experience, all within a 12-day timeframe.
Over two days of intense collaboration, participants presented solutions to real-world problem statements submitted by leading industry partners, including Chevron, Shell, Arcadis, ExxonMobil, and Viridien, as well as the Sustainability Committee of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee, and the Institute for Ecological Resilience at the University of Houston. These problem statements included challenges such as:
- Advanced Recycling: Detection and Sorting of Impurities in Plastic Feedstock (ExxonMobil)
- Securing Future Supply of Critical Minerals (Chevron)
- Sustainable Dry Cooling for Texas Power Plants (Arcadis)
- Mapping Urban Heat Island Impacts at UH (UH Institute for Ecological Resilience)
- Datacenter Participation in Grid Stabilization (Viridien)
- Sustainable Soccer Fields for Communities (Sustainability Committee Houston, FWC26)
- Green Corridor Transit Hub Innovation (Sustainability Committee Houston, FWC26)
Over a 10-day research period leading up to the event finale, teams examined their assigned challenges, defining the scope of the problem and developing potential frameworks for innovation. They were guided by industry mentors from ExxonMobil, Viridien, Chevron, Greentown Labs, Wood, and Arcadis, among others, along with UH faculty, who helped hone participants’ ideas for feasibility and impact.
Kadilo O. Buzugbe, an undergraduate student in English who was a part of Team Watt’s, shared her experience of taking part in the Hackathon: “It is really exciting to participate in a competition like this as I have never been in one before. As a major in the humanities, who has not really been exposed to questions in energy, this is certainly a new world of experience for me. I consider myself an interdisciplinary scholar and learning from this competition has broadened my horizons.”
Event Finale
On Friday, November 21, 66 students pitched three early-stage solutions through a design decision matrix and received real-time feedback from mentors representing both academia and industry. By the afternoon of Saturday, November 22, they had built digital or physical prototypes, crafted detailed reports, and presented their final proposals for review to the panel of judges, which included Yas Ahmadi, Energy Manager at Harris County Office of County Administration; Sandy Guitar, Executive Director at TEX-E; and Thomas Walsh, Head of Science and Innovation at the British Consulate General in Houston.
After hours of intense collaboration and problem-solving, the winning teams were announced and awarded $6,000, $3,000, and $1,500 respectively:
Team Net Positive was crowned the winners for their solution to the problem statement “Sustainable Soccer Fields for Communities.” Amir Abutalib, a PhD student in chemistry who led the team, was elated with his team’s win: “Honestly, we're super excited and a little shocked. We’re still processing our win. We didn't know how this was going to go in the beginning. We only had a week to really put all of this together and we worked every day. We were meeting every night, talking to our mentors, and we believed, and we kept going, and we did it!”
Team Energy Drinkers received the runners up prize for their work on the problem statement “Green Corridor Transit Hub Innovation.” Speaking on his team’s win, Jonathan Cummins, an undergraduate student in computer science said, “We're extremely proud of the work we've done. Hearing the feedback from the panel saying that they were excited to see [our project] implemented as we go forward towards the World Cup really means a lot.”
Team Watt Warriors were in third place for their project on the problem statement “Advanced Recycling: Detection and Sorting of Impurities in Plastic Feedstock.” Paul Sabong, an undergraduate student of mechanical engineering, said, “We are all very happy that we won. We had high expectations from this competition!”
Introduced in this Hackathon were three mentors' choice awards, each coming with a cash prize of $1,200.
- Team Watt’s received the Mentors' Choice Award for Complete Prototype, which applauded the team’s thorough work of prototype development, creating a cyber-physical system, creating a data collection and analysis process, collecting information and validating with user inputs, and delivering the solution within the short timeframe. They tackled the problem statement “Mapping Urban Heat Island Impacts at the University of Houston.”
- Team Energy Coalition was presented the Mentors' Choice Award for Due Diligence, which reflected the breadth and depth of analysis the team put in for the problem statement, research and analysis, and the presentation of the results. Their problem statement was “Securing Future Supply of Critical Minerals Including Lithium.”
- Team Watt-the-Hack received the Mentors' Choice Award for Technical Solution, and were lauded for collecting information and validating them with inputs, building a technically sound optimization model, providing analysis, and delivering the solution within the short timeframe. They worked on the problem statement “Participation of the Datacenter to the Grid Stabilization.”
Team Net Positive's Prototype on Sustainable Soccer Fields
Team Watt Warriors' Prototype on Advanced Recycling to Detect and Sort Impurities in Plastic Feedstock
Building on Momentum
Reflecting on the success of this year’s event, Debalina Sengupta, Chief Operating Officer of ETI, emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in driving the energy transition. “The hackathon demonstrates the power of bringing diverse minds together to solve complex energy problems. When engineers, designers, social scientists, and business majors collaborate, they create solutions that shape the future of sustainable innovation. That is why we require teams to have students from at least two colleges/schools within the University,” said Sengupta. "The fact that we can approach industry partners for their real world practical challenges, and get the engagement from our energy ecosystem partners, tapping into the startup/entrepreneurship expertise reflected in the coaching of our students, makes this all the more impactful for COOGS!"
Navmi Naik, a PhD student who is also the president of the UH The Energy Coalition, which partnered with ETI for this Hackathon, said, "The Energy Coalition is proud to support opportunities that help UH students grow, no matter their major. The CFE Hackathon offered a unique space for research and creativity, and we were excited not only to promote it but also to compete as a team. The Hackathon was a truly a rewarding experience of investigative learning, showmanship and competition."
Participants also highlighted the collaborative learning experience, many noting how the competition pushed them to think beyond technical boundaries and explore holistic, systems-based solutions.
Here’s what Kanan Guliyev, a master’s student at the Bauer School of Business and a part of Team H-Town Horizon had to say: “I think this contest helps bridge the gap between classroom learning and the real problems energy companies are trying to solve. If even one idea here gets refined and adopted, it could improve sustainability, reduce emissions, or create more efficient processes in industry. At the very least, it helps students like us understand what the future of energy really looks like.”
Moving into its second year, the Coogs for Energy Hackathon aims to grow as a platform for creative problem-solving and professional development. Referring to their own time at the competition, this edition’s participants urged UH students to sign up for future hackathons. Paul Sabong of Team Watt Warriors shared his words of encouragement: “For students considering participating in hackathons … this is a learning opportunity that you will look back on and be proud of, regardless of the outcome. Most importantly, enjoy!”
The event reinforces UH’s role as The Energy University®, cultivating the next generation of energy leaders who are preparing to tackle challenges across the energy industry and lead us to a more sustainable future.
CFE Hackathon Fall 2025 Mentors