It鈥檚 a wrap 鈥� CU Boulder鈥檚 2024 Sustainability Hackathon results are in: five teams walked away with a share of $10,000 in prize money for proposing viable solutions to sustainability issues. During the weeklong competition, a record number of 20 teams worked around the clock to ideate, develop ideas and prepare pitches.

Solving problems and making an impact

2024 Winning Teams

This year鈥檚 winning teams addressed a variety of sustainability concerns:

First Prize ($3,000) 鈥� Good Watt

• Solution: A device that helps consumers monitor and reduce energy waste.
• Team members: Talha Ather, Hudson Curtis, Samir Dherar, Nabil Djaber, Nathan Mahary, Mohamed Mohamedali and Zuhair Rao.

Second Prize ($2,000) 鈥� SAGA

• Solution: An app that supports sustainable product purchases while reducing carbon emission in deliveries and returns.
• Team members:  Siddharth Mathur and Marisha Parikh.

Third Prize ($1,000) 鈥� Peak Energy

• Solution: A gamified app to help consumers reduce energy usage in their homes.
• Team members: Matthew Nelson, Renner Skidmore and Alex Stelzer.

Additional Prizes:

TaskerBee Prize ($3,000) 鈥� TaskerBee Team

• Solution: An AI chatbot that can perform customized, administrative tasks on behalf of human resources and operations managers.
• Team members: Camdon Frisco, Oscar Gonzalez, Preston Rogers and Hamed Sidiqyar.

1000 Gretas Prize ($1,000) 鈥� Mallard Energy

• Solution: A modular solar energy storage system.
• Team members: Ben Partee, Walter Richard and Cooper Wathen.

This annual event provides the opportunity to 鈥渉ack鈥� or come up with a clever approach to resolve a concern (such as energy waste or purchasing products sustainably) and develop an innovative solution to address the problem. Participation is open to students, faculty and staff, who have 168 hours to form teams and focus on building out an impactful idea.

Throughout the course of one week, teams work closely with industry partners and technology and startup ecosystem leaders, who share business expertise and offer guidance. Participants attend workshops, meetings and pitch practice sessions in advance of submitting video pitches to a judging panel of industry and academic leaders. Teams are scored on multiple criteria including creativity, execution, design thinking, feasibility and scalability. The top three teams are invited to pitch live for judges and the audience at the Grand Finale, where winners are announced and prizes awarded.

Establishing a footprint

The Sustainability Hackathon started as a way for students to learn design thinking and gain agile development experience and has grown into a much-anticipated annual event. Over the past two years, participation and event attendance more than doubled, with team members coming from multiple disciplines.

Members of the CU Boulder community participate too, helping support the Sustainability Hackathon through financial and in-kind sponsorships and offering time and talent as workshop leaders, mentors or competition judges.

鈥淚t is exciting to see the continued growth of the Sustainability Hackathon,鈥� said Stan Hickory, director of CU Boulder鈥檚 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative. 鈥淲e have students coming together from across the campus and multiple universities to develop solutions to real sustainability problems. And none of this would be possible without the support of our sponsors, mentors and community partners.鈥�

This year, community partner Taskrbee offered a 鈥淏ounty Project,鈥� a special opportunity offered by an industry partner that includes a cash prize awarded to a team that creates a viable solution. The Taskrbee Team is focused on the development of an AI-powered platform for sustainable HR onboarding. Companies interested in discussing potential Bounty Projects should contact Hickory at hickorys@colorado.edu.

Stepping up to the New Venture Challenge

The Sustainability Hackathon is a stepping stone to the New Venture Challenge (NVC). Ranked 15^th among U.S. collegiate entrepreneurship competitions, NVC is the heart of CU Boulder鈥檚 entrepreneurship engine. NVC startup teams pitch for hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding and attend year-round events 鈥� such as the Sustainability Hackathon 鈥� while networking and collaborating with mentors to refine ideas. Registration for the 2025 New Venture Challenge is open until Feb. 8.

Looking ahead

While the Sustainability Hackathon happens once a year, there are plenty of opportunities to ignite  innovation and creativity. Stay up to date on details, events and programs, and learn more about support ing real-world impact and problem-solving by joining the .

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