The School of Energy Resources announced a $5,000 Decarbonization Prize where student teams will prepare innovative ideas for Wyoming’s future in hydrogen technology.
“This competition is an opportunity to help give students incentive for creation,” Scott Quillinan, Senior Director Research for SER, said. “The importance of this project is getting those ideas out there so we can start framing what a hydrogen energy economy might look like in Wyoming”
The competition splits the sum of $5,000 from the collaboration of the Baker Hughs oil industry company and the Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) into a first-place prize of $2,500, a second-place prize of $1,500, and a third-place of $1,000.
Aside from the split-prize and a feature on the SER website, students have the opportunity to receive funding, through a sponsored partnership, of up to $25,000-50,000 to pursue their ideas further.
“Another benefit is that if the ideas are good enough, and the sponsors feel they should go to the next level, there is an opportunity for follow-on funding,” Quillinan said. “That opportunity is not committed to the winning project.”
Quillinan also notes that ideas produced by students are protected under the University of Wyoming Intellectual Property rules and regulations.
Students who are interested in the competition should note that they are required to work in teams of two to six.
“One thing we really want to recruit with this in interdisciplinary teams,” Quillinan said. “Prizes like this that give incentive to that cross-department collaboration makes things easier.”
However, students from all majors are welcome to join.
“We think that maybe an engineering student could pair with a theater and dance student or even a communications major and come up with some real out-of-the-box ideas.”
Quillinan said that the goal of teams is to simulate a real-world work environment, where individuals work with different disciplines and individuals outside of their department.
The focus of the competition is the production, transportation, storage, and use of hydrogen.
“Hydrogen is one of those new, up and coming ways to diversify our energy economy here Wyoming,” Quillinan said. “We could be a leader in this if we get out in front, and innovations from our bright students could help us get there.”
Quillinan said that one setback to the competition is that they were not able to organize it for the start of the semester, and instead have put students on a time-sensitive schedule.
“The biggest challenge is really just coming up with those big ideas and getting them down on paper” Quillinan said. “Maybe it happens on the back of a bar napkin, maybe it’s done after class in a commons area, and then the rest is going to be fun.”
