Mohamad Meraj Shaikh and Spoorthy Kotla, from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, winners of Go Green in the City 2015 challenge
Energy management and automation company, Schneider Electric, has announced the winners of its global Go Green in the City challenge. Representatives from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in India, Mohamad Meraj Shaikh and Spoorthy Kotla, took home the winning prize.
The Schneider Electric Go Green in the City challenge is an initiative where candidates present a case study focusing on energy solutions for cities.
Working in teams of two, with at least one woman on the team, the students had to devise viable solutions for energy management sectors critical to cities, such as home, university, retail, water, and hospital.
Shaikh and Kotla beat 22 other finalists (11 teams) during the finals of the global business case challenge, which was held in Paris this year. The 12 finalist teams came from United States, Brazil, China, France, Turkey, Russia, Morocco, Pakistan, Australia, Philippine, Japan and India.
Claire Quy and Rowan Heinrich from the University of Western Australia were among the finalists, but were bested by the team from India. According to the company, the laureates from India won the challenge for their idea on an efficient energy management application.
The winning team of Go Green in the City 2015 won a world trip with Schneider Electric, which lets them visit the company’s facilities as well as network with employees and senior management. They were also offered a professional opportunity with Schneider Electric.
According to Schneider Electric, in the last five years, the company has seen strong and increasing interest from students for this contest, especially from the new economies.
It said, in a statement, that first time participants Bhutan and the Democratic Republic of Congo had an impressive representation in this year’s challenge and there was a surge in entries from India and Indonesia.
