The 2020 Monash EnergyHack
From the 16th until the 19th of October, the Monash Energy Club held its first EnergyHack. Monash students from a wide range of degrees and backgrounds were divided into 7 teams, and together were pitched one problem from each of our sponsors; Woodside Energy, Vestas, and the Monash Energy Institute, as well as a problem pitched by the Monash Energy Club. Problems involved grid stability, wind energy, hydrogen, smart meters, and energy efficiency on Monash campuses.
The teams included undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students studying a wide array of engineering, business, economics, arts, and science fields. It truly reflected the Energy Club’s goal of promoting and enabling interdisciplinary teamwork, allowing students who are not studying traditionally energy industry related subjects to be able to experience and learn about the industry through hands on experience. We are also very proud to have had a great degree of gender diversity, with a 40:60 female to male ratio at the event. In an industry such as Energy where women are typically underrepresented, it was brilliant to see such a great turn out from our female members.
Using Remo and Youtube livetream, each team had 3 minutes to present their final business plan and novel solutions to a panel of experts and other viewers where, following their presentations, they answered both panellist and audience questions. Each team was mentored by a member of their respective company with Neil Kavanagh (Chief Scientist of Woodside Energy), Shreejan Pandey (General Manager of the Monash Energy Institute), and Michael Perkins (Project Developer at Vestas), assisting the teams in the formation of their solutions.
At 5pm Monday the winning team was announced, Team Rainmakers: Hazim Shahrum, Maxine Yap, Vivian Monje Nunez, Rachel Brindley, and Gaurav Agrawal. Their team tackled the issue of slow voluntary uptake of smart meters in Australian residents that is delaying the switch from flat-rate tariffs to flexible pricing tariffs. A problem that can save households money on their electricity bills. Rainmakers will now have the opportunity to take their solution further with the help of Monash’s Generator, which aims to validate and expand their solution to be a reality.
We spoke to Team Rainmakers after the announcement to hear their thoughts about the event:
Q. What did you find was the best part about the EnergyHack?
A. “The best part, besides being surprisingly winners, was the challenge to learn about something new in such a short time. Also, the idea to meet more people from different fields, love it!” – Vivian
“The mentorship aspect of the EnergyHack was such a unique experience! Being a business student, the energy sector was an uncharted territory. The insights provided by our mentor […] made solving the case study much more directive (& fun!)” – Hazim“The energyhack helped to mix ideas from various fields to develop a business model and encouraged teamwork and leadership skills.” - Gaurav
Q. Did you learn anything new from taking part?
A. “I know so much about tariffs and energy now and it's great! I pay my own bills so it's really cool to be able to actually understand whats going on in my bills now hahaha. I also learnt so much from each of my friends and I’d say we all make a great team.” - Maxine
“Interdisciplinary teamwork was a big one! Having a range of team members from various backgrounds such as STEM, business & arts. The process provided the opportunity for each team member to leverage their expertises from their degrees, which yielded a much better result than expected.” - Hazim
“It was fascinating to research current issues regarding consumer behaviour with energy and smart meters! It can be directly applicable to our own lives and how we review our electricity and gas bills.” - Rachel
Q. What made you choose to take part in the EnergyHack?
A. “I sent the event to my friends on a whim, as I’ve never done a hackathon before, so I thought it would be a really cool experience. Didn't expect to win though! Still really grateful for it!” - Maxine
“It was through Maxine that we found out about the event, then Gaurav joined us in the event. I decided to participate because it was something new for me, and I wanted to know for myself what a hackathon was.” - Vivian
“I was interested in the renewable energy sector prior to the EnergyHack however was not quite sure how my degree in business would fit in. My fellow team member, prompted us to apply to the event and it acted as an incredible way to understand the industry and my potential role within it.” - Rachel
Our aim for this Hackathon was to host a fun, challenging, informative and social event that any Monash student could be a part of. It is great to hear that the teams felt they gained new knowledge and skills surrounding not only the energy industry as a whole but also about their individual everyday energy usage. It is also incredible that each of the team members found great value in the expert mentorship from our sponsors during the planning stages of the event. It was clear that every member from each team put in a lot of hard work, going above and beyond for this challenge and we were extremely impressed with all of the presentations. We can honestly say that each and every one of the teams’ solutions far exceeded what we expected!
Thank you to every member who attended the event! Apart from the usual technical glitches that come with 2020 the event was a smashing success and we look forward to building upon it for 2021. All the teams’ presentations are available on our Youtube Channel and below, as well as the EnergyHack booklet with all the information that was provided to the teams.
Woodside Teams
Team Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0WxIsvTzY
Team Pentagon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Ga_aBTG8M
Vestas Teams
Team Flashdrive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIkUOx-tRzw
Team Rocket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcWUVi6Z8Tg
Monash Energy Institute Teams
Team Rainmakers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M1Gy1DLxOw
The Indecisives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShx_oPxFs8
Monash Energy Club Team
Team Equilibrium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbHCNT-uGKg
Link to Monash EnergyHack Booklet/Information
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xxy_j-wjzMba4Tb_8mdGQ4bcdN63LQtu/view?usp=drivesdk