Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and automation, recently announced the list of the 12 teams to compete in the final round of Go Green in the City, its international student case study competition focusing on innovative energy solutions for smart cities.

Team ‘Cyclops’, which included Kanza Naeem Malik and Zohaib Salahuddin from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore-Pakistan, was chosen from the Gulf and Pakistan region, said a statement from the company.

As part of the 2017 challenge, the team developed ‘Jashn’, a digital web-based concept that monitors power wastage arising from house-hold appliances and alerts users of the excess consumption.

The proposed solution comes in response to the mounting technical inefficiencies in household and commercial devices that are adversely affecting the country’s power supply.

The team was mentored by Lijo Abraham, who is the senior project manager at Schneider Electric.

Hanan Darwish, president – Gulf Countries and Pakistan, Schneider Electric, said: “Through the Go Green in the City competition, we aim to broaden the minds of the students and sharpen their skills, by giving them the chance to understand Schneider Electric’s operations and IoT- enabled platforms such as EcoStruxure.”

“This helps them recognize existing challenges in the market and find ways to develop sustainable solutions. Being a global company, we take pride in fostering the growth of young minds across the world and providing a platform that creates future innovators,” he said.

Abraham commented: “I strongly believe that collaborations between companies and institutions is key to driving innovation and producing future technocrats and business leaders.”

“As a mentor, I helped the team evolve their initial idea and ensured that the team was presenting the solutions effectively, and succinctly,” he said.

The finalists will now prepare for the last challenge of the competition: presenting their final case study to a panel of Schneider Electric executive jury. Each team will continue to be mentored by a Schneider Electric volunteer, who will offer advice and support. Their role is to help the participants develop their solutions, focusing on user needs and the project’s impacts, feasibility, and return on investment, said a statement.

Sevda Esenturk, vice president of HR - Gulf Countries and Pakistan, Schneider Electric, said: “As the years’ progress, we are extremely happy to see that more students from the region are participating in this challenge.”

“We are committed to promoting the communities it operates in and providing opportunities for its growth. The team’s Cyclops project is a great way to combat the growing power inefficiencies and clearly exhibits the capabilities of the region’s new generation,” Esenturk said.

Launched in 2011, Go Green in the City offers engineering and business students (starting from the second year) an opportunity to present their innovative energy management ideas for the smart cities of the future.

As in previous years, participants are asked to propose an energy management solution to meet the challenges of smart cities in five fields: residential, universities, business, hospitals or water management. Each two- person team must include at least one woman.

Interest in Go Green in the City has grown considerably since the competition launch. This year, Schneider Electric received more than 19,000 applications, 20% increase on 2016. In addition, 180 countries are represented, 24 for the first time.

The number of participating universities has increased by 25 per cent to 2,900, while 58 per cent of competitors are women. Go Green in the City has also attracted wider interest on social networks, with a 51 per cent increase in unique visitors to the competition website (more than 130,000), a 123 per cent increase in the number of likes on Facebook (more than 29,000) and 32 per cent more followers on Twitter (1,950), it stated. – TradeArabia News Service