Today ComEd announced the five finalists in its Student Innovation
Contest, challenging college students to envision products, services or
software apps that leverage smart meter technology to help low-income
customers better manage their electricity use and save money. These
finalists will present their proposals before industry leaders and
entrepreneurs at an award ceremony on Oct. 23 for $10,000 in prize money.
The top five finalists are Peter Graff from the University of Chicago,
Abiodun Iwayemi from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT),
Christina Noonan from IIT, Ryan Reichelt from Midwestern University, and
student team Xinli Lin and Szu Ying Ching from IIT.
The contest submissions include a device that visually alerts home
occupants of the home’s current rate of electricity consumption, a
pre-paid electricity card whose balance and energy usage can be tracked
via smartphone, electronic devices that interface with a home’s smart
meter or individual appliances and broadcasts energy usage data to a
smartphone or tablet, and an app that helps homeowners budget a daily
amount of electricity use and allows for monitoring throughout the day.
“Through this contest we are tapping tomorrow’s innovators to help us
explore the opportunities to further increase the value that is provided
to customers from smart grid and smart meter technology,” said Val
Jensen, senior vice president of Customer Operations, ComEd. “Smart grid
provides consistent, reliable energy to power innovation, and smart
meters are at the heart of what we believe will become the basis for
creating innovative solutions that customers will want and need.”
Launched in May, the Student Innovation Contest is part of ComEd’s
SmartGridExchangeSM initiative, a collaboration between
ComEd, technology companies, universities and customers to spur
innovation that will shape what the electric grid of the future will
offer. The contest was open to individual students or team of two to
five students (including recent graduates) attending any college or
university within ComEd’s northern Illinois service area. Forty-four
students or student teams registered to participate and the top five
proposals were chosen by ComEd based on published contest criteria.
The Oct. 23 award show judges include Karen Weigert, chief
sustainability officer, City of Chicago; Andrea Zopp, president and CEO,
Chicago Urban League; Jason Blumberg, CEO and managing director, Energy
Foundry; and Emile Cambry, CEO, Blue 1647.
View
a compilation video of all submissions. For more information on
ComEd’s Student Innovation Contest, visit ComEd.com/StudentContest.
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon
Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy
provider, with approximately 6.6 million customers. ComEd provides
service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois,
or 70 percent of the state’s population.
Copyright Business Wire 2014