A student team from Illinois Institute of Technology recently competed in the “[Em]Powering Grid Resilience Student Innovation Competition.” This national competition invited more than 40 students from universities across the United States to submit ideas to build a more “resilient and climate-ready” electricity grid with technologies such as drones, smartphone apps, and social media analytics. The competition was organized by Spark Clean Energy and sponsored by Chicago-based electric utility ComEd and its parent company, Exelon.

Illinois Tech students Guoshun (Rocky) Zhao, Cheng Guo and Zailiang Yu formed a team and submitted an idea that included a new type of mobile app that builds a virtual network among electric utility, repair crews and customers. The team competed against 17 other teams to finish as a semi-finalist in the competition.

Click here to learn more about their app.