Students imagine future without fossil fuels

Students took creative approaches to thinking about the challenges of meeting energy needs in this year's Imagining Energy Futures Competition. Winners of the annual competition were announced on May 30. Organized by Anindita Banerjee, associate professor of comparative literature; Al George, professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering and systems and the John F. Carr, professor of mechanical engineering emeritus; and Debra Castillo, the Emerson Hinchcliff Professor of Hispanic Studies, the competition challenges teams of undergraduate students to imagine what the world might look like after fossil fuels. Participants, which included emerging scientists, artists, engineers and designers, created projects that envisaged sustainable energy futures.

"Bedrock Borough," a project created by five undergraduate students, Elena Fernandez ‘20, Bailey Montgomery ‘18, Robert Sanchez ‘21, Olivia Haynie ‘20, and Jiacheng Li ‘19, placed first and imagines a future where humans live in high-reaching skyscrapers to escape rising sea levels. "Humans of Energy Futures," created by Hiilei Casco '18 and Anita Tendler ‘17, placed second and features Instagram interviews with students sharing their views on a world withough fossil fuels.

The Imagining Energy Futures competition is supported by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future’s Academic Venture Fund and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.