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The
Energy
Project

An opportunity to design the future of sustainability through youth activism.
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What's the big idea?

The Puranik Foundation is working with High School students to innovate alternative energy technologies to be implemented locally through youth activism. Students will form teams to learn design thinking methodology and work together to design innovations for five arenas of innovation; Water Sustainability, Food Systems, Power Generation, Waste Management, and Urban Design. We are awarding one winning innovation a $15k grant to bring the product to market.

The 2023 cohort collaborates with the Energy Institute High School in Houston, Texas, and Camden Hills Regional High School in Camden, Maine. Students meet after school to learn Design Thinking from a professor at Stanford University d.school. Periodically meet with Rice University MBA mentors & WOM engineers. Leading up to build week, students spend 40 hours prototyping their ideas at the TXRX maker hub and concluding their journey, putting it together in a business plan with Junior Achievement for the final pitch competition presented at the ION, Houston.

Course Curriculum

Integrated Approach (Puranik Foundation)

Puranik Foundation brings an integrated approach for the next generation to lead the future they want to create by impacting the self, community, and environment.

Innovative Businesses (Local Start-Up’s)

Start-up business executives have the opportunity to inspire young minds and provide case studies of what has helped them grow their business and provide a baseline understanding of limitations, and technological advancements in their sector. Students can take up internships with these businesses as they select an area of innovation to problem-solve for alternative energy solutions.

Design Thinking (Ariel Raz)

Ariel Raz, a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, leads the design thinking curriculum to introduce students to out-of-the box thinking and methodologies. Guiding student projects with problem finding to creative approaches to innovate and empathy research.

Prototyping (TXRX Labs)

TXRX Labs will assist students to prototype, build and execute ideas and bring them to life, creating functional models of student projects.

University Mentors (Rice University)

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business MBA students will mentor groups and guide students, helping them understand and excel in communication, collaboration, leadership, and project management.

Business Plan & Pitch (Junior Achievement)

Junior Achievement helps students transform their ideas and prototypes into business plans by introducing students to entrepreneurship 101 and leadership skills.

For questions please call +1 832 806 1317 or email [email protected]

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2023 Energy Project Student Groups

Energy Project-Alternative Power Generation Group

Elijah Gonzales, Victoria Long, Julian Hobday Urban Wind Farms is making vertical axis wind turbines with solar panels attached to harness both wind and solar energy. It uses both solar and wind power as ways to draw power, it is urban-friendly, and it can help support low-income families.

Energy Project-Sustainable Water Use Group

Alyssa Landry, Kajal Zachariah, Nils Triplett WaterWorks is a customizable water recapture system that is designed to work with all plants to help consumers minimize water consumption.

Energy Project-Urban Design Group

Sruthi Zachariah, Anthony Walker, Noah Baker Our company, GHOST (Gondolas of Houston’s Sustainable Transportation), is developing a better means of transportation to help Houstonians maintain mobility in highly congested areas by providing an enjoyable, dynamic, and dependable travel experience.

Energy Project-Sustainable Consumption Group

Alexander Hernandez, Otto Mallinson, Brendan Kaiser Karot uses your fish-best friends to help grow produce and decorative flora using an affordable, water- sustainable, and beautiful home aquaponics system. Our product is a PVC-based aquaponics system that attaches to your home aquarium, recycling the waste from your fish to fertilize the plants, letting both your fish and plants grow healthier, faster, and tastier.

Energy Project-Waste Management Group

Keira Boone, Alex Rashidian Our company, Prototype Greens, is developing an algae- based air scrubber and biodiesel system to help small to large companies and real estate developers produce less CO2 emissions and claim tax credits with a simple, customizable algae-based system.

2023 Energy Project Students

Click on a student's profile to learn more about them.
Make a General Donation to support student innovations.

Addison Millis

I am interested in manufacturing and engineering, and my hobbies/activities are doing robotics, reading, and sometimes playing video games. I think the future of sustainable energy will only exist if more people make an excellent effort to implicate sustainable energy. As for the future itself, I am still trying to figure it out.

Alex Kristof

This internship project is an excellent opportunity to experience a more real-world work environment. I think the future of sustainability will be alternative and sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. In the future, we might even be able to use a Dyson sphere for almost limitless power and little to no harm to the Earth.

Audrey Higdon

I am a sophomore at Energy Institute High School. At school, I am interested in math and science. Somewhere in the future, I believe we will see the world using fewer fossil fuels and mainly sustainable resources. Solar and wind power are popular, but I also hope to discover more ways to produce sustainable energy. In the future, we will have made more discoveries to help us live in more environmentally friendly practices.

Cyrus Golshan

I am very interested in a career in the engineering space. I think the future of sustainable energy should not leave anyone behind and should be accessible to all countries, big and small, around the world. I believe that the solution for sustainable energy still will include fossil fuels to some degree. The ideas surrounding a sustainable future should also be realistic to real-world conditions.

Eduardo Carrizalez

I am currently a student intern at TXRX Labs from Energy Institute High School. I have experience with 3-d printing, laser cutting, CAD (Fusion 360), wood shop, engineering design & testing, plasma cutting, and sewing. I am very interested in anything manufacturing-related and want to become a mechanical engineer. I think the future of sustainable energy will be through the use of hydroelectric sources and excess energy to help prepare for whenever there is a need for power.

Evelyn Aranivar

I'm a student at EIHS and am interested in computer science. The main reason big corporations don't solely use sustainable energy is the cost. I want to create something that will reduce the costs of renewables that can be implemented in under-resourced communities and not just something available to those that can afford it.

James Lofton

I started a non-profit called M.I.T. coding that helps minorities nudes and explore the comp sci field. We have already partnered with a local middle school to teach the students how to code. The future of sustainable energy is hydropower. I think all renewable energy will make the future, and fossil fuels will be obsolete.

Jay Viehman

I'm a passionate learner and love to explore & learn new things. Amongst these is my keen interest in computer science and engineering. I think that the future of sustainability is mainly within our grasp, and I think that Nuclear actually has a role to play.

Maxwell Evans

Sustainable energy is a necessary part of our future and therefore has a bright future. I believe that the future will be powered mostly by solar, wind, and hydro-based sources, though I personally prefer nuclear power.

Michael Martinez

I am Michael, and my basic interests are building and helping people. I feel like in the future sustainable energy methods will be common across a large majority of society as, eventually, we will need to find a way to sustain life on Earth. It seems like people already seem to favor the idea of sustainable energy methods. Hence, I think that in the future, it will be common to see different ways people save energy cost-efficiently.

Nathaniel Lemon

Creating, planning, and building has always interested me, which is why I chose a project-based school. The future of sustainable energy is the younger generations. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the environment is significant enough to cause climate change. We need new minds to grow up knowing that the environment's health is more important than money because it's a somewhat new ideology. The future will be younger generations fixing the mistakes caused by big corporations today.

Noel Trejo

It's an extraordinary opportunity to enrich my engineering knowledge and connect what I've learned throughout high school. I enjoy hands-on projects, designing prototypes, and experimenting to find a solution that benefits the world we live in, and its people. I think the future of sustainable energy will be led by a combination of solar energy and hydropower because of their constant presence. Not long ago, I saw an article about a floating solar power plant, and I thought this was a fascinating idea that could involve both solar energy and hydropower. Since there are about six countries where the sun nearly doesn't set, in the future, we could see farms of these floating solar power plants in these six countries.

Yonathan Bibi

I am a Sophomore attending EIHS. I am interested in many things that are mostly related to business. I am currently educating myself by taking a masterclass directed and taught by Tony Robbins and Russel Brunson. I believe that the future of sustainable energy is held within the grasp of probability. The occurrence of many things will influence this future. This future can either be good or bad for humanity. However, I cannot say. So far, with the developments of us as a species of "Homo Sapiens," I believe we are more likely to have a future with sustainable energy.

Henry Gibbs

When I grow up, I want to help humans explore the endless possibilities that lay ahead using efficient and sustainable technologies. The future of sustainable energy is centered around new generations with new ideas that solve the problems of the past. I see young minds becoming the C.E.O.s of significant companies that create new ways to do things.

Rishab Subramanya

I am a sophomore at the Energy Institute High School and an aspiring engineer. I am especially interested in mechanical and aerospace engineering, specifically data-driven design, machine learning, data science, and Computer-Aided Engineering. I believe the future will run on converting solar to electricity using photocells. From electric vehicles to utilities, spacecraft to undersea technology, solar will provide an efficient means of harvesting sustainable energy through materials development.

Maggie Blood

Each year I’ve challenged myself to tackle more complex problems and use sophisticated research methods. I am ready to take myself to a competitive next level, for my own excitement and to get my voice heard in the science world. I am very excited about the networking opportunities and confidence I will gain from the program.I’ve wanted to be an environmental scientist in some capacity since elementary school. Embarking on the scientific process has always been the happiest and most rewarding experience of my life. I am most interested in getting to apply my current conservation knowledge, and get to learn about sustainability on a higher level.

Olivia Huard

Being able to help our community is what interests me the most. Thinking more in depth about the climate crisis, and taking action to help our community be more sustainable, is extremely interesting, and important to me. Being able to focus on a specific area, that can make our community more sustainable, is something that I really do want to do on a larger scale, which I feel I can do here. Helping the environment as much as possible, is something that I always try to do, and even though I take small actions on my own, I want to make a larger impact.

Laura Riordan

I started the Environmental Club in middle school, and did a lot of leading. That taught me about my love for driven projects. I love working with people, especially when it is a group of people motivated to make a difference. I think that many people at our school have shown their ability and want to install positive change, and the idea of a group working for the chance to implement it is incredibly exciting. Also although I don't know what the pitch would be like, I think it’s an amazing idea that kids from other schools will have to build problem solving plans just like ours, and I hope that regardless of the competition it would build a team that will make an impact on issues in the community.

Tula Bradley Prindiville

Being able to expand the qualities of leadership I’ve been working to develop into systems. Innovation is something that is very invested in. I’m interested in architecture and urban planning. So learning and innovating to create sustainable systems is something that deeply interests me. Creative, intelligent solutions to our energy and climate crises, that are grounded in socially equitable and responsible practices, are essential to the future I hope to be a part of creating. I see this experience as an opportunity and step toward the work I want to be involved in.

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