Skip to main content
Global Change Program

Climate Solutions at the Fall 2018 Convergence Innovation Competition

Student participants in the Fall 2018 Convergence Innovation Competition

By Lalith Polepeddi ยท Published Dec 17, 2018

On Nov 14, GT-RNOC and the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) hosted the Fall 2018 Convergence Innovation Competition (CIC), a competition that encourages Georgia Tech students to create innovative products across a set of categories, such as Health & Wellness, Smart Cities & IoT, and Sports & Fan Experience.

In partnership with the Global Change Program, a new category called Climate Solutions was added to the Fall 2018 CIC to channel the intelligence and creativity of Georgia Tech students to help develop climate change solutions. The goal of this category was to encourage students to develop practical solutions that can help limit carbon emissions and curb climate change.

Citatem (team shown with other GT-Lorraine participants) allows travelers to discover and book carbon-friendly destinations and routes based on group preferences mined from photo album meta-data.
Citatem (team shown with other GT-Lorraine participants) allows travelers to discover and book carbon-friendly destinations and routes based on group preferences mined from photo album meta-data.

Student participants created 17 prototypes on topics ranging from food and nutrition to travel. Some of our favorites from the Climate Solutions category:

  • The Next for Nest team reimagined the user interface of a Nest thermostat to provide reminders and visual feedback to help users form energy savings habits.
  • The Citatem team worked on a mobile app that suggests nearby cities to travel to, along with an estimated carbon footprint of the trip.
  • The Recycle Capture team created a mobile app that shows whether an item can be recycled based on a photo of the item.
  • The EcoCalc team worked on a mobile app that displayed the carbon footprint of common groceries.

We’re grateful to GT-RNOC Directors Russ Clark and Matt Sanders for openness to include the Climate Solutions category in the Fall 2018 CIC, and we look forward to continuing to work with GT-RNOC and IPaT to grow the Climate Solutions category for future CICs.