SUL Researcher Alejandro Echeveria wins the MIT Energy Hackathon

SUL researcher (and also TPPer), Alejandro Jose Valdez Echeveria, won first place in the 2022 MIT Energy Hackathon!

The MIT Energy Hackathon is a weekend-long competition in which more than 100 teams from universities across the world compete to solve challenges related to real-world challenges in the energy space. This year, the hackathon focused on the theme of “Decarbonizing the Built Environment”. Alejandro and his team (including Allie Shepard TPP ’23, Zoe Le Hong BT ’24, and Dominic Co March ’24) placed first overall with their tool that uses optimization algorithms and building energy modeling to help building owners retrofit their building. Judges of the competition included MIT faculty as well as industry executives from the energy space.  

Alejandro’s Hackathon project stemmed from our SUL project “Building Decarbonization” (and the initial idea was from MIT Center for Real Estate’s 11.350 sustainable real estate class).

SUL can spot a possible start-up from this idea! Congratulations to Alejandro and team!