{"id":400900,"date":"2026-08-08T04:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400900\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:38:09","slug":"team-energy-drinkers-win-second-place-at-fall-2025-cfe-hackathon-with-reimagining-a-cooler-greener-houston-transit-futurepage-heading-uh-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400900\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Energy Drinkers Win Second Place at Fall 2025 CFE Hackathon with Reimagining a Cooler, Greener Houston Transit FuturePage Heading | UH Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the Fall 2025 Coogs for Energy Hackathon, Team Energy Drinkers, comprising Cindy<br \/>\n                           Yang, Harper Jones, Elijah Clark, Emily Perez, Noah Hawver, and Jonathan Cummins,<br \/>\n                           received the $3,000 second-place prize for their proposal addressing the problem statement<br \/>\n                           \u201cGreen Corridor Transit Hub Innovation.\u201d Presented by the FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston<br \/>\n                           Host Committee\u2019s Sustainability team, the problem statement challenged the students<br \/>\n                           to redesign Houston\u2019s transit hubs along the Green Corridor that links NRG Stadium,<br \/>\n                           Downtown, and EaDo. The aim was to improve comfort by regulating temperatures and<br \/>\n                           reduce environmental impact. This will be crucial as the city gets set to welcome<br \/>\n                           soccer fans from all over the world in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing the corridor\u2019s vulnerability to heat, inadequate shading, and insufficient<br \/>\n                           waste diversion, the team developed a thoughtful, integrated concept to transform<br \/>\n                           high-traffic public spaces into energy-efficient and culturally engaging community<br \/>\n                           assets that will continue to serve Houstonians for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>The Energy Drinkers proposed a set of practical and scalable solutions centered on<br \/>\n                           sustainable energy, cooling, circularity, and community storytelling. They featured<br \/>\n                           hybrid-powered outlets and display stands at stations along the transit hub, which<br \/>\n                           will provide both functional power and long-term value.<\/p>\n<p>To combat heat exposure, they proposed incorporating relatively low-cost water stations<br \/>\n                           and cooling fans at stations. To tackle Houston\u2019s flooding challenges, the team added<br \/>\n                           nature-based solutions such as wildflower beds and bioswales, expected to be both<br \/>\n                           visually appealing and economical, in their proposed design. Their plan also included<br \/>\n                           using murals by local artists along the transit hub to provide community identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/reimagined_stadium_station.png\" alt=\"Digital prototype of reimagined stadium station\" width=\"465\" height=\"262\"\/>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/info_board_at_the_new_stations.png\" alt=\"Prototype of new information board at transit hub stations\" width=\"389\" height=\"262\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"hero-caption\">Energy Drinkers&#8217; Digital Prototype of Revamped Stadium Park Station and State-of-the-Art<br \/>\n                           Info Board<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s prototype brought their vision for a re-energized transit hub to life.<br \/>\n                           They showcased a digital model of a fully upgraded Stadium Park Station featuring<br \/>\n                           cooling fans, water stations, Houston-inspired murals, wildflower beds, LED information<br \/>\n                           boards, and recycling infrastructure. Their business model outlined a plan to fund<br \/>\n                           the upgrades through a mix of city support, advertising revenue, and excess solar<br \/>\n                           power sales.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on his team\u2019s win, Jonathan Cummins, an undergraduate student in computer<br \/>\n                           science said, \u201cWe&#8217;re extremely proud of the work we&#8217;ve done. Hearing the feedback<br \/>\n                           from the panel saying that they were excited to see [our project] implemented as we<br \/>\n                           go forward towards the World Cup really means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Fall 2025 Coogs for Energy Hackathon, Team Energy Drinkers, comprising Cindy Yang, Harper Jones, Elijah Clark,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-400900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}