Mohamed Hamouda and Freddy Borja Laverde, both undergraduate students from the Electrical and Computer engineering department at the University of Alberta, won the inaugural APIC Energy Hackathon for their ‘Charger4Share’ idea that they brainstormed and developed as a team. Mohamed and Freddy proposed a user interface for electric vehicle (EV) owners to find charging stations throughout Alberta, especially in areas where dedicated EV chargers are difficult to find.
Freddy and Mohamed were part of a group of 30 graduate and undergraduate students scattered across multiple time zones determined to present an innovative idea and solution to the judges and hosts at this event. Over the weekend of June 25-27, 5 final teams worked overnight on their ideas, using Zoom and Discord as their only means on communication given the pandemic restrictions which made working together more challenging.
This event was hosted with the help and support of AI4Society, ISAIC, Future Energy Systems, and the Energy Systems Signature Area at the University of Alberta.
Here is the complete list of winners:
| Winning Team | Charger4Share – Mohamed Hamouda, Freddy Borja Laverde |
| Runner-up | Smart PV solution: A rooftop solar potential calculator – Hadi Rohani, Saidur Rahman, Sanju Xaviar, Xinlei (Ray) Chen |
| Second runner-up | DER selection for Buildings/Microgrids – Akhtar Hussain, Chloe Zhou, Vadim Avkhimenia, Nastaran Gholizadeh |
| Most Innovative Idea | Charger4Share – Mohamed Hamouds, Freddy Borja Laverde |
| Best Presentation | DER selection for Buildings/Microgrids – Akhtar Hussain, Chloe Zhou, Vadim Avkhimenia, Nastaran Gholizadeh |
| Honorable mention (for innovation potential) | Using AI and cyber security to secure Power grid from various types of failure – VVS Sathvik |
| Honorable mention (for potential impact) | Solar power data analysis – Richmond Tran, Marcus Kim, Ibrahim Shaikh, Yitong Wu |