Power the Community International College Design Competition 2027 | Masir Borsia
Competition
Power the Community International College Design Competition 2027
Energy Mentors
The Power the Community: An International College Design Competition 2027 is a global student design competition organized by Energy Mentors. The competition challenges participants to develop an innovative, practical, affordable, reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy infrastructure design for a new community of approximately 2,000 or more families. Participants are expected to take a first-principles, interdisciplinary, and integrated approach that considers energy systems, housing, utilities, resilience, affordability, sustainability, and quality of life. The competition is open internationally and may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently pursuing a degree. Participants may compete individually or form independently organized teams, and official university sponsorship is not required. The project should include a real geographic location, an assessment of community needs supported by references, a typical housing-unit design, a community master plan emphasizing energy flows and infrastructure, regional benchmarking, appropriate engineering, architectural and economic calculations and visualizations, and a professional pitch video. The pitch video should be approximately 10–12 minutes and must not exceed 15 minutes; it must be in English or include English subtitles. The team registration deadline is March 15, 2027, and the final project submission deadline is April 15, 2027. The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize, divided equally among the officially registered team participants.
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Level
All levels
Host Country
United States
Funding
Unpaid
Duration
48 months
Deadline
Mar 15, 2027
Language Requirements
Not specified
Opportunity description
The Power the Community: An International College Design Competition 2027 is a global student design competition organized by Energy Mentors. The competition challenges participants to develop an innovative, practical, affordable, reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy infrastructure design for a new community of approximately 2,000 or more families. Participants are expected to take a first-principles, interdisciplinary, and integrated approach that considers energy systems, housing, utilities, resilience, affordability, sustainability, and quality of life. The competition is open internationally and may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently pursuing a degree. Participants may compete individually or form independently organized teams, and official university sponsorship is not required. The project should include a real geographic location, an assessment of community needs supported by references, a typical housing-unit design, a community master plan emphasizing energy flows and infrastructure, regional benchmarking, appropriate engineering, architectural and economic calculations and visualizations, and a professional pitch video. The pitch video should be approximately 10–12 minutes and must not exceed 15 minutes; it must be in English or include English subtitles. The team registration deadline is March 15, 2027, and the final project submission deadline is April 15, 2027. The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize, divided equally among the officially registered team participants.
Competition Focus: Participants must design the energy infrastructure for a new community of approximately 2,000 or more families, integrating affordability, reliability, resilience, sustainability, energy access, housing, and community infrastructure.
Registration Deadline: Team registration closes on March 15, 2027.
Final Project Submission: The final project submission deadline is April 15, 2027.
Grand Prize: The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize. The prize is divided equally among the officially registered team participants.
Real-World Location: The proposed community must be geographically located on an actual parcel of land that could realistically be developed. Teams should account for real-world local conditions and needs.
Project Deliverables: The submission should include the community location, a referenced community-needs assessment, a typical housing-unit design, a community master plan emphasizing energy flows and infrastructure, regional benchmarking, appropriate engineering, architectural and economic calculations and renderings, and a pitch video.
Benefits & prizes
Stipend: $0/not_applicable
Tuition coverage: 0%
Grand Prize – Energy Innovators Award · €10,000 · Basis: Competition Performance / Judges' Decision · One-time · The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize. The prize is divided equally among the officially registered team participants. In addition to the cash prize, participants gain an opportunity to showcase their work to industry experts, demonstrate technical and creative capabilities, develop professional connections and gain experience in sustainable energy and energy infrastructure design.
Who can apply
International Eligibility: The competition is open internationally. Participants may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently degree candidates.
Individual Participation: Participants may enter individually. The official registration page states that participation is open to single participants as well as teams.
Team Participation: Participants may form teams independently. There is no fixed team size stated by Energy Mentors, and official university, college, club, or organizational sponsorship is not required.
Interdisciplinary Participation: Students and participants from engineering, architecture, planning, economics, business, environmental science, public policy, design, construction, sustainability and related disciplines can contribute to the challenge.
Professional and Faculty Assistance: Teams may seek advice and knowledge from faculty members, graduate students, and working professionals, but these individuals should not directly produce the team's competition results or deliverables.
No Minimum GPA Specified: Energy Mentors does not specify a minimum GPA requirement in the published competition eligibility information.
Eligibility rules
Academic Standing
Participants may be undergraduate students, graduate students, or individuals who are not currently degree candidates. No minimum GPA or academic grade requirement is specified by Energy Mentors.
Other
Rule
International eligibility
Description
The competition is open internationally. Students from all nations may participate.
Rule
Team sponsorship
Description
A team does not need to be officially sponsored by a university, college, club or organization. University or institutional sponsorship is permitted but not required.
Rule
Independent team formation
Description
Teams may form independently and may determine their own number of teammates.
Rule
Professional assistance
Description
Teams may obtain advice and knowledge from faculty members, graduate students and working professionals, but such individuals should not directly produce the team's results or competition deliverables.
Important dates
Application deadline: Mar 15, 2027
Note: Team registration deadline: March 15, 2027. Final project submission deadline: April 15, 2027.
Fields of study
Architecture
Business
Business Analytics
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Science
Data Science
Design
Economics
Electrical Engineering
Energy Engineering
Engineering
How to apply
1
Review the official competition requirements
Read the official Power the Community competition information, eligibility requirements, design challenge and submission guidelines before registering.
2
Form a team or participate individually
Participants may enter individually or form a team. Teams may be independently organized and do not require official university sponsorship.
3
Choose and study a real community location
Select an actual parcel of land that could realistically be developed as the proposed community. The design must be geographically located and should reflect real-world local conditions and needs.
4
Register before March 15, 2027
Complete the official Energy Mentors registration form with the participant/team information before the registration deadline.
5
Develop the community and energy infrastructure design
Prepare the required design deliverables, including the community needs assessment, housing-unit design, community layout, energy infrastructure, benchmarks, calculations and supporting visualizations.
6
Required documents
Competition Project Submission — The final submission should contain the required competition deliverables, including the community geolocation, referenced needs assessment, typical housing design, community and energy infrastructure design, benchmarking, supporting engineering/architectural/economic calculations and renderings, and a pitch video.
The competition is open internationally. Participants may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently degree candidates. Participants may compete individually or form independently organized teams, and official university sponsorship is not required.
Technology Availability: The conceptual design should use components that are commercially available for purchase through worldwide sourcing as of the competition submission deadline.
Pitch Video: The pitch video should be approximately 10–12 minutes and must not exceed 15 minutes. It must be in English or include English subtitles.
Intellectual Property: Participants are responsible for protecting their own intellectual property. Teams with potentially patentable innovations should consider obtaining appropriate IP advice before public submission because submitted designs may be publicly displayed.
Team Member Changes: Team members may be changed up to the time of design submission. If the team wins, the award is allocated equally among the members documented in the final design submission.
University: Energy Mentors
Host country: United States
Deadline: Mar 15, 2027
Eligible students: International
Funding: Fully Funded
Posted by: Energy Mentors — Energy Mentors is the organizing organization behind the Power the Community International College Design Competition. It operates as a platform focused on mentoring students and professionals and promoting energy sustainability, energy prosperity and professional development.
No Formal English Test Specified: No IELTS, TOEFL, or other formal language test is specified as an eligibility requirement. The pitch video must be in English or include English subtitles.
Minimum GPA: 3.50 / 4
Gender: Female, Male, Other
Remote opportunity
Unpaid opportunity
Environmental Engineering
Environmental Science
Industrial Engineering
Materials Science
Mechanical Engineering
Project Management
Public Policy
Renewable Energy
Robotics
Sustainability Studies
Urban Planning
Construction
Prepare the pitch video
Create a professional pitch video of approximately 10–12 minutes, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes. The video must be in English or include English subtitles.
7
Submit the complete project by April 15, 2027
Submit all required project deliverables through the submission process provided by Energy Mentors to registered participants.
Energy Mentors is the organizing organization behind the Power the Community International College Design Competition. It operates as a platform focused on mentoring students and professionals and promoting energy sustainability, energy prosperity and professional development.
