A team looking at the quality of Permian Basin natural gas with export standards that featured students from the Cullen College of Engineering took first place in the Spring 2026 Coogs for Energy Hackathon, hosted by the Energy Transition Institute (ETI) at UH Energy.
This year’s hackathon challenged teams to respond to the 10 distinct problem statements, each grounded in real operational and environmental contexts. Each team had 10 days to work on solutions to their chosen problem statements. They were paired with industry and academic mentors that provided technical guidance, industry insight and feedback throughout the competition.
Team Pulse Grid’s work tackled the problem statement, “Aligning Permian Basin Gas Quality with LNG Export Specifications.” bp served as the industry partner for Pulse Grid. The team consisted of:
- Veera Rohan Matta, Cullen master’s student
- Gowtham Reddy Gudla, Cullen master’s student
- Muzamil Raheman Shaik, Cullen master’s student
- Abdul Moeez Sharfuddin Mukadam, Cullen master’s student
- Poonam Bala Nehru, NSM master’s student
- Tejaswini Sanjay Katale, NSM master’s student
The two‑day finale began on a Friday evening, when each team presented three early‑stage ideas as solutions to their problem statements by applying a design decision matrix and then received live critique from the mentors. By the next afternoon, teams had advanced their concepts into digital or physical prototypes, completed comprehensive documentation, and delivered their final presentations to a judging panel.
On the panel were Gus Eghneim, SVP compliance sustainability and chief compliance officer at Proenergy; Marco Caccavale, founder and principal of Energy Equipment Advisors LLC; and Ramachandra Shenoy, CEO of RBR Group.
Taking second place were Team Energized, which considered the challenge statement “Reducing Construction and Demolition Waste Through Energy‑Efficient Strategies and Resilient Reuse in Houston,” assigned by Tricon Energy. Members of the team were:
- Joann Fernandez, Bauer undergraduate
- Aadya Yadav, Bauer undergraduate
- Anjali Martinez, NSM undergraduate
- Miko Jester, NSM undergraduate
- Angelica Sarmiento-Cala, CLASS undergraduate
- Andrea Rivera, Hobby undergraduate
Team Energy Compute finished in third place. Their problem statement, “Decentralized and Distributed Energy Solutions for Community Resilience,” was assigned by the Houston Galveston Area Council. Team members were:
- Medha Tumkur, Cullen Ph.D. student
- YoonGyeong Jeong, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Hugo Santos, NSM undergraduate
- Jordan Otomu, NSM undergraduate
- Joshua Eworo, NSM undergraduate
- Trey De'De, CLASS undergraduate
Three Mentor’s Choice Awards were also announced. Team Carbonauts was awarded the Mentor’s Choice Award for Due Diligence for their work on “Mitigating Extreme Heat from Concrete Parking Lots and Sidewalks in Houston,” provided by Tricon Energy. Members included:
- Onkar Makarand Ghangrekar, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Dhagash Mehul Pandit, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Syed Ahsan Imam, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Francisca J. Nieto, Cullen undergraduate
- Carol Jiang, Hobby School of Public Affairs undergraduate
- Cristy L Chau Bauer undergraduate
Power Six won the Mentor’s Choice Award for Best Technical Solution. They worked on the challenge statement “Develop a Decision-Support System for NPV-Positive Energy Optimization in SE Asian Oil & Gas and Heavy Industry” provided by Honeywell Process Automation. The members of the team were:
- Oluwatobiloba Oshinuga, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Emo Obadiah, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Taiwo Adebiyi, Cullen Ph.D. student
- Habli Hisham, Cullen undergraduate
- Ogonna William David, NSM Ph.D. student
- Oluwasegun Adekoya, CLASS Ph.D. student
Team Energix received the Mentor’s Choice Award for Complete Prototype for working on the problem statement “Powering the AI Boom: Designing a Smarter Energy Future,” provided by Arcadis. Team members included:
- Lasya Challa, Cullen master's student
- Srileakhana Mangapathi, Cullen master's student
- Pallavi Vennam, Cullen master's student
- Qiao Hui Lee, Cullen undergraduate
- Hung Bui, NSM undergraduate
- Huynh Anh Hao Pham, NSM undergraduate
Beyond the competing teams, there were Cullen connections throughout the hackathon. Serving as mentors from the faculty were Ben Xu, Hadi Ghasemi, Jian Shi, Xingpeng Li and Sribala Gorugantu. Saiyid Z. Kamal, a Cullen alum, helped students a pitch mentor.
The event was generously supported through industry sponsorship from bp (main sponsor) and Arcadis (supporting sponsor). It also saw collaboration from additional industry, local government and academic partners who provided problem statements and mentorship. By directly engaging with students on real business and technology challenges, problem statement providers and industry mentors help ETI create a pipeline of workforce-ready candidates equipped with practical experience, interdisciplinary collaboration skills and exposure to workplace expectations.
“Experiences like this are essential for preparing students to step into the energy workforce with confidence,” said Debalina Sengupta, chief operating officer of the Energy Transition Institute. “The hackathon connects classroom learning with real energy challenges, while strong industry partnerships allow us to cultivate talent that is ready to contribute on day one. This kind of engagement is fundamental to ETI’s mission of accelerating the energy transition while developing the next generation of leaders.”
Story by Binita Roy from UH Energy, with editing by Stephen Greenwell from the Cullen College of Engineering Communications Department.