Four Técnico students won first place in “Schneider Go Green”, an international competition that challenges university students to present innovative ideas that promote a cleaner, more inclusive and sustainable planet. This is the first time that a team from a Portuguese school has ranked first at European level in this competition.

The winning team – Elk Suggestions – has designed a platform that monitors and suggests energy habits to small businesses, with the aim of reducing energy consumption and increasing users’ awareness. The team consists of Guilherme Francisco (MSc in Biomedical Engineering); Mariana Serrão (MSc in Computer Science and Engineering); Murillo Teixeira (MSc in Biomedical Engineering); and Vinícius Damin (MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering).

“The idea came to us from the Energy and Sustainability curricular unit we took,” explains Guilherme Francisco. “Mariana [Serrão] suggested the idea of using machine learning and an intuitive platform so that all small and medium-sized companies could have access to a personalised and automatic analysis of their energy habits”, he adds.

The changes suggested by the software, based on the data recorded in the monitoring, may allow companies to make greater savings and, at the same time, contribute to a more sustainable society. The platform, which was developed in December and consolidated in May this year, is integrated with Schneider Electric’s Wiser.