National Geothermal Student Competition

Phil Ulibarri, of Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, took home first place in the Energy Department's 2014 National Geothermal Student Competition. This year's theme, Geo Energy is Beautiful, culminated in a poster presentation of colorful infographics before an industry gathering. Here, GTO Director Doug Hollett presents the award.

The Energy Department's National Geothermal Student Competition (GSC) seeks students interested in building and showcasing scientific research, communication and leadership skills to convey the role of geothermal energy as an important contributor to the nation’s clean energy future. This year’s event, GeoEnergy Is Beautiful 2014, focused on a non-technical barrier to geothermal development: public communications. Energy production can be a complex topic to explain to a broad public audience, and describing energy that comes from a subsurface environment—difficult to visualize for many—amplifies the challenge of explaining geothermal energy, how it works, and how it can benefit consumers. 

The GSC invites college and university student to develop cutting-edge geothermal communications tools that marry accurate, technical information with a graphic visualization. Often referred to as infographics, these visualizations, are used for a variety of applications to distill data and and complex messages. Participating teams will be asked to develop two primary deliverables for an educated but non-technical public audience in mind:

A powerful, robust, high-quality infographic — graphic depiction of information — that explains an aspect of geothermal power production, backed by robust technical data. For examples, please visit:

• Energy.gov: Infographic (Wind Energy in America)
• Whitehouse.gov: President Obama's Plan to Fight Climate Change
• Census.gov: Computer and Internet Trends in America

A communications and outreach strategy detailing the message of the infographic and a plan to disseminate the infographic to the public for maximum impact. Students were encouraged to form small partnerships or teams of no more than 2-3 people capable of leveraging each member’s academic background, creativity, communication skills, and competitive spirit toward creating. 

During Round 1, students submit a communications and outreach strategy and a mock-up of their infographic, with a preliminary list of supporting data sources. Three finalists are then selected, based on quality of work.

The Round 2 finalist teams are tasked with building out a full packet containing their final infographic and accompanying data sources and final communications and outreach strategy. Each team receives a total award of $2,500 - $2,000 for planning funds (stipend) and $500 to implement a component of their outreach strategy. These winning teams are also invited to the nation's largest annual industry gathering — the Geothermal Resources Council annual technical meeting to meet geothermal stakeholders and present their infographic. The venue is also where each of the winning teams will be announced.

In 2014, the GTO presented 1st place to Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno; 2nd place to University of Texas-Pan American; and 3rd place to the University of Mississippi on September 30 in Portland, Oregon.

READ ABOUT THE 2014 WINNERS HERE.

VIEW AWARD-WINNING INFOGRAPHICS!

Student teams should include:

• No more than three members
• Undergraduates, graduate students, and/or high school seniors
• One or more academic institutions
• A team sponsor (can be a post-doc, teaching fellow, professor, and/or faculty member, or anyone employed as a science communicator, data journalist or information designer)
• A team leader (if more than one member; serves as the group’s point of contact)
• [Optional] Additional sponsor(s) from non-academic collaborating organizations (e.g., industry, state government)

Each submission will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel drawn from the DOE and rated for:

• Creativity and aesthetics of proposed data visualization
• Clarity and depth of communications approach and methodology
• Feasibility of translation of original and/or varied data sets into relevant visual information
• Quality and relevance of proposed messaging (e.g., value in increasing public interest or assisting decision makers)
• Clarity and feasibility of outreach plan for dissemination.

FOR A FULL DESCRIPTION OF TEAM REQUIREMENTS AND MERIT REVIEW PROCESS, VISIT THE OAK RIDGE ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES WEBSITE, A DIVISION OF THE OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY.