Students win top ranking in national competition

Cal Poly won third place in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2024 Hydropower Collegiate Competition (HCC)

Now in its second year, the competition asks multidisciplinary student teams to tackle common challenges in hydropower, giving them real-world exposure to the industry and a head start in a clean energy career. This year’s competition asked teams to develop solutions to add power-generating infrastructure to existing non-powered dams.  

“Hydropower has an important role in clean energy, and these winning teams bring the ingenuity, enthusiasm and vision we need for discovering how to tap its full potential,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “And since the competition is designed to spark interest in these careers, it’s very exciting to imagine the possibilities with this caliber of talent leading our future clean energy workforce.”

Teams competed in three required challenges and one optional challenge, and shared their work April 29–May 1, 2024, at the 2024 National Hydropower Association Midwest Regional Meeting in. Des Moines, Iowa.