University of Houston’s Division of Energy and Innovation supports student success by offering opportunities for future industry leaders to solve problems and contribute to sustainable workforce solutions. This was evident at a recent Shell NXplorers multiday workshop, where five student teams tackled pressing energy-related issues using critical thinking.
NXplorers Pro is a Shell initiative designed to empower and equip future leaders with a new way of thinking. It provides changemakers with the tools and skills to address and solve complex challenges – whether in their academic or professional career, organization, or globally to ensure a more sustainable future. The aim is to grow an engaged and ambitious global community with the confidence, skills and vision to navigate and address local and global challenges, as underlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“The focus on collaboration, communication, and critical thinking is what makes the Shell NXplorers program so impactful,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation. “This was a great growth opportunity for our students at UH – The Energy University – so they can become the energy leaders of tomorrow.”
The participating students applied NXplorers’ core principles – systems thinking, scenario planning, and change management—to develop their solutions. The workshop ended with a pitch competition judged by Shell and University of Houston representatives.
Platinum Frontier Energy won first place with a strategy to improve air quality in industrial neighborhoods using green hydrogen fuel – a clean energy source that emits only water vapor with no harmful residue – to significantly reduce air pollution.
The team included Kamaldeen Haruna, a senior economics major; Kenneth Kusima, a chemical engineering Ph.D. student; Benise Niyikiza, a physics Ph.D. student; Nidhi Gongati, a management information systems master’s student; Josh Hall, a finance master’s student and Gerardo Angulo, a political science junior.
“I feel like we did a really good job as a group with just working together and valuing each other’s opinions,” said Hall. “It was very beneficial to learn how to collaborate quickly with people you just met. When you only have a week that can be difficult.”
- Stormguard earned top runner-up honors with its generator rental service idea. With the threat of hurricane season making power sources a critical concern for Houstonians, Stormguard offered a cheaper alternative to purchasing generators, which can start at around $500 during a hurricane.
- Eco-Filtration’s idea for reviving oil-contaminated waters in Nigeria earned it second runner-up honors as well as the People’s Choice Award. Using a two-part system, the team’s solution involved using limestone as a filtration system, then running treated water through a UV cleansing system. The oil cleansed from the water would go back to Shell, reducing the cost of the project.
Tariq Hussain, coordinator of the Shell NXplorers program, praised the students’ innovative problem-solving and teamwork.
“My hope is that students continue to harness their ability to think bigger, to see the bigger picture, to understand the power of shifting their perspective and working with other people,” he said.