Computer Science Department senior Brian Hawkins was selected to compete in the US finals of the 2009 Imagine Cup with his project “GreenENV.” The Imagine Cup is a prestigious annual technology competition sponsored by technology megagiant Microsoft Corporation.Brian was the only one-person team among fifteen teams invited to the Imagine Cup 2009 US Finals, held May 2-5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Competing teams had already been selected from thousands of student projects representing over 125 schools. Brian’s project, “GreenENV,” assists corporations in their efforts to “go green” by monitoring power consumption and temperature in data centers and server racks and showing the resultant carbon footprint.
In the 2009 Imagine Cup, students from around the world had to apply both technical and business skills to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. These goals target some of the greatest challenges in the world today, such as fighting hunger and poverty, eradicating AIDS, improving education, maternal health, and environmental sustainability.
The panel of five judges acknowledged the immediate commercial potential of Brian’s product, and representatives from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance have invited Brian to apply for support from their grant program.