The US Department of Energy recently launched the EnergyTech University Prize, where multidisciplinary student teams identify high-potential energy technologies, assess their market potential, and propose strategies for commercialization.The competition allows students to learn leadership and entrepreneurial skills while competing for a share of $370,000. EnergyTech shaped the semester for students in last spring’s 2022 course, GCC 3011/5011 Grand Challenge Curriculum: Pathways to Renewable Energy. In that class, six student teams created proposals leveraging high-potential energy technologies. The UMN teams competed against 9 other teams at the regional competition in February. One hardworking team from the GCC course won first prize, with BaReTech, a business based on a new technology that lowers the cost of recycling lithium ion batteries.

A collection of movies created by students in GCC 3036/5036: Seeking Connection through Decolonization: The power of  indigenous languages and place-based knowledge in the face of racism. Movies compiled in fall 2021.

"The grand challenges course we took this semester was titled "seeking connection through decolonization: the power of indigenous lands and languages". In class we have explored big ideas of decolonization and land back. However most notably we have been asked to dive deeper and explore how colonization has impacted our own relationships to land and language. This project will explain how land and languages influence one another and will also introduce community members who are leading this conversation. Ultimately this project hopes to highlight how we can and must build communities grounded in respecting the relationships between lands, languages and people."