Brite Energy Calls for Britehack 2021 Participants

WARREN, Ohio — Brite Energy Innovators is looking for participants for Britehack 2021, its annual civic energy hackathon.

The event, presented by PNC Bank, focuses on addressing energy issues faced by community organizations, according to a release. Brite is seeking teams or individual engineers, designers, developers, project managers and students to participate.

“Brite was created to offer a place where creative minds can come together to solve energy challenges, so this is a perfect fit for us,” said Rick Stockburger, president and CEO of Brite. “We are excited to bring together this wide variety of skill and talent to benefit the community. We have received such an outpouring of support that we feel this is one way we can give some of that back.”

This year’s beneficiary will be Trumbull Family Fitness, a community institution that’s more than 100 years old, according to a release. Outdated electrical systems have led to debilitating energy costs for Trumbull Family Fitness, so this year’s challenge is to propose economical ways to enhance the organization’s systems and improve sustainability.

During the inaugural event in 2018, Brite partnered with the City of Warren’s wastewater department. Proposals from participating teams resulted in more than $400,000 of energy cost savings for the city, amounting to 10 years of energy savings.

Britehack 2021 takes place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 29. Participants will spend the day working in teams to create innovative solution for the challenge. In addition to social distancing and other rigorous safety procedures, the organizers have accommodations in place to make the event completely virtual if necessary.

All participants will have the option to participate remotely. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for all participants, and the winning team or teams will take home prizes of up to $1,000.

Brite will organize registrants into mixed teams ahead of the event based on skills and experience. Group presentations are made to assembled judges at the end of the day.

For more information and to register, go to Brite.org/britehack.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.