Oakland University Wins Second Place in 2025 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition

Oakland University recently took second place in the Marine Energy Collegiate Competition, anannual event sponsored by the Department of Energy, which challenges students to design,develop and present innovations that harness the power of water. OU’s team developed afiltration system that uses the ocean's thermal gradient to desalinate seawater.

Thermal gradient refers to the temperature difference between warmer waters near the ocean'ssurface and cooler waters at deeper depths. The system functions by allowing water vaporproduced via the thermal gradient to pass through a membrane, separating clean water from saltsand other impurities.

Team co-leader Ryan Younes said this technology can be particularly useful for islands that areclose to the equator, providing an affordable, sustainable and green alternative to well waterproduction for the islands of American Samoa and potentially many other islands.
For this year’s competition, the team designed a filtration system specifically for Aunu’u Islandin American Samoa. Team co-leader Lance Markowitz crafted a detailed business plan, whichincluded robust stakeholder outreach, cost analysis, and market research.

He contacted suppliers, investors, local community members in American Samoa, governmentemployees, along with professionals from across the utility industry to gain a betterunderstanding of American Samoa’s energy needs.

“This outreach drastically altered the trajectory of our project for the better,” said Markowitz, adouble major in general management and Spanish. “While meeting with an employee of theAmerican Samoa Power Authority, we were advised to design a desalination system for thesmaller island of Aunu'u, instead of American Samoa's largest island, Tutuila. The PowerAuthority does not see desalination as a long term solution for their largest island, but does forAunu'u. This resulted in us scaling down our system by 100 times to ensure that we were trulymeeting market demands.”

Younes, who led the project’s technical design, noted that the experience sparked new ways ofthinking as students worked together to solve problems.

“You get to meet so many different people from different backgrounds that think differently. Different ways of thinking lead to different approaches to solving problems which, in turn, leadsto disagreement with your lab peers,” said the electrical engineering major. “That's when theideas you're advancing are actually challenged, and where you find out whether you are right orwrong.”

Younes added that these kinds of hands-on, research-based experiences can help studentsjumpstart their careers.“Lance and I both got internships this summer in the utility sector – Lance with DTE and mewith Consumers Energy – and I strongly believe that the research we took part in caught theireye and gave us a good chance at getting hired.”

Along with Younes and Markowitz, OU’s team included Ava Kobus (community connectionslead), Foster Caragay (build and test lead), Gerard Griest (community connections assistant),Temitiope Ayanlade (technical design graduate assistant), and Saber Khanmohammadi (graduateadvisor).

Twenty-three schools competed this year, with Oakland besting the likes of Stanford, Cornell,Dartmouth, University of Michigan, Rutgers, Purdue, and Washington University. JonathanMaisonneuve, the team’s faculty advisor, said he was impressed with the students’ performanceagainst such high-level competition.

“We’ve participated in the Marine Energy Collegiate Competition for three years now, and everyyear we get better and better,” said Maisonneuve, associate professor of mechanical engineering.

“My favorite part of the project is the fact that the students are working on a very innovativetechnology – with a lot of science and engineering work in the lab – and at the same time, theyare engaging directly with stakeholders to understand the water needs of real communities inAmerican Samoa. We’ll continue to build our partnerships with the island as we move forward.I’m excited to see where we go from here.”