Duke University Student Team Wins $20,000 at U.S. Department of Energy Competition

At the 2025 EnergyTech UP competition, Nease, Scutari, Verlander and Chadha pitched their idea for driving adoption of geothermal energy hubs. Not pictured: Khodabakchian.

A team of Duke University students snagged the $20,000 Geothermal Technologies Office Bonus Prize during the 2025 EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Competition organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Commercialization. The national competition challenges student teams to showcase creative ways to bring a DOE National Laboratory-developed or other high-potential energy technology to market.

Data centers play a critical role in the rapidly growing digital economy—and require lots of energy. That’s why the Duke team pitched the Coalition for On-demand Renewable Energy (CORE), a business plan for driving adoption of geothermal energy hubs to power co-located data centers. These hubs are designed to leverage enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to provide clean, firm electricity, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable cooling on-site.

The Duke team’s business model unites the key players of the energy-data ecosystem under a coalition structure. The model advances novel regulatory incentives to remove risks and constraints that have stymied the growth of EGS in the U.S. to date.

Team members included Trinity College of Arts & Sciences students Arjun Chadha, B.S.'25, Maya Khodabakchian, B.S.’25, and Nicholas Nease, B.S.'26, as well as Pratt School of Engineering students Michael Scutari, B.S.E. '26, and Ben Verlander, B.S.E'26. Both Khodabakchian and Nease have pursued Duke's Certificate in Energy & Environment, and Verlander is earning an energy engineering minor. 

The competition requires teams to identify a promising technology, analyze its market potential, then develop a business plan.

As they move through the competition’s phases, teams refine their plan and pitches, aided by advice and resources from industry mentors. The CORE team turned to Duke’s vast alumni network in the energy and climate space to get feedback on their business plan. This support helped team members refine ideas over several weeks—right up to the night before the competition, when recent graduate Casey Goldstein, B.S. ’23, stepped up to give feedback on their final mock pitch.

Chadha noted, “The interdisciplinary nature of EnergyTech UP made it especially rewarding for us. We each came in with a diverse range of prior experiences and skillsets that we’ve developed in our time at Duke, and bringing together these unique strengths was critical to succeeding in a competition that united business and technology, among other sectors of the economy.”  

“The Duke team’s success is a testament to their creativity, drive, and collaborative spirit,” said Deb Wojcik, executive director of the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster, which convened the regional EnergyTech UP competition. “They tackled a complex energy challenge with both technical rigor and entrepreneurial insight—a combination that’s essential for advancing cleantech innovation from concept to market.”

The Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke, which provides support for student groups to pursue innovative projects related to energy and climate, helped fund the team’s trip to the national competition.

“Opportunities like this one are perfectly aligned with Duke’s experiential approach to education, which grounds student learning in real-life practical challenges,” said Brian Murray, director of the Nicholas Institute. “Propelling technology from the lab to the marketplace is critical to scaling up innovation, and this competition is helping engage a new generation in strengthening our nation’s energy system.”  

Verlander, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, said he would wholeheartedly recommend EnergyTech UP to other Duke students. “Beyond the inherent benefits of funding, mentorship, and motivation for innovation, the EnergyTech UP program was an incredible place to meet other intelligent, passionate students,” he noted. “Those connections have the chance to be even more valuable than any prize gained.”

The CORE team wasn’t the first Duke team to bring home a prize from EnergyTech UP. During last year’s nationals, another Duke team won a bonus prize from the DOE Office of Electricity for a business plan based on technology from Duke professor David Brown’s research on improving the operational efficiency of electric utilities.

Duke students interested in EnergyTech UP and similar opportunities can sign up for the Nicholas Institute’s newsletter.