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UT Dallas > Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science > News > Stories > 2024 Fall > Students Win World Energy Competition

Full of Energy: Students Win World Competition, U.S. Fellowship

UT Dallas undergraduates Allison Pham (left) and Ahmad Nabizadah (right) were two of the three members of the grand prize-winning group. Mentor Milad Bahrami Fard (center) shows a photo of third team member Daniel Maaya on a phone.

A University of Texas at Dallas team of electrical and computer engineering undergraduate students recently won the $10,000 grand prize at the IEEE International Future Energy Challenge.

The annual challenge, which took place over 12 months, tasked students with designing an audio amplifier with excellent audio quality, efficiency and density. The UT Dallas group was one of only two U.S. teams to qualify for the final round of the competition held at UT Austin in July.

The team included Ahmad Nabizadah, electrical engineering junior; Daniel Maaya, computer engineering senior; and Allison Pham, electrical engineering senior.

The team members — none of whom had built an amplifier before — achieved a total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N), a measure of unintended harmonics and noise in an audio device’s output signal, of 0.001%, which is over 10 times lower than the second-place finisher’s THD+N.

“We had to start up from scratch,” said Nabizadah, the team’s leader.

Building a winning project took a lot of trial and error, several revisions and “a lot of burned components,” Maaya said.

“As it went on, we became better and better,” he said.

The students worked with mentors in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, including Milad Bahrami Fard, Aaron Brown and Kevin Largent, electrical engineering doctoral students. Faculty advisors included Dr. Babak Fahimi, professor of electrical engineering, Distinguished Chair in Engineering and director of the Renewable Energy and Vehicular Technology (REVT) Lab; Dr. Poras Balsara, vice dean of the Jonsson School, associate director of the REVT lab and professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. William Swartz Jr., professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The students juggled the extracurricular activity with their classes, which meant many late nights in the REVT lab.

“We worked numerous nights until 2 or 3 a.m.,” Maaya said. “We dedicated a lot of time to this project, and it all paid off.”

Nabizadah estimates that he spent 30 to 40 hours a week on the project.

“The one thing that really boosted me was my passion for the project,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was working. I was constantly learning and discovering new things. It was very exciting – an unforgettable journey.”

A version of this article appeared in News Center.