Chicago Harris Team Earns Honors at the National Public Policy Challenge

While most of their peers were busy studying for winter finals, a team of students from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy was in Philadelphia taking part in the National Invitational Public Policy Challenge.  The team – first year MPP students Julie Cooper and Mike Roth, second year MPP student Claire Tramm, and PhD student Matt Gee – advanced to the Policy Challenge’s Final Four, winning a $5,000 prize, with their proposal for Effortless Energy, a social venture that seeks to expand the adoption of home energy efficiency nationwide.

The proposal, which Tramm and Gee launched last year, leverages private finance to allow homeowners to upgrade their home, making them healthier, more comfortable, and more valuable, without any upfront costs.  Their new Home Energy Efficiency Services Agreement also gives private investors an investment opportunity that reliably pays back 6-8% while contributing to the social good. The proposal also earned honors at the International Impact Investing Challenge at the San Francisco Federal Reserve.

Let the games begin

The event kicked off with a reception at the Fels Institute of Government, housed in a beautiful, historic house on the Penn campus, where Fels Director David Thornburgh welcomed teams, advisers, and judges to the Policy Challenge, which is in its second year. His address underscored just what a unique, amazing, and exciting competition it is: students come in from across the country to present their solutions to pressing problems facing their local communities – with many having gone through competitions at their own schools to get here. The Fels staff were extremely welcoming and put on a great reception for the teams. 

The first round of competition took place on Saturday at the Heritage Chemical Foundation. Dr. Mark Funkhouser, Director of the Governing Institute, introduced everyone to the illustrious panel of judges, a Who’s Who of local and state governance. In the first round, each team presented twice – once in the morning and once in the afternoon - to different panels of judges for 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A.  Claire Tramm presented the Chicago Harris propopsal, with the team collectively fielding questions afterward. In this first round, the judges were clearly excited by the presentation and asked great questions. The hardest question: what challenge really keeps you up at night?  The answer: raising the money to retrofit our first 20 houses, in order to start building investor support for expansion. Participating in the Challenge is a big part of meeting these goals.

There was also the opportunity to view other schools' presentations. The ideas were interesting and varied – everything from a central platform for finding transportation options in Austin to an appointment reminder system for mental health patients in Philadelphia. Many proposals focused on using technology to streamline the provision of services, both public and private.

It’s showtime

On Sunday, Chicago Harris was up against the teams from the University of Georgia, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania in the final round competition, the winner of which would receive a grand prize of $15,000. The final round took place at the National Constitutional Center and was live-streamed over the web.  The historic nature of the hall, which is located next door to the US Mint and across the street from the Liberty Bell, nicely underscored the significance of the occasion.  It was also the place where President Obama delivered his speech on race in 2008 and where numerous Supreme Court Justices and other Presidents have delivered speeches before.         

The Chicago Harris team presented first in this round.  Tramm presented the team’s idea with incredible confidence and poise, and the presentation succeeded in explaining a complicated idea – how to mobilize private investment to solve the problem of home energy efficiency through a unique contract agreement – powerfully and effectively through a story about one homeowner that the group’s company is serving. WATCH THE FINAL PRESENTATION

The presentation was followed by a 15-minute Q&A, during which the team was peppered with a number of tough questions from the judges: is the 7-8% rate of return guaranteed? Is there an investor prospectus that they can provide? What happens if a home goes through foreclosure? What happens to the contract? The highlight of the Q&A was when one judge expressed concern about the team’s modeling of risk and whether investors could and should be comfortable with the team’s projections, and Claire was able to point out something that the team had not previously mentioned: that Matt had been part of the team re-designing the Treasury Department’s models of mortgage risk after the financial crisis.

With great interest, the team watched the other three teams give their presentation and then waited as the judges conferred.  The winner was anybody’s guess – all the teams had their fans among the spectators. 

Then…the white smoke! 

This year’s winner of the National Public Policy Challenge was the team from University of Pennsylvania, who gave a great presentation on their program, re:mind, a texting service designed to help mental health patients not miss appointments and save hospitals money.  While the Chicago Harris didn’t win the competition, making the finals was a fantastic achievement, and they did walk away with $5,000 to put towards their social venture, Effortless Energy.