School Energy Guardian

An AI-powered 3D campus analytics platform that detects, verifies, and eliminates real-time energy waste with human-in-the-loop safety.

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                                                                                          Inspiration

Schools and large educational campuses suffer from massive, hidden energy wastage across HVAC systems, lighting, and everyday appliances due to a lack of real-time telemetry and proactive monitoring. This leads to bloated utility budgets and an unnecessarily high carbon footprint. We were inspired to build School Energy Guardian for the USAII Global AI Hackathon 2026 (Environment Track) to bridge this gap—transforming complex IoT sensor streams into an intuitive, automated, and visually stunning command center that drives real-world climate action.

                                                                                          What it does

School Energy Guardian is an advanced, AI-powered environmental analytics platform designed for school administrators. It continuously monitors campus infrastructure, detects energy anomalies with up to 97% confidence, and provides actionable automated solutions. Through a fusion of real-time data streams, predictive analytics, and an interactive 3D campus visualization, administrators can instantly pinpoint waste, review cost recoveries, and enforce sustainability rules safely.

                                                                                            How we built it

Frontend Architecture: Built using React 18 and Vite, styled with Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui components, and smooth Framer Motion transitions. 3D Visualization: Developed a fully custom, interactive 3D campus using Three.js featuring 8 detailed buildings, day/night lighting cycles, real-time status rings, and animated energy flow beams. Backend & Data Integration: Powered by Base44 BaaS for robust database entities (EnergyAlert), secure authentication, and real-time live alert simulations. External APIs: Integrated the Open-Meteo API to fetch real-time local weather data, feeding dynamic environmental conditions into our AI weather-energy correlation engine. 

                                                                               Key Features & AI Capabilities

Interactive 3D Campus Model: Explore an immersive 3D environment with camera controls, day/night modes, and a 12-step guided tour complete with browser voice narration (SpeechSynthesis API). AI Anomaly Detection Engine: Neural-powered detection tracking inefficiencies across HVAC, lighting, and appliances. Human-in-the-Loop Safety: A strict administrative verification layer ensuring the AI recommends changes, but a human must explicitly approve them before execution. Advanced AI Tools: Includes a live hacker-style command terminal, an LLM-powered Energy Assistant chat, 24-hour predictive forecasting with confidence bands, an automated ROI calculator, and one-click PDF sustainability report exports. Real-World Impact Visualizer: Instantly translates saved kilowatt-hours into tangible metrics like trees planted, cars removed, and water saved. 

                                                                                  Challenges we ran into

Balancing heavy 3D rendering with Three.js while maintaining a responsive, smooth dashboard layout on PC screens required careful scene optimization, custom shaders, and modular UI grid arrangements. Synchronizing real-time asynchronous data streams with smooth visual transitions and audio feedback during the 3D guided tour also demanded rigorous state handling.

                                                                                   What's next

We plan to scale School Energy Guardian toward multi-school district networks, integrate real hardware IoT sensor web-hooks for live institutional deployment, and introduce gamified peer-to-peer campus sustainability challenges.

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Updates

posted an update —

The Future is Here: Sneak Peek into V2 (While We Wait for the Finals!) Hello everyone! As we eagerly wait for the Final Awards Ceremony tomorrow, our team couldn't just sit still.

Important Disclaimer: Our official hackathon submission remains 100% locked and untouched for the final panel of judges We respect the rules. However, we've been building out our future vision in our local environment, and we are thrilled to share what’s coming in School Energy Guardian V2 right after the event concludes

  1. Hands-Free Voice Command We integrated a voice command assistant. Admins can simply hit the mic and say "optimize all", "show HVAC", or "export report" to control the entire dashboard.

  2. Real-Time Weather & District BenchmarkingLive Weather Impact: Powered by the Open-Meteo API, you can type in any city to get real-time temperature, humidity, and a 24-hour forecast. The AI now adapts its energy recommendations based on actual weather conditions. District Benchmark: A new tool to compare your school's performance against district averages.

  3. Smart "IF-THEN" Automation Rules We built a custom rules engine allowing admins to set logic like: "IF waste > 5kWh THEN auto-optimize". It includes toggle controls and trigger tracking to fully automate energy management.

  4. Enterprise Business Tools & PC-Optimized UIInteractive ROI Calculator: Adjust sliders for investment, energy rates, and scale to instantly calculate payback periods, annual savings, and 5-year net profit. PDF Report Export: Download a professional sustainability report with one click, including executive summaries, KPIs, and AI recommendations. PC-Friendly Layout: The dashboard has been restructured with a wider layout tailored specifically for desktop users.

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posted an update —

We Made it to Round 2! (And Here is What's Next for V2)Wow. First of all, a massive THANK YOU to the judges! We are absolutely thrilled that "School Energy Guardian" has advanced to Round 2 of the USAII Global AI Hackathon.Just to be 100% clear: We have put our pencils down Our code is locked, and we are NOT making any changes to our live application during this judging phase. We respect the rules and want you to evaluate the exact product we shipped before the deadline.However, building this project sparked so many crazy ideas in our heads. We literally can't stop thinking about where this platform could go. So, we wanted to share our official V2 Roadmap—the features we are going to start building the second the hackathon ends on June 27th!Here is what is coming next:The Live AI "Hacker" Terminal: We are building an auto-scrolling command terminal right into the dashboard. Admins will literally be able to watch the AI's "brain" work in real-time as it streams scanning logs, confidence scores, and background execution processes. "Talk to Your Building" (AI Assistant): Why just read charts when you can chat with them? We are adding an LLM-powered chatbot that analyzes live alerts so admins can ask things like, "Which building wasted the most energy this week?" and get instant, data-backed answers. Gamification & Real-World Impact: Numbers can get boring. V2 will translate kWh savings into tangible things (e.g., "You saved enough energy to power 5 homes today!"). We are also adding an unlockable badge system to turn energy-saving into a campus-wide game. Animated Energy Flow Network: A fully interactive SVG network graph with glowing particles flowing between the power grid, HVAC, and appliances, visually separating optimized zones (green) from waste zones (red). Mobile AR (Augmented Reality) View (New!): Imagine a facility manager walking around the campus, pointing their phone at an AC unit, and seeing real-time AI energy stats floating right above it in 3D space!Automated Maintenance Ticketing (New!): Instead of just alerting the admin, V2 will directly integrate with platforms like Jira. If the AI detects a faulty sensor, it will automatically draft a repair ticket for the maintenance crew.Building the MVP was an incredible journey, and we are so proud of our Three.js Digital Twin and Human-in-the-Loop architecture. No matter what happens on June 27th, we are turning this into a massive, real-world platform.Thanks for believing in our vision! Good luck to all the other amazing hackers in Round 2 .

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