Cities in China and the U.S. can learn from each other as they pursue sustainable solutions to the climate crisis. The U.S.-China Story Map, a data-sharing tool proposed by the winning team in the 2025 China Bridge Challenge case competition, could be one way to encourage information sharing and collaboration.

The team of six students, three from the University of Minnesota and three from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), highlighted how New York City’s subway system could benefit from utilizing regenerative braking systems, which have been implemented in Shanghai’s public transit. They also explained how Yanji, China, could learn from Minneapolis-area companies’ innovations in agriculture and food processing.

This year’s challenge, which asked students to consider how the U.S. and China could work together in the areas of renewable energy and green technology, was the first to involve an international partner. Each of the 22 teams of students at the University of Minnesota was matched with students from SJTU. Seven teams were selected to compete in the final presentations.

“Being partnered with students in Shanghai ended up radically changing the trajectory of our project idea,” said Akshay Rai, a junior on the first-place team. “Our initial meetings really showed us a different angle on the problem of cultural collaboration and renewable energy that I don’t think any of us could have considered individually.”

Having teammates from a diverse range of majors helped strengthen the proposal, according to Rai. He is double majoring in neuroscience and genetics, cell biology, and development, and his University of Minnesota teammates, Xiaotong Liu and Yichen Yao, are in the architecture, strategic communications, and sociology of law, criminology, and justice programs. The SJTU students are in engineering and environmental sciences.

“It was such an interdisciplinary experience, from the research to the presentation,” Rai said.

Navigating the 14-hour time difference between Shanghai and Minnesota was difficult, but the team made it work.

“Before, if you would have asked me if six people in different time zones across the world could collaborate, I would have said probably not,” Rai said. “We found that even though there’s so many difficulties, if you want to, you can, and you can accommodate other people’s differences.”

Photo: UMN students from the first- and second-place teams, from left: Yichen Yao, Xiaotong Liu, Akshay Rai, Max Wang, and Bradley Vincent