2026 LAURIER CO-OP CASE HACK
Ontario Data Centre Decision Support System
Designed during the 2026 Laurier Co-op Case Hack, our team created a decision-support platform that helps Ontario prioritize data centre proposals fairly while balancing economic growth with limited energy capacity.
2026 Laurier Co-op Case Hack
UX Designer
Team of 4
Figma
1 Day Hackathon
01 — THE PROBLEM
Ontario couldn’t approve every data centre proposal.
Ontario was receiving more requests for data centres than its electrical grid could support. Rather than approving projects on a first-come basis, the province needed a faster and more transparent way to identify proposals that delivered the greatest workforce, economic, and community value while respecting energy limitations.
Jobs
Energy
Training
Community Investment
Inclusion
Canadian Data Storage
02 — OUR SOLUTION
A two-stage framework for faster, more consistent decisions.
We designed a two-stage decision framework that combines eligibility screening with weighted scoring to help reviewers make faster, more consistent decisions.
01
Proposal Submitted
A proposal enters the system.
02
Stage 1
Baseline requirements are checked.
03
Stage 2
Eligible proposals receive a weighted score.
04
Final Decision
Projects are ranked with a clear recommendation.
STAGE ONE
Eligibility Screening
Instead of manually reviewing every proposal, our system first checks whether each submission meets a set of baseline requirements. Projects that fail these non-negotiable criteria are filtered out before entering the scoring process.
Canadian Data Storage
Clean Energy
Job Creation
Training Commitment
Grid Capacity
STAGE TWO
Weighted Smart Scoring
Every eligible proposal is evaluated using six weighted categories inspired by Ontario’s workforce and energy priorities. Rather than producing a simple pass or fail, the system generates a transparent score that helps decision-makers understand why a proposal should move forward.
30%
Job Creation
20%
Energy & Grid
15%
Green Energy
15%
Inclusion
10%
Training
10%
Data Sovereignty
03 — RANKINGS
Prioritizing the strongest proposals.
After scoring, proposals are automatically ranked so reviewers can quickly identify high-value projects instead of comparing every submission manually.
80+
Auto Approved
65–79
Manual Review
Below 65
Rejected
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Explore the decision-support system.
Screen, score, and rank proposals directly inside the interactive prototype.
WHAT I LEARNED
Designing with people still in control.
Working within a one-day hackathon forced our team to simplify an incredibly complex government decision-making process into something transparent, explainable and actionable. Rather than replacing human judgement, we focused on designing a system that supports faster and more consistent decisions while keeping people in control.
Make complexity understandable. Keep decisions explainable. Design for judgement—not replacement.