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The race is on for student teams in DOE energy-efficient home design competition.

12/17/2013 Upper Marlboro, MD

Student Design Teams “Race for Zero” in Energy-Efficient Homes

DOE Challenge Home Student Design Competition

As part of its Building America Program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) engaged college students across the United States to participate in the DOE Challenge Home Student Design Competition and become part of this leadership movement to achieve truly sustainable homes. This competition is providing the next generation of architects, engineers, construction managers, and entrepreneurs with skills and experience to start careers in the field of clean energy and generate creative solutions to real-world problems. The program is being administered and technically supported by Home Innovation Research Labs.

Teams from colleges, universities, and technical schools across the country were invited to register for the competition through the middle of December 2013. Students were encouraged to create multidisciplinary teams and include industry advisors, such as local home builders, to help inform their decision-making processes and ground their solutions in real-world terms to overcome barriers to innovation impacting our nation’s housing industry. Student entries will demonstrate the teams’ knowledge and skills to design, analyze, and plan the construction of quality, high-performance homes that meet or exceed the DOE Challenge Home requirements.

Participating teams are:

Designs for the 2013/2014 inaugural competition will be submitted by March 30, 2014, and winners will be announced and recognized during a ceremony before the end of the spring 2014 semester. Winners will also be featured at upcoming industry events – such as NAHB’s 2015 International Builders’ Show – and forums – such as a GreenExpo365.com webinar in the spring.

Going forward, the competition will be held on a two-year cycle that alternates with the Solar Decathlon. The Decathlon’s off year in the United States serves as the award-year for the Challenge Home competition, providing a two-year timeframe for teams to prepare their submissions.

This year’s competition was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Building America Program; Architectural Energy Corporation (AEC); National Consortium of Housing Research Centers' Joint Committee on Building Science Education; Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA); and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

For more information on the competition and the participating teams, visit the competition page on the Home Innovation Labs website.

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