An Illinois State University team traveled to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, on April 27 to compete in the Race to Zero Student Design Competition. Twenty-eight teams from the United States and Canada competed to develop cost-effective, zero-energy ready homes for mainstream builders. The Illinois State University team received an award in the modified production builder plan category for its modified design solution of a Habitat for Humanity standard home plan. The Illinois State participants were Kendall Deter, a construction management major; Kelsey Ott, an construction management major; Emma Gilmore ’13, renewable energy graduate and Masters of Science in Technology student; Jake Kern, a construction management major; and Technology Professor Joe Cleary.
Illinois State University was the only one of the three Illinois universities at the competition—the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Institute of Technology also participated—to win an award in any of the four competition categories.
The Illinois State team was supported in part by the Student Sustainability Committee. The team also received input from the Habitat for Humanity of McLean County and the town of Normal for its solution. Other students who worked on the proposal were: Samanatha DeMarais, ’13 Interior and Environmental Design and Master’s in Technology student, Lindsey Jungk, Interior and Environmental Design student, Josh Bertolet ’13 Renewable Energy, and Samantha Aupperle, Construction Management minor.
