The results are in, and as of this past weekend, the SURE House design submitted by Stevens Institute of Technology has won first place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. This victory comes as a culmination of efforts from every corner of the Stevens community for the past two years, with the hopes of designing the future of sustainable coastal housing.
The goal of the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is to create a sustainable house that is completely “off the grid” and is self-sufficient in using only solar power. The Stevens team went one step further by making the house is not only virtually energy-independent, but also completely storm-resilient. This year’s competition represented more than just a desire to win for the members of the Stevens community.
The SURE House project was inspired by the devastation that was left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Due to the super storm, over 346,000 homes were damaged or completely destroyed in New Jersey alone, with $5.8 billion in aid given to storm victims, including many within the Stevens community. The SURE House has been designed to withstand inevitable future super storms like Sandy, while simultaneously eliminating the need for burning fossil fuels.
To accomplish this feat, the SURE House project enlisted the help of both graduate and undergraduate engineers in almost every discipline: undergraduate involvement alone accounted for 10 mechanical engineers, six students in engineering management, five civil engineers, four computer scientists, and two electrical engineers. The interdisciplinary nature of the project was an advantage for the Stevens team, considering the primary focus on engineering at Stevens.
Going into the final days of the competition held in Irvine, California, the Stevens team had begun to rack up points, as they had placed first overall in seven of the ten decathlon competitions, such as market appeal, architecture, and communications. But in spite of their successes, the SURE House team still had to compete fiercely with some of the best student engineering teams both from the United States and around the world, with some teams traveling from as far away as Austria, Germany, and China. In the end, what was actually the most difficult challenge faced by the team was not the energy efficiency or storm resilience of the house, but designing so that it could be taken apart, shipped across the country, and later reassembled in time for the competition in Irvine.
After the results were announced, both Stevens President Farvardin and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer commented on the huge success. Farvardin stated that this win “embodies the Stevens ethos to leverage science and technology education to confront some of society’s biggest challenges,” and Zimmer said the innovation with local inspirations is a “further demonstration of Stevens’ commitment to our community.”
The victory achieved by the SURE House team is more than just a reflection of the quality of education at Stevens. This represents a further commitment from young engineers around the globe to our environment, to creating the next generation in sustainable living, and to ultimately bettering the lives of future generations.
