Pictured, front row, from left, Blake Burba, Landon Parker and Lina Abdelkarim; back row, from left, Sungwoo Yang, Seong Dad Kim, Caleb Traxler, Daron Lyons, Jacob Ridenour, Eun Young Kim and Robyn Wood
photo by Angela Foster
A team of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students had five weeks to produce plans to wow judges in a competition with 124 teams from universities across the world.
They did it.
The eight-member team of students from the Department of Interior Architecture and Design and the College of Engineering and Computer Science entered the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge to design a house to be energy- and cost-efficient, while also a comfortable living space.
An entrant in the Attached Housing division—for designs of multi-family structures such as apartments—the UTC students’ preliminary floor plans submitted in February impressed the judges.
The team ended up as one of 10 finalists in the category.
“We want to have energy- and cost-efficient housing, but, at the same time, what can we do with interior design?” asked Dr. Eun Young Kim, assistant professor of interior design and faculty advisor for the UTC Design Challenge team.
The interdisciplinary group of UTC students will head to Golden, Co. next week to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2023 Design Challenge. The UTC team is comprised of interior architecture and design students Landon Parker, Blake Burba, Jacob Ridenour and Robyn Wood; mechanical engineering student Caleb Traxler; chemical engineering student Daron Lyons; and construction management students Lina Abdelkarim and Kenisha Gardner.