Is your alma mater on this list? 103 teams from 75 collegiate institutions are participating in the upcoming U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon® Design Challenge! Announced in February, the finalists will compete for a chance to present their projects at an expert-juried event on the weekend of April 16–18, 2021.
The 75 collegiate institutions participating in the 2021 Design Challenge are:
- Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
- Antelope Valley College, Lancaster, California
- Appalachian State University Appalachian State, Boone, North Carolina
- Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
- Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois
- Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado
- Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
- Columbia University, New York, New York
- Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan
- Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
- Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
- Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas
- Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia
- King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
- Manchester School of Architecture, Manchester, England
- Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania
- Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi
- Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri
- Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland
- Myongji University, Seoul, South Korea
- National Engineering School of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia
- National Engineering School of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Carthage, Tunisia
- Navajo Technical University, Crownpoint, New Mexico
- New York City College of Technology, New York City, New York
- Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
- Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- Oberlin College and Conservatory, Oberlin, Ohio
- Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, Pennsylvania
- Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
- Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
- Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
- Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
- Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Tamilnadu, India
- Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia
- State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York
- Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
- Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art , New York, New York
- The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
- The School of Architecture, Paradise Valley, Arizona
- The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
- The University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia
- University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
- University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
- University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
- University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado
- University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
- University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
- University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri
- University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
- University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
- University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.
- University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
- University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Vermont Technical College, Randolph, Vermont
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia
- Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
These participating teams include 29 new collegiate institutions, and 46 of the teams are returning collegiate institutions.
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The Design Challenge is a one-to-two-semester, design-only competition, while the Build Challenge is a multiyear design-build competition. The most successful teams will blend architectural and engineering excellence with innovation, market relevance, building efficiency, and smart energy production.
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon continues to “push the envelope” on the design of high-performance, efficient, affordable, innovative buildings while promoting student innovation, STEM education, and workforce development opportunities.
Additional details are on the Solar Decathlon website.