Students challenged to ‘green’ old buildings for 5k cash prize

If you go green, you just might win some, too. College students from Allegheny, Butler,… If you go green, you just might win some, too. College students from Allegheny, Butler, Westmoreland and Washington counties can win up to $5,000 for designing a product to limit energy usage in older homes through a contest created by Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and the Heinz Endowment ‘The development of a real product could impact every home owner in the region and beyond,’ said Gena M. Kovalcik, co-director of Administration and External Relations at the Mascaro Center. ‘It could hit everyone’s pocket book.’ The 2008 Energy Efficient Building Technologies Challenge for undergraduate students aims to spark the creation of flexible products that can be placed in an already existing home or building and that can reduce a home’s electrical bill. According to the 2007 Buildings Energy Data Book, residential buildings use 22 percent of the United States’ primary energy consumption, and all buildings cumulatively use 40 percent. ‘ Although some college students may feel that they are still in training, Kovalcik says that the idea of a younger designer is all a part of the project’s aim. ‘Engineers that are already in the field, already working, just get confined,’ she said. ‘Young people have creative ideas and time.’ Pitt junior Jeff Brinkhus, a computer engineering major, said he has no doubt that this product could sell, and the idea that this contest could help regular homes in the city to become energy efficient entices him. ‘Not only would a lot of people be willing to use a device that paid for itself in a year, but I think it would have made a really fun summer for me to work on a project like that,’ said Brinkhus. ‘And, of course, the environmental impact would be quite significant if enough people were to use the product.’ Though Brinkhus did not have the chance to take part in this competition, he said he believes that his peers could take advantage of this situation to produce a truly beneficial product. ‘ ‘I think it’s interesting to see buildings like the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel in the same block,’ said Brinkhus. ‘After I graduate and am out in the working world, I would definitely invest in a product to keep Pittsburgh this way.’ The amount of money saved on the electrical bill must be more than or equal to the cost of the product within a year. Those competitors that take on the challenge are asked by the contest rules to form teams of between two and five participants To be eligible for the contest, teams must submit their designs by Oct. 31, 2008. The winning design will be chosen on April 20, 2009. The team that designs the winning product will win $5,000 dollars along with registration to Engineering Sustainability 2009, a Pitt-CMU conference held later this year at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.