Students' Solar Solutions on View Wednesday

04/18/2008
Students' Solar Solutions on View Wednesday

Fifty students in two of UNM's schools are for the first time pooling their talents in a solar-house design competition sponsored by the New Mexico Solar Energy Association.

Contestants include students in ECE 495/595, Special Topics in Photovoltaics, taught by ECE Adjunct Assistant Professor Olga Lavrova. One of the contest judges is also with ECE: Visiting Professor/Lecturer Ed Graham.

Solar house design award winners in ECE 495 stand with some of their mentors during the April 23 award ceremony: (l. to r.) Dr. Marlene Brown, President of NMSEA, Drew Johnson, Engineering 1st Place Prize winner, Julie Welch, Engineering 2nd Place Prize winner, ECE Department Chair Chaouki Abdallah, photovoltaics class instructor Dr. Olga Lavrova, and Dr. Abraham Ellis of PNM Transmission and Operations.

The ECE students are working in teams with students in Architecture 302, Design Studio IV, taught by architects Margaret Pedone, Sean Tobin and Kristina Yu.

The resulting teams combine talent from both the School of Engineering and the School of Architecture & Planning. Their shared brain power is an example of the potential for creative problem-solving that exists among the many high-powered academic programs at UNM.

The contest winners will be announced and awards presented Wednesday, April 23, at 5:15 p.m. in the main level of the School of Architecture & Planning's new digs, George Pearl Hall. The winning designs will also be available on NMSEA's website and on a CD.

New Mexico's Own

The contest requests architectural and engineering plans for a 1,500 sq. ft. home in New Mexico. The solutions must demonstrate design integrity, efficient use of passive and active solar energy, cost effectiveness, potential for future expansion, and overall quality of life.

Solid architectural and aesthetic design is of prime concern, and this is where architectural students' knowledge and creativity comes in. The designs must also satisfy analysis of energy consumption and generation, calculations of photovoltaic array sizes and wattage, and wiring details, and this is where the engineering students' expertise makes a difference.

Students had a chance to work on generating enough energy to charge an all-electric vehicle, using stand-alone or net-metering solutions, and generating surplus energy for sale to PNM. Judges included representatives from the City of Albuquerque and PNM.

In 2005, architecture students had taken on a similar NMSEA competition by themselves, but this year they decided that a collaboration with ECE's students would strengthen their entries.

The collaboration exposed students to teamwork challenges they will likely encounter in their professional lives, such as working with the quite different perspectives and approaches of talented people in professions other than one's own.

The jurors and guests who participated in the judging, which was conducted on April 3, are:
- John Bucholz, City of Albuquerque manager for sustainable issues
- Mark Chalom, principal of Mark Chalom Architect, Santa Fe
- Stephen Dent, UNM professor of architecture and principal of Dent Nordhaus Architects
- Mars DeLapp, principal of DeLapp Engineering, Santa Fe
- Alexander Dzurec, principal of Autotroph
- Dr. Abraham Ellis of PNM Transmission Operations
- Geraldine Forbes Isais, Director of UNM's School of Architecture & Planning
- Dr. Edward D. Graham, Jr., visiting professor/lecturer with UNM's Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept.
- Sandra Odems, principal of net 0 design

George Pearl Hall is just east of the UNM bookstore. Light refreshments will be served during the event.

Dr. Lavrova can be reached at olavrova[AT]ece.unm.edu