A team of students and faculty from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas competed against eight other international university teams during a Solar Decathlon Build Challenge from April 16-18. The UNLV team placed third in the contest, that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

A UNLV team took third place in a U.S. Department of Energy challenge to design and build a home powered by solar energy.

A UNLV team took third place in a U.S. Department of Energy challenge to design and build a home powered by solar energy.

UNLV students were racing to put the finishing touches on Mojave Bloom, a 628-square-foot home they’ve built from scratch for the U.S. Department of Energy’s international 2020 Solar Decathlon Build Challenge. The biennial contest challenges colleges worldwide to design, construct and operate homes powered by renewable energy.

The walls of this house have sound-absorbing panels and multiple layers of thermal insulation. The home was designed to muffle jarring outside sounds and prevent disturbing echoes from bouncing off the interior walls.

Not so long ago, when the world was still analog, architecture students came into college already having some experience building things. Previous generations took shop classes or tinkered in their parents’ garage. Today, students possess excellent computer skills, but they are less likely to have a tangible connection to the physical world, according to UNLV associate professor of architecture Eric Weber.

To compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is an accomplishment in itself. The worldwide submission and selection process is demanding and keen. A team from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) was selected to compete in 2013 and again in 2017. In 2020, UNLV is 1 of only 10 universities in the world to participate in the biennial Design Build Challenge.

It was hard to miss last week’s RTC Clean Energy and Transportation Summit. Along with elected officials, utility executives and regulators, businesspeople, union representatives, and academics, there were electric buses parked out front.