by Mike Love
The 2011 Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C .was very well attended the day I visited, with a significant number of teenage groups from schools not in the Washington D.C. region. I spoke with a group from Richmond, VA and another from Roanoke, VA. The weather though overcast with passing showers did not dim people’s attitudes about the event. I was surprised by the engagement the school groups showed in asking detailed questions of the competitors in various houses… such as their reasons for competing, design philosophies etc.
The competitor’s I spoke to were extremely well prepared, either answering my questions directly, or steering me to an individual who could better address my question. I found many of the students were pursuing Engineering and Science disciplines in college in addition to the expected Architecture graduate and post grad students. Most groups had their houses set up to direct traffic along a defined path to encourage traffic flow, so the long lines kept waiting in line to a tolerable 5 minutes on average.
