For the second year in a row, a team of MIT students — including two this year from the MIT School of Architecture + Planning — have won double awards in the Better Buildings Case Competition conducted at the White House by the U.S. Department of Energy.
In support of President Obama's goal of cutting energy waste from homes and businesses by half over the next two decades, the annual competition invites university energy clubs to propose innovative solutions for increasing the efficiency of buildings across the country.
Drawing together skills and experience in urban planning, real estate, engineering and finance, the contest challenges students to come up with creative solutions to real-world problems faced by specific organizations in the public and private sectors — solutions that can be used as models for other organizations across the marketplace.
The competition also helps launch students' careers in energy by introducing them to potential employers. After competing in last year’s contest, for instance, SA+P’s Elena Alschuler CP ‘12 was hired by the Energy Department’s Building Technologies Office to help develop tools for collecting and analyzing data on building energy performance. She was also responsible for writing the competition’s case studies this year.