Photos: Big Build day for Team Solar NEST
The driving forces behind Sacramento State’s solar-powered home entered in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2015 will kick off the fall semester’s series of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Lectures at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in the University Union, Redwood Room.
Professor Mikael Anderson and Assistant Professor Gareth Figgess will present “The Reflect Home: Using Solar Energy to Power the New American Home,” detailing the student team’s construction of the Reflect Home (www.solarnest.org/) for the international Solar Decathlon 2015. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Sacramento State was selected by the DOE to take part in the competition among 20 universities worldwide, a figure that since has dipped to 14 with campuses such as Stanford and Yale dropping out.
This week, the modular Reflect Home is being disassembled and will be loaded onto flatbed trucks for transport to Irvine, where it will be reassembled along with the other universities’ homes for judging in October.
Anderson and Figgess will detail Sac State’s efforts to construct a home that is not only energy-efficient but affordable and attractive as well.
Anderson is a Registered Professional Civil Engineer, chair of Sacramento State’s Construction Management Department, and co-principal investigator for the solar home project. Figgess received a bachelor's degree in Construction Management and an MBA from Sac State, teaches for the Construction Management Department, and is the co-principal investigator and faculty adviser for the solar home project.
The primary goals of the Center for STEM Excellence are to strengthen the quality of STEM education and research at Sacramento State, and increase the number of students graduating in STEM disciplines to meet local and national workforce needs.
For more on the University’s STEM program, visit www.csus.edu/stem or call (916) 278- 2789. For media assistance, call Sacramento State’s Public Affairs office at (916) 278-6156. – Craig Koscho