A group of approximately 10 students and 3 faculty members took a road trip to Arlington, Virginia for 2 days in order to kick off the Solar Decathlon Schematic Design Review. We met the director of the competition, Richard King and attended 20 minute workshops headed by the organizers of the competition. Since our team was entering this competition for the first time, we had to immerse ourselves in the Solar Decathlon culture; we needed to engage ourselves to learn more about the rules and strategies of the competition. The event proved to be motivating and inspiring. Meeting other students from around the country and the world spurred more hard work. It excelled our determination to go back to our school and make an impact upon the importance of the competition. The event also illustrated to us that our entry was perhaps the most distinct. We were the ONLY project serving to address an urban context. We realized our entry was not simply an aesthetic or solar structure, but it would serve to solve economic and social problems of a city.
