Cornell

The Cornell University Solar Decathlon team competed in the Solar Decathlon competition before bowing out of the running in 2011. Their team saw a huge variety of successes and failures and as a second-time competitor, Middlebury's team has a lot to learn from their evolution.

2005: This was Cornell's best showing. They finished 2nd overall in the competition with a simple and elegant design. Cornell's real strength in this project was that they absolutely nailed all of the technical aspects of their house and thus excelled in that part of the competition, as well as creating a home that pleased judges asthetically. This would be by far their best showing. 2007: In its second go at the competition, Cornell tried to innovate with disastrous effects. Their big idea was to have all of the houses solar panels on a raised scaffolding structure that was completely separate from the house itself, the idea being that the house and solar panels didn't have to go together and that the solar panel system could be placed over any small house. They emphasized that this was a house with a purpose (to educate and raise sustainability awareness) and that they had already shown their worth in the contest. This showed and they finished second to last in the competition, their best finish in any category being seventh in communications. Overall, this house was a dud and it was the teams focus on an innovative design and their blase attitude towards important technical aspects of the competition that did them in. The team also lost a huge amount of energy overnight during the competition which really crippled their chances. 2009: Once again Cornell focused on an innovative design. Straying far from the rectangular floor plan of their previous two houses. They used three silo-like structures with connecting hallways.They built a beautiful $450-650k house that claimed to generate more energy than it used, but the judges did not find their artsy floor plan appealing and the team was stuck in the middle of the pack in most scoring categories. Their design was innovative but not practical. Even the hydroponically grown garden and natural landscaping was not enough to woo judges. Team Germany won the competition for the second year in a row with an overly expensive house covered in solar panels to produce excess energy. Cornell has since given up on the Decathlon and have instead turned the team infrastructure towards a project to design LEED certified buildings on campus and Sustainable classroom's in developing nations.

Takeaways -Focus on your strengths. -Innovation can't make up for bad technologies. -The competition does limit opportunities, there are other ways for colleges/universities to promote and design for a sustainable future. -There are easy points in the competition. Don't forget about them. -Don't innovate for the sake of innovation. -Address weaknesses without forgetting about strengths.