It’s not looking good for the University of Colorado. On the second to last day of the U.S. Energy Department’s Solar Decathlon, CU is ranked eleventh overall. They haven’t scored in the top three for a single juried competition, but the major contest – engineering – has yet to be decided. And the team thinks they can score a first place finish – moving them high up in the overall rankings.
The reason they’ve had to troubleshoot their engineering systems all week – costing them points – is the same reason they think they’ll win the subjective contest. Their systems are more innovative than anything else currently on the National Mall. And after several days of mini crises and saves getting their untested technology to work, it’s finally doing what’ it’s supposed to. If they can win engineering, and score points in the ongoing contests while waiting for leading teams like the University of Maryland and Technische Universitat Darmstadt to make a mistake, they could still pull off the unlikely 3-peat.
The engineering awards will be announced with the overall winners tomorrow. To track the race to the finish, check out www.solardecthlon.org. -- Jessica Centers
