An exhibition of proposed solar-powered homes has cast a light on the work of students from a number of ISU colleges.

Students involved with Solar Decathlon, a competition to build a self-sustaining house, displayed some of their test builds to the College of Design on Wednesday.

The project has drawn students from a number of majors, including engineering, journalism and mass communication, design and architecture, to name a few.

“There’s an interdisciplinary workshop class I am in charge of where students can work on design-builds for the house,” said Clare Cardinal-Pett, associate professor of architecture.

An exhibition of the work of the six student teams in the workshop class will also be displayed in the foyer of the Design Building on Thursday.

Each three-student team constructed a test build and will be talking to anyone interested in giving them feedback about their build, including members of other teams.

“There have been a few parts from other projects we’ve worked into this,” said Tyler Jessen, senior in architecture. “Taking major positives of other projects and working them into ours is a big part of this.”

This is the first year Iowa State has been a part of the competition – and it’s also the first year Iowa State has applied. The U.S. Department of Energy accepts 20 schools from around the world to create the most attractive and energy-efficient solar house. If a school’s application is accepted, it is given $100,000 to build the house.

“Being accepted into this competition is already like winning,” Cardinal-Pett said.

All 20 final designs will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they will be judged on energy efficiency and aesthetics.

On Friday, the rest of the ISU Solar Decathlon team will give critiques on the six test builds.

Sara Moser, junior in materials engineering and member of the Solar Decathlon group, was already present at Wednesday’s critiques to take a look at what the workshop teams had developed.

“I’m concerned about the placement of panels and use of materials,” she said.

Each team presented a series of basic design sketches of the main themes they were aiming for. Each team also created a small wooden model of what their proposed house would look like.

“This is kind of like their midterm,” Cardinal-Pett said.

Also on display were the rules for the contest, design sketches and photos of competitors from last year’s Solar Decathlon.

The winning team, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, collaborated with German manufacturers to create its solar house.