A group of students and faculty from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s P3: People, Prosperity, and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability.Their project will receive up to $90,000 in grant funding to turn the designs into real-world applications and implement them in the marketplace.

The UT Green Oak Project developed oak construction techniques that use undried oak, which is known as “green” oak, as an energy-efficient and carbon-friendly wood product. The project received $15,000 in the first phase of the competition to investigate the material. Associate Professor Ted Shelton of the UT School of Architecture is the lead principal investigator on the project.

 

University projects from across the country competed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from April 25 to 27 as part of the National Sustainable Design Expo. UT’s team was one of seven winners selected by a panel of experts from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was the only project in an architecture-related discipline to claim a prize.