The SMART Competition (www.smartcompetition.org) is a global STEM and Career and Technology Education (CTE) education program for high school students.
The Competition is an excellent educational program compliments classroom learning objectives and promotes the application of sustainability, green building design, energy efficiency, renewable power generation and provides the students with the ability to create innovative solutions to a real-world challenge.
Students are provided a virtual model of a high school campus with a purposely poorly designed gymnasium. The students can redesign everything about the gym to improve its energy efficiency:
- Change windows, walls, doors, floors, HVAC, building orientation and landscaping
- Conduct solar studies to adjust building orientation for maximum efficiency or power generation capability
- Consider sustainable design, reduced carbon footprint and renewable energy sources that can be used
The design tools are the same as those used by over 800,000 engineering and architectural professionals every day. The software is donated for the competition by Bentley Systems (www.bentley.com). The combination of the design challenge and the software supports both classroom learning objectives and the development of marketable skills.
According to Mark Schneider, Global Technical Director Utilities and Mapping of Bentley Systems and co-chair of the SMART design team, “The competition is an exciting opportunity for students. The competition will give them hands-on practical experience in engineering, building information modeling, energy analysis and intelligent design using software tools used by engineering professionals.”
The competition is open to all undergraduate university students and high school students who attend public, private, parochial, charter and home-based schools or participate in informal education programs. The competition is designed to attract all students without regard or bias of gender, race, socio-economic or academic performance level.
For additional information, contact Mike Andrews, m.andrews@smartcompetition.org
