IEEE ODTÜ
PES YK
S O L A R D E CAT HLO N
I NT E RV IE W
BILTEK 2010-2011
1) How did you find the money?
The project is very expensive. Our total cost was roughly $810,000. We raised approximately $520,000 in cash
and relied on material in-kind donations (solar panels,
solar thermal, etc.) for the difference. Most of the cash
came from the house sale, a PEW grant, the DOE grant,
and fund-raising.
2) At what stage did you start sponsorship work?
It’s important to start
sponsorship work as soon
as possible, but of course
this is somewhat difficult
until you have at least a
schematic design. On one
level it can be difficult to
ask for cash from sponsors if you do not yet
have something material
or at least schematic to
show them; on another
level it is difficult to ask
for material in-kind donations if you do not know
what you need. We began work on a sponsorship package at the beginning of
the project and continued to evolve it as the project
grew. We identified a few companies we knew we
wanted to partner with and we began making phone
calls immediately.
3) How did you provide interdisciplinary communication?
(weekly joint meetings / gathering in groups)
We had a team of 250 students, but 20 students did
95% of the work. The team consisted of team leaders,
sub-team leaders, and team members. The full team
would meet once a week to talk about the project globally. Sub-team leaders would meet with sub-teams
once a week outside of the full team meeting (or sometimes immediately after) to discuss specific components
of the project (fundraising team, electric team, website
team, design team, etc.). Team leaders would meet
once a week with each other and once a week with sub-
team leaders (many team leaders doubled as subteam leaders). So leaders of the project might have
four meetings a week. Aside from meetings, we used
regular email communication, a wiki (which in the
end seemed extraneous), Google documents, and
various other electronic media for communication.
4) Which stage did you start to get professional help?
Like material in-kind donations, I would secure commitments from professionals as
soon as possible and let them serve
as mentors or advisors to the project from the beginning. Our team
prided itself on being student led,
but the more professionals who can
assist as consultants and advisors
the more smoothly things run and
they’ll already be up to speed when
they are most needed later. We
had professional architects, engineers, and builders serve as advisors throughout the project.
5) How did you do the transition
from theory to practice?
We offered a design studio in architecture to produce
a conceptual design for the house for academic credit. We offered a solar lab in engineering to brainstorm technologies and innovations for the house for
academic credit. We offered two independent studies in architecture to produce design development
drawings and construction documents for academic
credit. Theory is a critical element to the project, but
because the product is completely tangible, there
must always be a focus on completing the very challenging practical considerations. Each year, some
teams do not deliver fully completed or functional
houses to the Solar Decathlon competition, perhaps
because they underestimate the difficulties and rigor
of completing the design, building the house, testing
it, and transporting it.
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