"New" Team....sort of and Solar Decathalon

So I got my final teams yesterday for SmartSurfaces.  We actually discovered that our team is the exact same as a few weeks ago except for one person, so it's the Fabric Team + Johanna.  I really enjoy my team and I'm excited for our project.  We had two criteria we came up with.  We were focused on actually have a surface be interactive with humans, and not strictly by sight but by possibly other senses.  Our other criteria was using our smartsurface to better the quality of human life, either through water purification or improving soil quality etc..  So instead of having a cool light pattern appear, we would have something with more of a positive human impact. 

As for interesting stuff going on..... 

The Solar Decathlon Held by the Department of Energy has finished http://ecogeek.org/.  Above is the winning team's house (Team Germany) http://www.solardecathlon.org/.  The Solar decathlon is where teams make houses that are 100% powered by renewable energy.  Some of the team's houses also produce more electricity than they use.  There are some very cool contraptions and things used to make the house functional.  The diferent things teams used for insulation, rain collection, lighting, heating/cooling etc. are all very unique.  Since it is a decathalon there a bunch of different events that each house is judged on:
Architecture, Market Viability, Engineering, Lighting Design, Communications, Comfort Zone, Hot Water, Appliances, Home Entertainment, Net Metering

Here are more pictures

Here is the passive-heating water wall of University of Arizona.  It is made of recyled water bottles.

This is a close up of the passive-heating water-wall of University of Arizona's solar-powered house.






Here is University of Wisconsin's RainWater Collector.








 
Here is the automated external shading and krypton-filled glass used by Team Ontario/BC's solar-powered house to insulate their house.





 



Energy efficient lighting used by Virginia Tech's House.