Wingo is a teaching assistant and masters engineering student at George Washington University. She’s also part of Team Capitol DC, a group of area college students working to design and build an energy-efficient house for the Solar Decathlon in Irvine, Calif., next year.
How did it feel to be one of the 20 chosen teams?
It was really exciting … I think at G.W. it will be really good to get more visibility for the engineering school. It’s also exciting as a student to be able to work on a project and see something built, especially as a structural engineering major — you work on the concept of the building but don’t ever get to see that building get built.
How often do you work on this project?
Up to this point we’ve done preliminary design work and in the fall the next class of field design students will start work on the project. Over the summer there are going to be hopefully around 50 students from G.W. alone that will be dedicated to working on the Solar Decathlon across a couple of the school’s engineering disciplines.
How is the work divided?
There are three colleges within D.C. that are on this team. Catholic University [is] doing architecture. Then American University. They’re doing media marketing and business. And at G.W. we’re doing engineering and landscape architecture.
What’s your part in the project?
I am within the civil and environmental engineering department, and we’re doing structural design. We’re just designing what the structural frame will be like.
What’s important about building sustainable structures?
I think that there are obviously environmental benefits, but the other aspect is being a way to further improve the overall efficiency and performance of the building. I think over the years this will become more and more important to adopt into building codes.
— Courtney Zott
