Resilient Adaptive Climate Technology Living Lab & ThinkTank

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http://hdl.handle.net/1903/27013
The founding five academic units (Engineering, Architecture, Libraries, Agriculture & Natural Resources, and Education) have agreed to advance beyond the already remarkable accomplishments of Team Maryland’s successes over the past two decades of transdisciplinary competition in the United States Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (SD). We intend to leverage our internationally recognized success into an on-campus Resilient Adaptive Climate Technology Living Laboratory & ThinkTank, a site for deep integration across disciplines as experts from different areas pursue common research challenges, and increasingly intermingle and integrate their knowledge, theories, methods, data, research communities and languages with new frameworks, paradigms or even disciplines formed from sustained interactions across multiple communities. We intend to extend the knowledge, expertise, and information to various stakeholders throughout the state of Maryland and beyond through various UMD outreach services, not the least of which is the University of Maryland Extension Service.

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    U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition, Class of 2021, Team Maryland
    (2021-04-16) Cossard, Patricia Kosco
    The Solar District Cup Class of 2021 final deliverable has been submitted and accepted. The judges and Solar District Cup organizers are excited to see the solutions Team Maryland has developed over the past several months. The judging panel for each division will review packages before witnessing live team presentations on April 25. The competition teams were assigned one of three “District use” cases. Team Maryland was assigned the district use case of the University of Central Florida.
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    Project Proposal: UFC District Use Case
    (2021-04-26) Nerrise, Favour; Brinkman, Jakob; Mountain, Pamela; Yee, Jonathan; Stanfield, Cade; Kirshenboin, Tali; Molkara, Yasmin; Owoeye, Oluwadara; Quinn, Bryan; Cossard, Patricia Kosco; Rockcastle, Garth; May, Peter; Fathy, Hosam
    The Final Deliverable Package includes a complete conceptual design and techno-economic analysis of a proposed interconnected solar PV plus battery electric storage system that maximizes energy offset and savings over the system’s contracted (if PPA or lease) or useful (if cash purchase) lifetime for the division district, given its use case parameters and conditions.
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    2020-2021 Annual Report
    (2021-05-18) reACT ThinkTank
    The reACT Living Laboratory & ThinkTank presents a record of work April 2020-May 2021. The report demonstrates a good rate of return on the University's investment in both the Solar Decathlon and the administrators, faculty, staff students, and alumni who have worked hard to demonstrate that your investment has been creatively and responsively cultivated. Activities in 15 sections and one Appendix are presented. An Executive Summary is included. I. History & Origins II. Grants, Funded Research, and Sponsored Agreements III. Reconstruction of original sd2017 competition winner, reACT IV. Student Engagement V. Climate Action Leadership VI. Native American Workgroup/ThinkTank/Task Force VII. Native Youth Fellowship VIII. Alumni Achievements related to ThinkTank IX. Professional Development X. Open Scholarly Communications XI. Media Coverage XII. Expanded ThinkTank Membership in 2020-2021 XIII. Opportunities for the Future XIV. Resources & Campus Funding Needed for Continued Success XV. Acknowledgement & Gratitude Appendix A. ThinkTank Mission Statement This report has been disseminated to all those listed on p.14.
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    Living Systems and Waste of reACT: Learning Module
    (2021-08-06) Bishop, Zachary; Lagomarsino, Matthew; Cossard, Patricia Kosco; Stoltz, Angela; May, Peter I; Hubbard, William; Harmon, Kyle; Newman, Rico; Brooks, Peter; Colston, Keith; Team reACT
    This learning module is an audiovisual presentation that describes the Living Systems of reACT and their connection to cultural principles of the Piscataway tribe. reACT, the University of Maryland competition house for the 2017 Solar Decathlon, includes many sustainability innovations and subsystems, including the innovative Living Systems. The Living Systems are a collection of plants and regenerative technologies within and around reACT that provide food and ecosystem services while transforming various wastes into resources. The purpose of this learning module is to describe the Living Systems in an accessible way that is understood by a broad, non-technical audience. By the end of the learning module, the audience will be able to 1) Understand the origins of reACT’s Living Systems, 2) Understand the core components of the Living Systems, 3) Realize the core themes within the Living Systems, 4) Understand how the Piscataway use native plants, 5) Be inspired to contribute to the sustainability field. This work advances scholarship related to how indigenous knowledge systems and wisdom can be applied to living practices within homes.
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    UMD Resilient Adaptive Climate Technology ThinkTank (reACT TT): Purpose, Accomplishments and Future Directions
    (2022-10-12) Cossard, Patricia Kosco; Hubbard, William
    reACT ThinkTank is a campus-wide initiative involving faculty, staff, and students collaborating with Maryland tribal communities, who are deeply committed to a dynamic transdisciplinary approach to sustainability that includes research, consultancy advice, and education to internal and external stakeholders concerning climate change, regenerative design and renewable energy in urban environments and the building industry, and providing opportunities for action related to the University’s Land Acknowledgment.
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    Decolonizing Education to Meet Climate Change Demands: 2023 Interdisciplinary Curriculum Program
    (2023-06-07) Cossard, Patricia Kosco
    This poster was presented at the University of Maryland Libraries 2023 Research and Innovative Practice Forum. It presents the work of an innovative cross-disciplinary experiential curriculum program of 20 courses offered in 7 departments across 5 academic units with an enrollment of nearly 500 students. Students were introduced to tribal members from the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Choptico Band of Piscataway Conoy, and Nanticoke Indian Nation. Students used the "resilient Adaptive Climate Technology" (reACT) house, second place winner of the 2017 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, in order to provide design development in collaboration with tribal members for the adaptive reuse of the building as an educational laboratory. The curriculum development was funded by a generous grant from the UMD Provost through the 2023 Teaching & Learning Grant.
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    Decolonizing Education to Meet Climate Change Demands: Landscape Design
    (2024-05-02) Sachs, Naomi A.
    Landscape designs from LARC640, Graduate Studio, and LARC240, Graphic Communication & Design Studio, focused on a site at the northern edge of the University of Maryland College Park campus. The site is bounded by University Avenue to the north and Paint Branch Drive to the west. The LEAFHouse (2007 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon) structure is currently positioned at the southern edge of the site, and the site is bounded to the east by a small parking area. Elements of the unreconstructed reACT house (2017 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon) currently occupy the parking area. Designs reimagine the landscape and living systems at the UMD Solar Decathlon site through the lens of using Indigenous knowledge (IK). The studio task was to build upon the Indigenous Knowledge and principles from the reACT House and utilize them for a regenerative design of the “Solar Decathlon Site.” Learning Goals for LARC 240 and LARC 640: 1) Learn and investigate the meaning/s of a.Regenerative design, b.Indigenous Knowledge, c. Decolonizing education, d. Decolonizing design; 2) Employ facets of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in research, programming, and design for the site (the site and all of its potential users: humans, trees and other plants, and the “four-legged, the winged, those that crawl and those that swim”); 3) Conduct and graphically represent site inventory and analysis and demonstrate its impact on the design; 4) Deepen and strengthen graphic representation skills with new techniques and tools. Sections include: 01 Course & Project Overview; 02 Site Inventory, Data Collection, and Representation; 03 Storytelling; 04 Design: Concept Diagrams; 05 Design: Graphic Elements; 06 Design: Final Boards. Student work is illustrated. Graduate Students: Stephanie Cavanaugh, Lauren Hudson, Eve Josar, Elliott Kenney, Phoenix Morrison, Stephanie Pully, Dana Watkiss, Auran Zaman. Undergraduate Students: Caleb Austin, Juan Bajana, Isabella Barresi, Elia Choi, Bianca Darago, Lili Francisco, Grazelle Giray, Gracie Guerrero, Wyatt Howell, Calvin Hruby, Rachel Kinsey, Christina Le, Joe Mallow, David Phan, Tiara Rachman, Alan Shi, Nathan Temesgen.