Smart Home News
December 21, 2007
by Missy Baxter
During recent tours of Duke’s Home Depot Smart Home, visitors marveled at two 1,000-gallon rain barrels that collect water to flush toilets, wash clothes and irrigate landscaping at the home.
“It’s a smart way to save water and help the environment, especially since we’re in a drought,” said Alessandro Mangiafico, 9, as he toured the home with his parents Paula Mangiafico, a Duke University Libraries archivist, and Paolo Mangiafico, Duke IT-Web Services ...
November 12, 2007
The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University is a showcase of green design and a living laboratory. Designed by Duke students through a strategic partnership with The Home Depot, the 6,000-square-foot home features a variety of eco-friendly and high-tech elements and will house 10 students.
The public can tour the Smart Home Nov. 12 and 13 to glean ideas and inspiration for green living. Open house tours are being offered from 2 ...
November 10, 2007
Duke University’s new Home Depot Smart Home, a high-tech dorm and research laboratory, was officially opened Nov. 9 by the university president, the current and former deans of the Pratt School of Engineering, and some of the 10 students who will live there.
The $2.5 million, two-story building located on Duke’s Central Campus is the centerpiece of the Duke Smart Home Program, a research-based approach to smart living sponsored by the Pratt School. Primarily focused on ...
October 1, 2007
An illustration of the Home Depot Smart Home. After almost five years of plans, the dorm has finally become a reality.
After almost five years of plans, dreams, fundraising and ultimately construction, Duke’s new smart home will be finished in November. Ten Pratt engineers and Trinity students anticipate moving into the Home Depot Smart Home in January—prepared to become Duke’s newest ambassadors of E-Living. Their goal is to seamlessly integrate technology into the home and champion ...
September 19, 2007
Student members of the Duke Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter took part in three projects over the past summer—all designed to improve the quality of life for people living in Uganda and Peru. Meanwhile, Engineering World Health (EWH), an organization founded by the Pratt School of Engineering's Robert Malkin, took more than 40 students to Tanzania and Central America to install or repair medical equipment in local clinics and hospitals.
"It gives me great pride that ...
November 1, 2006
Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.
The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create “The Home Depot smarthome,” a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and ...
October 24, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create “The Home Depot Smart Home,” a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in ...
October 24, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create “The Home Depot Smart Home,” a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in ...
September 1, 2006
EPA Supports Student Designs Aimed at Sustainability after Natural Disaster
One of the P3 grants will enable students to expand on efforts by former Pratt students, including Jim Garnevicus (above), to restore fisheries in Indonesia.
Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received two “People, Prosperity, and the Planet” (P3) grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at sustainable technologies for use in regions crippled by natural disaster.
One of the $10,000 awards will support students in ...
July 25, 2006
Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received two “People, Prosperity, and the Planet” (P3) grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at sustainable technologies for use in regions crippled by natural disaster.
One of the $10,000 awards will support students in the identification and development of technologies relevant to the construction of sustainable homes in a part of Louisiana that was devastated by floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina. The second will focus on development of ...
June 1, 2006
MEMP student finalists in the Graduate Student Licensing Competition
With gasoline prices on the rise, graduate students in the Master of Engineering Management Program are working toward a solution. A business plan they wrote for a novel fuel additive meant to boost gasoline efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions won them a spot in the final round of a national licensing competition.
The glycerin-derived chemical “GTBE” could replace one recently phased out due to problems with water contamination.
“We ...
May 24, 2006
In an autobiography written by Will Senner in one of his elementary school yearbooks, he made a prediction: He was going to go to Duke. Although it wasn’t a comment the Connecticut native initially remembered when applying to colleges, it turned out he had been right. He enrolled at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering in 2002.
Now a senior civil engineering major and economics minor, Senner is already looking forward to kicking off a career in ...
March 1, 2006
Donna Cookmeyer, Brook Byers and Rob Valli
Technology transfer experts at a panel discussion Feb. 17 urged Duke students and faculty members to speed their research to its potential applications by thinking more like entrepreneurs. Commercialization benefits society by making novel discoveries and technologies available to the public, the group said.
The panel featured venture capital investor Brook Byers of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), of
Menlo Park, Calif. KPCB partners have supported entrepreneurs in building hundreds ...
June 20, 2005
Every two years, the EPA and its 40 partners from industry, Non-Governmental Organizations, and other government agencies, hold a student design competition for sustainability called the P3 Award. This year, the Duke Engineering Living Technology Advancement (DELTA) Smart House Project was selected as one of the 50 teams to compete in next year's contest.
In the Spring of 2005, a team of cross-disciplinary engineering faculty (Martin Brooke/ECE, Robert Kielb/MEMS, Joe Nadeau/CEE, and David Schaad/CEE along with ...
May 1, 2005
The Pratt School of Engineering broke ground April 21 for the Duke Smart House, a two-story residence-laboratory that will house 10 undergraduates and allow them to try out the latest systems and gadgets for a more efficient, environmentally friendly home of the future.
Located at the corner of Faber and Powe streets on Duke's Central Campus, the 4,500-square-foot Duke Smart House will be the first of a kind at the university, and allow students to design, ...
April 23, 2005
The Pratt School of Engineering broke ground April 21 for the Duke Smart House, a two-story residence-laboratory that will house 10 undergraduates and allow them to try out the latest systems and gadgets for a more efficient, environmentally friendly home of the future.
Located at the corner of Faber and Powe streets on Duke's Central Campus, the 4,500-square-foot Duke Smart House will be the first of a kind at the university, and allow students to design, ...
April 20, 2005
Note to editors: Design renderings of the Duke Smart House are available on request to Deborah Hill, communications director for the Pratt School of Engineering, at (919) 660-8403.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering will break ground Thursday, April 21, for the Duke Smart House -- a 4,500-square-foot undergraduate live-in engineering research laboratory.
The highly automated, two-story house will include such features as systems to filter out unwanted background noise; lights, music and temperatures ...
January 1, 2004
What better way to learn about design than to live in what you create? After a year of planning, Duke University engineering students hope to see their ideas come to life in a “smart house” expected to house 10 upperclass students each year.
In the spring of 2004, if plans are approved by Duke's Board of Trustees, Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering will break ground on a combination undergraduate research laboratory, residence and engineering outreach project ...
December 9, 2003
What better way to learn about design than to live in what you create? After a year of planning, Duke University engineering students hope to see their ideas come to life in a “smart house” expected to house 10 upperclass students each year.
In the spring of 2004, if plans are approved by Duke's Board of Trustees, Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering will break ground on a combination undergraduate research laboratory, residence and engineering outreach project ...