A multidisciplinary team of architecture and engineering students is designing and building a 240-square-foot zero-energy structure on the Knoxville campus as a hands-on way to learn what it would take to build a full-scale house.
The team, UT Zero, is taking advantage of the latest innovations in building materials, information technology, energy efficiency, and home design to demonstrate opportunities and methods for using sustainable energy resources. The high-performance, zero-energy house will use solar power for all of its basic functions in an effort to qualify the team for admittance to the …

Jackie Johnson, associate professor at the UT Space Institute, recently had an article commissioned and published by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The article, “Upconverting glasses for high-efficiency solar cells,” concerns solar and alternative energy solutions.

Jim Thompson, professor of physics, and research assistant professor Yuri L. Zuev are members of a team that won R&D Magazine’s “R&D 100 Award” for their work on superconducting wires. Along with their colleagues, Thompson and Zuev created and tested a kind of superconducting wire that makes electricity transfer more efficient.

Yilu Liu has been named the fourth UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair. She will hold appointments at ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division and UT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. More information.

Recognizing Kate Jones for receiving a prestigious Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the Department of Energy.