ODU, HAMPTON STUDENTS FINISH 14TH AT SOLAR DECATHLON

It was arduous. It made team members work harder than they ever had. It dominated their lives for two years. Now it's over.

The 2011 Department of Energy Solar Decathlon wrapped up over the first weekend in October, with Team Tidewater finishing in 14th place out of 19 entries in the biennial competition to design and build a net-zero energy home from the ground up.

It was, indeed, a long and demanding project. But ask the Old Dominion University engineering students and Hampton University architecture students who together comprised Team Tidewater, and you hear a common refrain: They don't regret a single second of the time they spent.

In the process, the HU and ODU students got the names of their schools on a national stage. Media from around the country attended the 10-day competition, held at Washington, D.C.'s West Potomac Park. A reporter from USA Today even named Unit 6 Unplugged, Team Tidewater's entry, as her favorite.

The competition was based on tests of energy performance in the homes, and judged by DOE-selected jurors. They picked the University of Maryland's innovative WaterShed design as the winner, followed by Purdue University and Team New Zealand.

Team Tidewater finished eighth in the final of 10 competitions that comprise the Solar Decathlon - the marketability competition. Team members were a bit disappointed their conventional, practical infill apartment design didn't receive as much credit from contest jurors as some of the more avant-garde designs adopted by other teams. But they also say the experience of being in the nation's capital with other bright students from around the world was an incredible experience.