Competition Rules and Scoring Matrix (provided at bottom of page)
World Vision and John Brown University will sponsor a national competition to design and build a prototype of a disaster shelter for rapid deployment and set-up, to be used by aid organizations responding to natural or man-made disasters. For the 2012 – 2013 competition, a specific scenario of an earthquake-induced tsunami in Indonesia was selected to allow teams to focus on a specific disaster type and location as well as cultural considerations.
Competition
Participants
Engineering, Construction Management, or students from science or technical programs in CCCU schools and Region 4 and 5 schools are invited. Interested teams are invited to submit a Letter of Intent no later than November 15, 2012 , providing information about their team, capabilities, and potential design concept. The top 10 teams will be selected and asked to register no later than Jan 31, 2013, with an entry fee of $200. Team size will be no more than 4 undergraduate students plus one coach. This coach can be a faculty member or industry rep associated with the university entering the competition. Teams are encouraged to solicit a local sponsoring organization to help defray the costs of travel and building materials used in the prototype shelter that will be brought to the competition. A stipend of $1,000 will be provided to participating teams upon completion of testing at the on-site event in April, 2013.
Judging and Testing
Judges will include Reps from World Vision, local engineers, and selected Engineering and CM Professors (current and emeritus) from CCCU or regional schools, and other technical professionals. If available, additional judges will include a logistics expert familiar with storage and transportation and a manufacturing expert to judge the ease and cost of manufacture. Judges will be expected to donate their time, but the contest sponsor will cover travel expenses if necessary. A scoring matrix is provided for use by the teams as they develop their project.
Judge expertise will include:
- Emergency Management Expertise (World Vision)
- Technical/Engineering Expertise (University reps and other professional engineers and architects)
- Possibly Logistics Expertise/Manufacturing Expertise
Testing to validate the performance of the units will include the following:
- To validate assembly criteria, competing teams will be required to assemble the unit on site.
- For livability, the shelters will be occupied overnight by a disaster “victim” during the competition. These will be JBU (and possibly other) students who volunteer to help evaluate the performance of the shelters.
- To validate physical performance against the elements, the shelters will be subject to a wind machine (“the Wolf”) that will simulate high wind and rain. (pictured right)
- Seismic load will be simulated using a shake table, as shown in the attachment. The table/platform of the shake table will be constructed of wood. Therefore, teams should ensure that their shelter has a mechanism for fastening to the wood platform. Stroke and frequency of the stroke are still being determined.
"The Wolf" courtesy of Architectural Testing Inc.
More comprehensive wind and seismic load testing will be done on the winning shelter(s) if the sponsor considers the prototype(s) advanced enough for further development.
