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  • Max Tech & Beyond Design Competition
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Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition

The Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition is an annual competition run by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) that encourages students to tackle challenges in designing energy efficient appliances and test performance to evaluate reductions in energy consumption. The competition challenges 10 – 20 collegiate teams nationwide to design and test appliance innovations with the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption while providing a level of service comparable to or better than current best-on-market products. The winner of the competition will be the team that best demonstrates energy savings potential for viable future products.

The winner of last year's competition, University of Maryland, was announced in August 2012. Nine competing student teams received up to $20,000 to design and test commercially-viable innovative appliances built to save families and businesses money. A panel of Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory experts judged each team's prototype based on its demonstrated ability to reduce energy use by 10% or more compared to best on-market products, or the prototype's ability to reduce production costs compared with typical high efficiency products already on the market by 20% or more.

The 2013 edition of the competition is underway! Teams for the 2012/2013 Academic Year will be selected in October 2012. For more information on how to apply to the Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition, visit the How to Apply page.

Promoting Building Technologies Research and Adoption

The competition promotes the rapid development of energy efficient appliances and supports education of the next generation of US clean energy engineers. The competition also supports the DOE's broader efforts to train and educate a new generation of engineers and entrepreneurs who will help solve our national energy challenges and bring cutting-edge energy technologies to the global market.

Learn More

Find out more about the Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition.