Oak Ridge National Laboratory has opened the fourth year call for participants in the JUMP (Join the discussion, Unveil innovation, Make connections, Promote tech-to-market) into STEM online building energy-efficiency competition for teams of two to four students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, ORNL hosts the challenge along with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The program encourages diverse students to solve critical challenges in the field of building science. To date, 14 students have interned at ORNL or NREL after winning the competition.
The challenge closes on November 12, 2021, and the final competition will be held at ORNL on January 27 and 28, 2022.
New this year, winners of the competition will have the opportunity to receive paid 10-week internships at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in addition to ORNL and NREL.
While interns are typically hosted in person at the labs during their internships, ORNL and NREL both offered virtual internships to winners of the 2020 and 2021 competitions. In addition, the competition is including energy justice across all three of the challenge topics: equal access to healthy indoor air; resilience for all in the wake of disaster; and solving market adoption for emerging energy efficient technologies.
Student submittals are judged in two rounds—first, challenge-level winners are selected from each of the three challenges that are run during fall semesters and eligible challenge-level winners are invited to compete against each other at the final event. All challenge-level winners receive the opportunity for one-on-one mentorship from a building science professional and eligible final event winners are offered summer internships.
To reach students, JUMP into STEM works closely with professors at colleges and universities across the U.S., who offer the competition to their students as part of their studies. Independent student teams are also encouraged to apply, and no professor is required to compete. The professor team for this program year consists of returning and new members, many of whom are from faculty at minority-serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities.
To learn more and to compete visit www.jumpintostem.org.