Photos courtesy of Dennis Hong

Virginia Tech's Team DARwIn and Team CHARLI competed in the week-long RoboCup in Singapore. DARwin, a child-sized humanoid robot, took fourth place in the soccer competition, and CHARLI, an adult-sized robot, took third place. Below: Tech's DARwIn (right) steals the ball from the Darmstadt Dribblers' striker robot. Above: Team DARwIn and Team CHARLI are made up (front row, from left) Dennis Hong, "JK" Han (back row, from left) Seungmoon Song, Michael Hopkins, Robert Nguyen, Seungjoon Yi, Stephen McGill and Taylor Pesek.

| Tonia Moxley

tonia.moxley@roanoke.com, 381-1675

Virginia Tech earned big wins at two international technology competitions over the weekend.

Two robotics teams from Virginia Tech won top honors at the RoboCup in Singapore, and the university's LumenHaus took the top prize at the Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid.

Team DARwIn and Team CHARLI competed in the week-long RoboCup that ended Friday.

DARwIn, a child-sized humanoid robot, took fourth place in the soccer competition, which matches the robots against one another. Despite technical difficulties, CHARLI, an adult-sized robot, took third place.

Meanwhile, Tech's LumenHaus scored a major victory at the two-week-long solar decathlon, taking overall first place Sunday after a strong showing in the architecture category early in the competition.

Seventeen university teams from seven countries built sustainable homes powered exclusively by solar power.

LumenHaus had some technical issues at last year's U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C., where it placed 13th among 20 similar entries.

LumenHaus was one of two U.S. entries accepted this year to Solar Decathlon Europe. It is "smart phone ready" and responds to mobile device applications that allow remote control of appliances and other electronic devices inside the home.

The houses were evaluated in 10 categories, which were architecture; construction and engineering; solar systems and hot water; energy balance; comfort conditions; functionality and operation of household appliances; communications and social media; industrialization and market viability; innovation; and sustainability.

In addition to its first-place finish in the architecture contest, the LumenHaus placed second in communication and social awareness, third in industrialization and market viability, third in comfort conditions and third in appliances and functioning. LumenHaus also received third prize in an out-of-contest lighting competition.

The University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim in Germany finished second behind LumenHaus. Less than one point separated the two competitors.

The LumenHaus team was made up of faculty and undergraduate and graduate students from Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies, College of Engineering, Pamplin College of Business and College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

The $350,000 project was funded primarily through corporate sponsorships from companies such as ConocoPhillips and Siemens, according to a university news release.