Virginia Tech's FutureHAUS Dubai to tour the U.S. after international win

Students from Virginia Tech's Solar Decathlon team have returned from Dubai as international winners.

"We anticipated going there and doing well because we had worked for two years on developing this house that was tested," Joseph Wheeler, Co-Director of Center for Design Research, said.

Those tests included ten categories of solar and green energy performance and sustainability.

"Our strategy all along has been arrive in Dubai with the perfectly functioning house and then win it with the subjective competitions," Wheeler said.

"When they released the results of those and we got first place in architecture, it was just the nail in the coffin that no one could catch up to us after that," student and electrical team leader, Matthew Erwin said.

For them, the winning moment was like nothing they'd experienced before.

"I'm still overjoyed with the results of it," Erwin said. "I've stayed up day and night for two years working on this thing, putting my input into it, helping the whole team, and now we're done. We won. So I'm overjoyed about it."

He said the win was even more special because of who they represented.

"It was nice to know that I was there representing the university," Erwin said. "And to know that we were the only US team there as well was just really big for us."

Soon FutureHAUS Dubai will be on display on the Drillfield for the public to visit before going on a tour throughout the U.S.

"We've got requests for three major cities, New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C." Wheeler said.

And maybe one day, a similar house will be your own.