Jake Gallau is the Project Manager of the SCU Solar Decathlon Team. As a senior in mechanical engineering, Jake has spent the last four years working on the competition and will be bringing the house down to Irvine, California for the competition next September. If you were wondering what that modern house is in between the gym and the parking garage, it’s the house from the 2009 competition.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition run by the U.S. Department of Energy urging teams to build completely solar powered homes. The decathlon consists of ten contests, ranging from affordability to home entertainment, which ultimately determine the overall winner. Jake’s role as Project Manager makes him the first point of contact for anything relating to the competition. He is also in charge of directing all team leads and finalizing important competition documents, like deliverables required by the Department of Energy, listing every product to be used on the house.
Arriving at SCU was not as simple for Jake as it was for most of us. Jake’s local public high school is known for violence. With stabbings occurring regularly, his parents didn’t feel comfortable sending him there. This left the choice between attending an expensive private high school or going to classes at a community college. Jake chose the latter and never attended high school.
Jake didn’t plan on attending SCU, but financial aid made it possible. He was immediately attracted to Santa Clara’s great professors and scholastics, but the school’s dedication to the decathlon is what ultimately sold him on SCU. Furthermore, Jake said that one of his favorite things about the school is that “it’s gotta be the most idyllic campus in the world.”
From the fall of his freshman year, Jake knew the Solar Decathlon was going to be his big project. Although he attended a few meetings that fall, he didn’t really get involved until he received an email on Thanksgiving asking him to work on the house the next day. Jake said of the experience, “I figured I’d be out there for four hours. I was out there for nine or ten hours underneath the house drilling.” From there, he joined the class in the spring and ended up being given the position before the quarter was over.
SCU has placed third both times it has competed in the decathlon, making our team the de facto top seed in this year’s competition. Jake confidently said that the team’s track record speaks for itself. He went on to say “I know for a fact this is the best team that SCU has ever fielded, we have gotten people together who can plan and yield the perfect house.”
Some of the most exciting features of the new house are the integration of bamboo and its utilization of interesting structural technologies. Bamboo is very lightweight and strong, as well as very green. Jake said, “if somebody, hopefully us, can figure out how to use it, that would be a huge development.”
With fundraising playing a key role in one of the ten contests, it is very important that the team not only meets the $1.5 million goal, but also does so using unique fundraising tactics. Jake, as well of the rest of the team, is very proud of the Solar Decathlon label wine. Testarossa Winery, an alumni owned vineyard, agreed to put the special label on their bottles, while lowering the price of the wine. SCU is confident they will be the only team with these bragging rights.
The team also gained a unique edge when a sponsor provided select members a trip to Spain this summer to attend the Solar Decathlon competition in Europe. Jake says this trip introduced the team to new technologies and concepts, such as using a projector and a Microsoft Kinect to turn on lights just by pointing at them. Jake explained the bonds formed with other teams stating, “more than anything, it fostered a lot of good will.” He was excited to have invited several teams to watch SCU compete in September.
If you are interested in joining the Solar Decathlon team, the best way to get involved is to email Jake directly at jgallau@gmail.com or attend interest meetings held every other Friday at 4:45pm in Engineering 326. The team is not only looking for engineers, but also for team members to help with interior design, PR, light fixtures, construction, business and marketing. As Jake puts it, “we want and need everyone.” No experience is necessary, but they are looking for self-starters, capable of assigning themselves tasks and getting things moving.