Building on the Living Canopy technology developed by Professor Dave Tilley from the School of Agriculture, xFoundry, and the School of Architecture held the first annual Smart Living Canopy competition in November 2023. We challenged architecture students to design a canopy for the Ortanez Family Terrace located in the E.A. Fernandez IDEA Factory building as a testament to multidisciplinary collaboration.

The design was ideated to be a fully self-contained and powered centerpiece fixture that can provide shade to students while integrating and highlighting technologies developed at UMD and delivering information about the local environment. Students were required to consider how to incorporate solar power, UMD-developed water capture, and environmental sensing systems into their designs.

A panel of multidisciplinary judges selected a winner, with a planned launch at the end of Fall 2024.