UTSA architecture students win three awards at 2019 IES Dallas Student Lighting Design Competition

(September 9, 2019) — Two University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) architecture student teams won three awards in the 2019 Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Dallas Student Lighting Design Competition. The award winners were announced on August 30, 2019. The IES Dallas Student Lighting Design Competition is the only available student architectural lighting design competition in the Central United States and many architecture and interior design programs in the region participate. The competition encourages students to propose a creative solution for a real lighting challenge. It also requires students to use various technologies to address lighting needs and evaluate their proposed design solutions.

This year, a student team of Melissa Santos Romo, Clarissa Perez, and Yanely Mireles Garza received the first place award with a scholarship of $2,000 for their project “Hidden Spa.” Another team of John R. Franklin, Esmirna Moya, and Danny J. Gonzalez received two awards: the fifth place award and Owner’s choice award with a total of $1,000 scholarship for the project “Serenity Day Spa.” Both projects were completed under UTSA College of Architecture Construction and Planning assistant professor Dr. Jae Yong Suk in the Architectural Lighting Design course offered in the Spring 2019 semester. The two winning projects are shown below.

On April 16, 2019 the student teams were invited to an annual IES Dallas Illumination Awards event to present their design progress to architects and lighting professionals. In April of 2020, the winners’ projects will be displayed at the 2020 annual IES Illumination Awards event in Dallas.

This regional and national student recognition highlights the success of the course since its first offering in the Spring 2018 semester. In August 2018, a student team of Ana Gonzalez and Maricela Casanova received the fifth place award with a $500 scholarship at the IES Dallas Student Lighting Design Competition. In May 2019, a student team of Gabriel DeLeon and Saba Fatemi received an Honorable Mention award at a national student lighting design competition, the 42nd Annual Source Awards.

The course was first developed and offered through the 2017 Lesley Wheel Introductory Lighting Program Grant that Dr. Suk received from the Nuckolls Fund, which will continue to support the course offering until 2021.