To increase student involvement in the 8th Annual Green Design Conference, the Center for Sustainability and the Green Design Team will be sponsoring a Green Design contest.

A day-long event, the conference will focus on innovation and sustainability in environmental design, beginning with the exhibition of contest submissions and a keynote address, followed by live music and a dance performance.

The project contest is open to the public, allowing for teams or individuals from high schools, universities and the local community to submit projects or designs in one of five categories: Architecture, Landscape/Gardening, Engineering, Ecological Innovation and Art.

Submissions should incorporate as many of the nine Hannover Principles, including creating safe objects for long term value, eliminating the concept of waste and relying on natural energy flows, as they can.

The Hannover Principles were created by William McDonough for the World's Fair 2000 in Hannover, Germany, forming specific considerations for environmental design, said Erin English (senior-chemical engineering), student director of the Green Design Conference and president of the Green Design Team.

"Green Design is difficult to define and it was hard to set up specific guidelines for each category," English said. "You'll notice that the requirement for each category is in the form of a question."

Specifics for each category and submission forms are available under the Green Design icon at www.psu.edu/dept/cs/, models and interactive, participatory displays being encouraged.

"We wanted to put a spin on the design competition and encourage people to move away from the usual poster boards and display boards," English said. "It's not a requirement, but we are encouraging interactive and three-dimensional models or designs."

Because of space constraints in the Zoller Gallery, where the submission will be exhibited, proposals submitted before March 16 are encouraged. The first 50 acceptable proposals will be notified either by mail or e-mail by March 20.

The across competition $2,000 grand prize, 10 honorable mentions and each category's $500 prize will be decided by a Penn State faculty member from the Architecture, Landscape, Engineering and Art departments.

Though the conference is in its eighth year, this is the first year for the contest. English said the purpose of the contest is to "get the university involved as much as possible."

The conference is a part of Green Design Month, a series of weekly seminars and lunch workshops to be held in March culminating with the Green Design Conference on April 7. Many of the month's activities will take place in the Alternatives Library, 118 Willard.

James Wines, head of the Architecture department and author of the book Green Architecture, is one of the speakers scheduled.

"I won't just be talking about Green Design, but about its philosophy, aesthetic and technology," Wines said.

The Green Design Conference will be held April 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Zoller Gallery.