Watertown High School operates the High Performance Building Innovators Club to advance clean energy, expand affordable housing, and develop the skilled workforce needed to achieve both.
Supported by a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant and Lemelson-MIT, the club empowers students to explore clean-energy careers by researching, designing, and constructing high-performance building solutions that strengthen local communities.
Interdisciplinary student teams in architecture, engineering, sustainability, and construction management collaborate with neighborhood partners to design a 600-square-foot, Passive House-compliant, net-zero accessory dwelling unit that applies the Lemelson-MIT Invention Education process to real industry challenges.
Using Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, Forma, Tinkercad, finite-element analysis, and 3D printing, students transform research into working prototypes. Their first invention is a thermally broken facade-support system that improves building energy performance and supports continuous exterior insulation.
By integrating workforce development, sustainable housing, invention education, and community collaboration, the program cultivates the next generation of clean-energy leaders while accelerating resilient, accessible, and high-performance building solutions.
