College of Fine Arts and Design

Sept. 20, 2010

Two students from the University of Central Oklahoma's Department of Design Master of Fine Arts program recently won both first and second place as well as large cash prizes in the Robert Bruce Thompson (RBT) 2010 Light Fixture Design Competition, an annual contest that regularly attracts students from some of the top public and private universities in the nation.

Central student Guanqun Wang won first place and a cash award of $5,000 for his design of a porch light featuring a solar plate, stainless steel case and a piece of frost glass that can change colors by the use of  a remote control.

In announcing his win, the judges praised Wang's "restrained clean design and elegant detailing," saying they liked the color changing ability, flexible graphics and low energy use.

"The idea of my design was to create a light to allow good facial identification and recognizable walkway illumination conditions within the proximity of the lamp," said Wang.

Second place winner, Xiaoqian Dong, who received $2500, created a design for a light fixture that emits light from different directions, similar to a 360 degree radiation, to save on energy consumption.

"To win second place in the RBT competition gives me more passion and more confidence in my future design work. And it makes me fall in love with design even further," said Dong.

The RBT competition was created by Bruce Thompson, a 25-year veteran of the lighting industry, who emphasized design and innovation throughout his career. He established this independent competition to encourage creativity and education in light fixture design and manufacturing.

"Students from all over the country participate in the RBT light fixture design competition," said Rukmini Ravikumar, UCO design department chair.

"For UCO students to win the first and second place prizes in this competition reaffirms the high caliber of the design students at UCO and their ability to compete and succeed at the national level. We are very proud of their success."

To learn more about the competition, visit, www.rbtcompetition.org.

For more about the UCO Design Department, call (405) 974-5200 or visit www.uco.edu/cfad/academics/design.