AHMEDABAD: A team of 15 students of city-based Cept University have won the first prize in the 'Urban Single Family Housing' category of US department of energy's "Race to Zero" competition held on April 22 and 23. As many as 39 teams were selected in the final round in which the Cept team was the only team from Asia that was still in the competition. 

The team, 'Kill Bill', was led by students of the M Tech Building Energy Performanceprogram. Its goal is to "kill" the electricity "bills" in India. 

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Over five months, they designed and prepared working drawings that included mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, demonstrated performance with simulations, estimated costs and developed financing strategies. They designed a marketable house in Jaipur that is zero energy, zero water, gets WHO-levels of air quality despite ambient pollution — all this at a debt-to-income ratio that bankers found acceptable for their target market.