Instead of suffering in the cold and rain, homeless people might someday sleep in a "Compactable Chalet," a "Port-a-Home 2000" or "Project POSH."
Three teams of students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County came up with those names -- and the structures to match -- when they took on an assignment to design and build an original, portable, low-cost shelter to keep a homeless person warm and dry.
The freshmen in honors engineering put up $20 each, bought hardware and materials, brain stormed, sketched and sewed last semester until they created three shelters -- two that looked like tents and a third like a jumbo silver TV console.
After getting A's in the class, the students showed off their efforts yesterday in the campus library.
A county social services official said the portable shelters might not solve the problems of the homeless, but appreciated the thought that went into the projects.
"In our design we considered a homeless person might have bags with them, or a child," said Annica Warrick, a freshman on the "Chalet" team. Her group produced a red, tent-shaped structure of lightweight fabric, supported by white metal struts and lined with removable reflective insulation.
Wide enough to sleep two, the structure collapses -- with some frustration and effort -- into a bulky knapsack.
The Port-A-Home 2000 group took a different approach, hoping to fulfill the requirement for originality. They came up with a five-wheeled box shrouded in reflective insulation and topped with black vinyl to ward off rain and snow.
There's a door on one end and a drawer-like extension on the other that slides out to provide three extra feet of sleeping space.
Inside are wood support beams, air vents, and "egg carton" foam insulation. Outside, locks hold the wheels in place.
By day, the shelter doubles as a storage facility.
"It eliminates the shopping cart," said Premal Shah, one of six students involved in the project.
At 4 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 feet high, it turned out a bit larger than the designers thought and might be difficult to get through doors. "It's not as good as it probably can be," Mr. Shah conceded.
The third team focused on mobility with Project POSH (Portable Structure for the Homeless), a shelter that's easier to tote.
"We wanted to make sure they can take it into the library or on the mass transit system," said Eric Schmitt, 19.
The team created a blue, 9-pound tent-like shelter that hangs from a metal skeleton with hook and loop fastener straps.
The sewn-in floor is made of woven polyurethane.
Mr. Schmitt said the shelter is so easy to assemble that an instruction manual could consist entirely of illustrations.
Designing it was harder. Corey Poorman said he broke his mother's sewing machine working on the project, and Mr. Schmitt said there was some "creative fighting" within the group.
The final product was a bit snug at 6 feet long, but Mr. Schmitt said, "When it's zero degrees outside and people are without a home, this could provide some protection and prevent them from freezing to death."
Their teacher, mechanical engineer Semih Oktay, said this was UMBC's first encounter with a hands-on approach in an introductory class and he assigned the project because its social value was motivational. He also required the teams to come up with company names and write a final report that included a technical plan, stress analysis, and sketches.
"Look at these drawings they came up with," he said, flipping through one report. "This is excellent for freshmen."
Students from each team tested their designs in 30-degree weather without coats and said each kept them comfortable with an interior temperature of about 50 degrees.
The shelters will be left on campus indefinitely, but students said they would like to see their prototypes produced to benefit the homeless. Students said that if the shortcomings were ironed out and the structures mass-produced, each would cost about $60.
Maureen Robinson, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, wondered where the homeless people would use the shelters. "I'm not sure whether [it] would be legal or acceptable, even [to erect them]," she said.
She noted that Baltimore County has three shelters that accommodate about 100 a night.
Although a few are turned away because of lack of space, there are also two "severe weather" shelters open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. between Nov. 15 and April 15 with no limit on population.
Still, she said, "I'm very positive behind the spirit of the effort, because certainly anything that divides an individual who cannot access shelter from the severe elements is better than nothing."