2021 ASHRAE Student Design Competition Winners Are Announced

ASHRAE has announced the winners of 2021 ASHRAE Student Design Competition and Applied Engineering Challenge. The competitions encourage students to become involved in the design of energy-efficient HVAC systems—a profession that is crucial to ensuring a sustainable future for the earth.

This year’s Student Design Competition focused on a new 50,000-square-foot building on a higher education campus in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. The building included a two-story cafeteria, associated office, and commercial kitchen and storage space. The teams were tasked with providing safe and healthy storage of food materials on the lower level in a manner that prevents spoiling and the growth of bacteria, while providing enough kitchen/serving space and permanent seating to serve a peak occupancy of 720 students and a total of 3,000 students per day.

Teams competed in one of the three categories:

  • HVAC Design Calculations
  • HVAC System Selection
  • Integrated Sustainable Building Design (ISBD)

First place in the HVAC Design Calculations category was awarded to Brandon Jung, Arin Lee, Lukengo Miguel, Kyle Vanderhorst, and Jeff Yoon of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Nima Atabaki, P.Eng, was the team’s faculty advisor. Esteban Kello, P.Eng, and SunJun Yoo, EIT, were the team’s industry advisors.

Placing first in the HVAC System Selection category were Cole Quinlan, Nicholas Schramski, Brian Van Schepen, Cole Weber, Evan Eldred, and Jordanny Williams from Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan. Joseph Pacella was the team’s lead mentor.

Receiving first place in Integrated Sustainable Building Design category were Andrew Cosini, Xinyan Liu, Christopher Maitski, Andrew McGrail, Roumany Phan, and Christopher Unis from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania. William Bahnfleth, Ph.D., PE, was the team’s faculty advisor. Luke Leung, PE, was the team’s industry advisor.

In the 2021 Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge, students were challenged to design an indoor farming system to meet the needs of a local community with regards to single or multifamily residential construction. The system could be designed for new or renovation construction types. The system took into account multiple system variables, including space temperatures, humidity, lighting, acoustics, and outdoor conditions to determine the best course of action to be integrated into a residence.

Adam Bessey, Ryan Salazar, and Matthew Malonzo from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California received first place. Steffen Peuker, PhD, was the team’s faculty advisor.

The projects will be recognized during the 2022 ASHRAE Winter Conference, January 29 – February 2 in Las Vegas. The Winter Conference is held in conjunction with the ASHRAE co-sponsored AHR Expo, which will be January 31 – February 2 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

For a full list of Student Design Competition winners (First, Second, Third, and Rising Star), please visit the Competitions page on ashrae.org.

Source: ASHRAE

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