Hello readers!
Welcome to our first post on our new website! We, at CECA U of T, were excited to host our 3rd annual Sustainable Building Design Case Competition this past week. Through this competition, we challenge student teams to prepare and present a short proposal to a panel of judges on how a community service facility in Toronto can save energy.
For our case competition, we were joined by industry judges as well as faculty to analyze the proposals of our Civil Engineering student participants.
We chose the Christie Refugee Welcome Centre (CRWC) in downtown Toronto as the client facility. CRWC supports refugee families arriving in Canada with meals, lodging, activities, and programs as they transition into their new lives. Our team has worked with CRWC for the 2018 ELECTRI International/NECA Green Energy Challenge, in which we created a proposal over an entire semester on net zero energy retrofits. You can check that out here.
For the students participating in the case competition this year, we provided information on energy use, lighting, plug loads, and HVAC from CRWC. Throughout the week, participants were hard at work creating innovative solutions to reduce 60% of CRWC’s energy use, along with strategies on spreading awareness of energy efficient buildings.
The participants included Jiating (Chelsa) Lou (Civil Engineering, 2nd year); Ziyi (Jason) Wang (Civil Engineering, 2nd year); Paul Go (Civil Engineering, 4th year); and Bo Zhao (Civil Engineering, 1st year). They did an incredible job of going beyond the provided resources with research of their own to come up with creative solutions. Some of these included a heat recovery ventilator, smart power strips with digital timers, and electric furnaces. They also integrated community engagement strategies into their technical solutions, which included collaboration through various social media platforms and interactive children’s games, to promote the value of these retrofits.
The case competition participants from U of T Civil Engineering included from L to R: Bo Zhao, Paul Go, Ziyi (Jason) Wang, and Jiating (Chelsa) Lou.
The panel of judges included U of T Professor Brenda McCabe (faculty advisor); U of T Professor Ian Sinclair; Greg Peniuk (IESO, also CECA U of T alumni); and Gregg Whitty (CECA). They gave the participants constructive feedback on improving their analysis of building energy retrofits and presentation skills. Also, they emphasized the importance of educating end users on how these buildings function.
Congratulations to all the participants! We were quite impressed with the quality of your proposals, and we can’t wait to see what you achieve through future competitions. It’s awesome to see how stimulating challenges like this open up new doors for you to explore your passions.
Also, we’d like to thank the judges for dedicating their time to join us. Through the continuous support of our faculty, alumni, and industry partners, we get opportunities like this to learn more about the contracting and building energy industry, expand our networks, and develop as young professionals. This experience will no doubt be invaluable when we begin our careers outside of university.
With the Sustainable Building Design Case Competition wrapped up, our team is looking ahead to the 2020 ELECTRI International/NECA Green Energy Challenge. We are planning to partner with a school in the Toronto District School Board for this year’s net zero energy retrofit proposal, and we are determined to improve on our second place finish from last year with new members on board! Stay tuned for our upcoming blogs on the Green Energy Challenge journey and our new team initiatives.
