ECIC competition stands for Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge, it is a design competition held annually by our parent organization, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) in the US (recall CECA is short for the Canadian Electrical Contractors Association).
ECIC challenges both technical and communicative skills while giving you the opportunity to network with industry professionals. This year, ECIC takes place from Jan 31st to April 30th, the focus is to design an innovative electrical system for a new residence hall that will meet the client’s needs.
Figure: Rendered Residence Facility from Competition Drawing Set
To ensure clear role distribution, 5 subteams are set up:
1)Building Information Modelling
2) Smart Building Design
3) Building Energy Management
4)Lighting
5)Project Management
This is a great opportunity for you to gain valuable and practical experience in renewable energy, building automation, lighting systems, HVAC systems, project management. By choosing to join 1 or 2 subteams, you will learn more about building design, energy efficiency and financial analysis that are reality-based. In addition to field exposure, there are many networking and training opportunities with our industry partners and professionals.
Interested in learning more? You can read what each subteam does by checking our handbook here. You can also check out the ECIC detailed rubric here.
Participation
Thinking to participate? Thank you for your interest in ECIC and we are looking forward to meeting and working with you!
Manitoba Hydro Place officially opened on September 29, 2009. It contains several sustainable features, making Platinum LEED certified. Some of these include:
24m-tall water fall to control the air’s humidity.
In summer, cooler water absorbs moisture
In winter, warmer water adds moisture
115m-tall solar chimney controls the distribution of used warm air.
In the summer it expels it up and out through the top
In the winter, it draws it to heat the underground parking garage
Geothermal system of 280 boreholes, 25m under the Earth’s surface, control the building’s temperature.
High-ceilings and large windows minimize the use of artificial light
South-facing wintergarden heats air entering the building
Happy Summer! There was a website maintenance and we are now excited to share updates! This post gives a summary about what happened in the Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge (ECIC) Competition that took place from Feb 1st to April 30th in 2021. We will start off by introducing the competition and our structure. You will then have a summary of what we did and hear some quotes from our participants.
After reading, you will know:
✨What’s ECIC
💡Our approach: how we tackle
📁Our work: what we accomplished
😉Our experience: what participants said
U of T ECIC team members participating in the virtual competition kickoff meeting
“My experience in the ECIC has been simply amazing. It was great to be part of a team that collaborated in terms of creativity, communication, and research. I gained exposure regarding the industry and learned a lot about the number of details that go into building a comfortable living environment.” – Shikhar Chaurasia (Track One, 2T4)
1 ✨What’s ECIC
You may feel it’s hard to know what’s ECIC by its name: “Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge Competition”. And you are not alone! The goal of ECIC is to design an electrical system for a new residential building. We spent a long time reading the guidelines in order to understand its areas of application and realized it went beyond electrical contracting!
ECIC is closely related to real-life applications and a good opportunity to apply our skills with 3 main areas: Building Information Management/Modelling (BIM), Project Management, Building Automation. Learn more below:
BIM
🏗️From Autodesk, BIM is defined as a “process that integrates structured, multi-disciplinary data to produce a digital representation of an asset across its lifecycle, from planning and design to construction and operations”. In short, BIM is a team process where models corresponding to real-world can be networked to support decision-making, coordinate construction, and perform analysis.
In ECIC, you will learn BIM application because you work on Revit 3D models that encompass quantities and properties of building components, spatial and geometric information. This is really helpful because all data can be exported for quantity takeoff, instead of counting items manually. You will also get a chance to build a model yourself and present the layout drawing to clients.
Project Management
📅Project Management is important to engineering design because it ensures expectations are met and people can complete tasks on time.
In ECIC, you will apply project management skills to produce a detailed cost estimate for the proposed electrical system, ensure the designs were feasible. We also made a Gantt chart to schedule for the proposed work.
Building Automation
👷Building Automation is a building’s centralized control system. It can control heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting (HVAC), lighting, entrance access and more. During operation, the system can also assess the performance and health of building to reduce energy and be sustainable.
In ECIC, you will think about ways to make a connected, convenient and comfortable environment for residents inside the building. Specifically, how do you manage, optimize, and adjust the settings to ensure things are efficient and people are healthy and feel comfortable?
——————-I AM A DIVIDING LINE :D——————-
We hope you feel the topics above are interesting and realize ECIC is a good opportunity to gain technical skills while connecting with others! Meanwhile, we understand it takes time to process the info, here are some Q&As:
Was there any support? Yes, The competition organizers (NECA) provided Revit and Project Management Workshops to get you started.
🌹In addition, we were thankful to receive help from NECA Contractors Miachel Parkes, Vice President-Power Group, and Rob Miller, Project Manager in O’Connell Electric Company, and our faculty advisor Ian Sinclair for training and guidance.
ECIC sounds like a lot of work?Yes, good thing is, it is teamwork. Go to the next section to learn how we divide the work!
2 💡Our approach: how we tackle
In this section, we will share our team structure and work distribution to tackle the ECIC.
Team Structure
Structure with 5 subteams in total, read from left to right
We had 5 sub-teams: Building Energy Management (Energy), and Smart Building Design (Smart), Lighting, Project Management (Project), and BIM. The first 3 teams were responsible for technical design while Project and BIM teams were coordinating the workflow and produced shop drawings on Revit.
If you are curious about what each team did, feel free to read our guide to ECIC below.
Here’s what we did: (adopted from executive summary)
We designed the electrical systems for a new 3-story student residence hall that is being built in the University of Toronto campus, located in Toronto, Ontario with a total cost ~$2.74 million CAD. It has 3 sub-systems: Lighting, Energy, and Smart:
The Lighting system consists of 11 different fixtures of LED lights for the entire building. The lights located in public areas can be dimmed and timed due to the integration of KNX building automation systems, leading to up to 60% savings in lighting energy consumption.
The Energy system consists of renewable energy, electrical infrastructure, and control systems that contribute to the sustainability goals of the building. (e.g. Rooftop solar panels that generate over 39 MWh electricity annually. HVAC system with 30% energy savings).
The Smart system consists of 16 innovative technologies addressing areas of security, access control, communication, hands-free control, and building automation systems, to provide residents with an enhanced occupant experience.
In addition, we provided an option to reach net-zero energy demand by installing additional solar panels on the ground and external building platforms at the extra cost of $650,000 CAD. All shop drawings depicting locations of fixtures, equipment and controls and a 3D model of the electrical system are within the proposal.
Despite virtual environment, lots of engagement took place. We reached out to contractors to enrich our understanding of electrical systems and the electrical contracting profession. We also reached out to the University of Toronto staff and community to gauge the needs of the students living in dorms and the operation and maintenance requirements.
This is our first annual competition that’s 100% online and we were happy to know members and team leads enjoyed the experience and learned many things.
“It has been a phenomenal experience leading the Smart Building Design team! The quality of work, and dedication has shone through the team’s ability to deliver niche solutions for meeting the needs of future UofT students.” -Ruth Zachariah, SBD Team Lead
“I have learned a lot about engineering in the ECIC competition. The research, drawing, and communication skills that I learned from the team is very valuable and I appreciate my teammates for being supportive and helpful”- Aaron Hu, Lighting Team Member
“Participating in ECIC has been a fun and valuable journey for me since I probably wouldn’t gain the knowledge that I have just within academia.
It has definitely been a brand new experience for me to be a part of both the Project Management and Smart Building Design team. It is also amazing to meet all the responsible team lead and supportive teammates!” -Jerry Lam, SBD and PM Team Member
Want to learn more? Check out our submitted video to learn about our engagement and interaction.
A 3 minute Video to Summaries Our Approach and Interaction in ECIC
Do you want to get involved and know coming events and opportunities?
join our slack workspace here to connect with the execs and other members!
Sign up to our mailing list here to receive updates!
Follow us on Instagram (cecauoft) and Facebook (CECA UofT Student Chapter)
Email us at: cecauoft@skule.ca for any qs/concerns/feedback!
Thank you for reading and see you next time!
Have a good day/night and stay healthy!
*For slack workspace, you need to have your uoft email to join! Please contact us if you are experiencing an issue!
Despite the challenges and restriction during COVID-19 , CECA held its 4th case competition virtually on Nov 10th! In this competition, we challenge student teams to present a 7min proposal to a panel of judges on how a community service facility can save energy. The facility is Christie Refugee Welcome Centre in downtown Toronto, the center provided emergency shelter for refugee families from all ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds for more than twenty years.
Prior to competition, all participants were given information on energy use, lighting, plug loads, HVAC and resident testimonials⚡. Each design team was asked to come up with innovative solutions to reduce 60% of facility’s energy use, along with financial feasibility and community outreach.
The panel of judges included U of T Instructor Ian Sinclair; Angelo Suntres (Ellis Don); and Greg Peniuk (IESO, CECA U of T alumni).
During the competition, each team presented their solutions, followed up by a Q&A session. At the end, participants had a great opportunity to network and ask questions to judges. The winning team is Margo, Eliza, & Joanna! Congratulations?!
?️We’d like to thank all our participants for the hard work and dedication! The exec team and judges are all impressed by the solutions and the detail of design! Great job!
?️We’d also like to thank our judges, Ian Sinclair, Angelo Suntres, Greg Peniuk for the continuous help and support! Thank you for dedicating the time to join us and offered lots of insights and valuable feedback! It is a great opportunity for students to learn about the contracting and building energy industry and expand networks!
Group Photo of Case Competition with Participants, Judges and the Exec Team
This is our final workshop of our workshop series! Our previous workshop are BEP, Lighting, Onsite Generation, Project Management. Check our previous blog posts to get the recording and slides/handouts!
The community engagement workshop on Nov3rd was run by our communications coordinator Nicole! The workshop focused on brainstorming with focus on building credentials such as WELL and LEED.
Thanks for reading! Please let us know if you have any questions. We will also be posting a summary of workshop series on upcoming newsletter and IG posts. Stay tuned!
We are almost coming to the end of our workshop series! What a wonderful learning journey! Have you learned anything interesting and want to share? Feel free to leave a comment below 🙂
The project management workshop on Oct 27th was run by our president Sarah! The workshop covered basic concepts of project management, such as making a Gantt chart and conducting a cash flow analysis . Sarah also shared insights on how leadership plays an important role in productivity! Check out the recording below to learn more!
Time flies! We had our third workshop on Oct 20th by our vice president Rose! The workshop covered PV system components, connection system, and an interesting activity. Rose also brought up some tips for solar retrofits! Check out the recording below to learn more!
We had our second workshop on Oct 13th by our co-project manager Mahia! The workshop covered types of lights, lighting units, data collection and measurement tools. Mahia also brought up many tips for lighting retrofits! Check out the recording below to learn more!
Here you will find our recording and slide about the BEP workshop!
We had our first workshop on Oct 7th by our co-project manager Moranne! The workshop covered energy audit, plug loads, HVAC appliance, electricity usage and energy analysis tools. Moranne also brought up many examples from our team’s past reports and her current work experience! Check out the recording below to learn more!
Here are also some Q&As from our audience regarding the case competition! Thanks for coming to our workshop!
Q: Will the energy audit data be given to us? A: Yes, all data for case competition will be provided when we release the info on Oct 12th. All data was collected previously so you do not need to visit the site for the case competition.
Q: Will we be able to access the score tool?
A: No, it is not required for the case competition.
Please let us know if you have any other questions and we are hoping to see you again in our coming workshop next Tuesday on lighting！Have a good rest of your day/night!
Time flies and here we are, ready for Oct and our coming case competition! The case competition is a great opportunity for members to know each subteams in CECA and get experience working as a group while learning energy retrofit, building science, project management and more! We have put lots of efforts and love into this competition and it will surely be a challenging and awarding experience.
Below, you will find our recording of the case competition information session. It gives an overview of the competition timeline as well as the workshops we will be running from Oct 6th (NEXT WEEK TUESDAY) to Nov 3rd.
Note that you can also invite your friends to join and make a group of 2 to 4 (your friend also needs to fill the sign up form)! Deadline to sign up is Oct 10th, 23:59PM EST. Can’t wait to see you all and best of luck!
Also, let us know if you have any questions by emailing ceca (cecauoft@skule.ca) or Nicole, our communications coordinator (kinhey.chan@mail.utoronto.ca).
