Category: Green Energy Challenge 2019

Last fall, the CECA U of T executive team wanted to improve our recruiting efforts for the 2020 Green Energy Challenge competition. We wanted to provide new student members with an opportunity to learn about what each subteam has to offer so that they can find where their interests fit into this competition. With that goal in mind, we held a series of interactive workshops for each of the four technical subteams in this competition: building energy performance, solar, project management, and lighting.

Building Energy Performance Workshop

The series started with the building energy performance workshop that introduced basic concepts of building science with a focus on the function of walls. We began by looking at heat, moisture, and air leakage as the main problem areas for a building that can lead to wasted energy, high energy costs, and discomfort for people inside. The students were then challenged to apply this knowledge to improve wall sections or to create their own given indoor and outdoor conditions. For these activities, we used our very own building science trading cards (some of which are shown below) to depict different materials in the walls and even got to borrow some real samples from our building science professors.

Overall, this workshop gave new students a fundamental understanding of building envelopes and got them familiar with strategies used to improve energy usage in a facility. This experience is quite useful now for these students as they work on designing building energy retrofits for the competition.

Solar Workshop

This solar panel system has been running since late 2016. It produces about 75,000 kWh a year, which is 7.5 times the energy need of a typical home in Toronto! The system is directly helping to offset the electricity needs of the facility everyday, with Toronto Hydro supplementing any extra needs (such as on cloudy days). The panels will continue to function for over 30 years, while the electrical equipment would need to be replaced in about a decade. This project is one of the many happening across the University of Toronto as the campus works hard to achieve its Low-Carbon Action Plan.

It was fascinating to hear about how this system has such lasting benefits on the facility and on the campus as a whole. It also gave our solar team a clear idea of the different components of a real system and the importance of incorporating safety considerations into the system design to facilitate setup and maintenance. We really appreciate the University of Toronto’s Sustainability Office hosting this awesome tour!

Project Management Workshop

Next, we held the project management workshop, in which students were given a theoretical energy retrofits project and challenged to create a Gantt chart project schedule with a financing plan. It gave them hands-on experience with organizing tasks in a way that makes efficient use of available resources and got them more familiar with financing tools for such types of projects. This definitely prepared them to apply basic project management tools for the competition.

Lighting Workshop

The series ended with the lighting workshop, in which students did a short lighting audit in the University’s Goldcorp Mining Innovation Suite. The students collected and illustrated data on the intensity of lighting in this studio space using an app that provides lux readings. They were then introduced to how lighting in such a space would be modelled using Autodesk Revit, providing them with great insight into the overall work of this subteam.

Reflecting on the Workshops

All in all, the executive team was very pleased with this series of workshops. It allowed us to spread awareness of the Green Energy Challenge and of CECA U of T within different engineering disciplines as well as other programs, such as mathematics and architecture. With each interactive workshop, new members got a better idea of how they could contribute to the competition while exploring their passions and developing their skills. This allowed us to recruit a team of enthusiastic and committed new members for this year. We hope to continue building on these successful initiatives to give every new member a meaningful experience within our growing club.

We’re going to throw it all the way back to September 2019, when the CECA team attended the NECA Convention in Las Vegas. The U of T CECA team was the top finalist, along with the teams from Iowa State University and Illinois Institute of Technology, in the ELECTRI International/NECA Green Energy Challenge and we presented our final proposal at the conference in front of a panel of judges, industry professionals, and other students from across the United States.

What we presented

Our proposal for reducing energy usage and implementing retrofits for Armour Heights Presbyterian Church in Toronto placed first in the first round of the Green Energy Challenge, so we were invited to Las Vegas to present our findings at the NECA Convention. Our proposal included retrofits to building energy performance such as the boiler and the walls/windows, lighting such as LED replacements, and implementing solar panels to achieve the goal of Net Zero! We had the amazing opportunity to volunteer with the children’s programs, play lots of fun and educational games, and teach them about recycling and saving energy.

How we prepared

As soon as we heard we made it to the final round, we immediately started preparing our presentation. We had regular meetings throughout the summer to prepare the presentation, practice, and plan. We wanted the presentation to be interesting, professional, attention grabbing, and not contain too much text or technical information. We did a practice presentation for our faculty advisor and her team of graduate students in order to receive constructive feedback and be well-prepared. Then we were off!

We arrived in Vegas on Friday September 13 and immediately had a student dinner and social where we met all the other students attending the conference, including Iowa State and Illinois. We enjoyed some food, learned to play golf, and had a blast. It was a nice break and a chance to forget the stress of the presentation, which was on Saturday. The team was very excited but also nervous to present in front of the judges and a packed house at one of the presentation rooms at Mandalay Bay Resort, but we were ready, well practiced, and we presented our slideshow without a glitch!

I am so proud to say that for the first time, the CECA Student Team placed 2nd in Electri Green Energy Challenge 2019!

The people we met and things we learned

Being the only Canadian team, we got to talk to so many people and share our experiences. The first night we arrived, we bonded with other students and spent time with them for the rest of the trip! We attended the opening ceremonies of the convention held at Mandalay Bay, which was epic! There was a stage set up in the middle of the pool and people mingling and connecting. We also got to attend some of the sessions, such as one about smart cities and another about women and diversity in the workforce, which was absolutely inspiring. At another session, our team got the chance to talk about how we joined CECA, what our experience had been, and the challenges we faced in terms of diversity and gender in the construction field. The convention ended with an absolutely incredible performance by Cirque du Soleil and their tribute to Michael Jackson show.

Our appreciation

All in all, the NECA Convention and Green Energy Challenge was an unforgettable experience. The CECA team appreciates all the support we received from our faculty advisor, sponsors, everyone we met, and the professional connections we made. We look forward to this year’s competition and hopefully we make it to the finals, fingers crossed!