ASHRAE 2009 Student Design Project Competition

The ASHRAE Student Design Competition recognizes outstanding student design projects, encourages undergraduate and graduate students to become involved in the profession, promotes teamwork and allows students to apply their knowledge of practical design.

Your team must download the necessary files for the competition. Also, we request you register your team to participate in the competition.

ASHRAE sponsors this design project competition to encourage  students to become involved in the dynamic profession of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning, to apply their knowledge to practical design use, and to promote team work. This year ASHRAE has added a new competition category to attract worldwide graduate and undergraduate engineering students of diverse engineering schools (architectural, construction, building service, mechanical, electrical, environmental, technology, IT, business, management, etc.), to become involved in one of the most challenging innovative engineering approaches today in searching sustainability - Integrated Sustainable Building Design – ISBD.

ASHRAE will recognize the outstanding student design projects at next year's ASHRAE 2010 Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The student design competition’s guidelines provide enough background information to enable the teams to design or select the HVAC system for the given building or to develop through an integrated building design process the architectural design and supporting mechanical and electrical systems for the given program. Teams may compete in one of the three categories: HVAC System Design, HVAC System Selection or Integrated Sustainable Building Design – ISBD/Architectural, HVAC, & other Building Service systems Design)

ASHRAE recommends that the project groups consist of at least two members from an undergraduate engineering or architecture curriculum for the HVAC System Design and HVAC System Selection categories, and at least three members (architecture or construction, mechanical & electrical) from undergraduate and/or graduate for the ISBD category. Team members can attend different colleges. All team members must be enrolled in an undergraduate program during the semester/term they contribute to the design in the HVAC System Design and HVAC System Selection categories. Graduate students may only compete  in the Integrated Sustainable Building Design – ISBD. 

The report should include, at a minimum, the following:

• Statement of category criteria and major goals,
• Descriptions of how the design satisfied these criteria and goals,
• Descriptions of how and why the final HVAC system or integrated sustainable building design/architectural design was selected,
• Supporting calculations, and
• Relevant drawings and/or schematic diagrams.

Five hard copies and one CD of the all competition entries must be submitted to ASHRAE. Each entry, including narrative, drawings, diagrams, calculations, and appendices must be no longer than 35 pages The deadline for entries is May 8, 2009. (See time schedule modifications for the ISBD/Arch category international entries)

It is imperative that the following information be included on the first page of your entry:

• Title of project
• Team members’ names
• Present addresses and telephone numbers
• Permanent addresses and telephone numbers
• Current e-mail addresses
• Students’ status (e.g., junior, senior, etc.)
• Students’ majors
• Date of anticipated graduation
• School name and address
• Faculty advisor’s name, address, telephone number
• Students’ signatures and date
• Faculty advisor’s signature and date

If this information is not included, ASHRAE will have no way of contacting the team members.

Evaluation Schedule

What is the Evaluation Time Schedule? 

There will be four levels of evaluation. Evaluators at all levels will judge the design project reports, not only for content, but also for compliance with the contest rules. Note that teams from Regions XIII and Region at large (International teams) may request extensions to coordinate with their university schedules.

May 8, 2009
Deadline for submitting entry to local ASHRAE Chapter Student Activities Chair. Please forward international entries directly to ASHRAE Asst. Manager of Student Activities, 1791 Tullie Circle NE, Atlanta, GA 30329 by May 8, 2009.

NOTE: All international entries in the ISBD/Architectural Design Category are due directly to ASHRAE Asst. Manager of Student Activities by June 5, 2009. ONLY ELECTRONIC ENTRIES ACCEPTED - tholman@ashrae.org. ISBD entries in the United States must adhere to the May 8, 2009 deadline and must submit five paper copies and one CD as original instructions state.

May 15, 2009
Deadline for local ASHRAE Chapter to forward the best entry in each category to Student Activities Committee Regional Vice Chair for Student Activities.

May 22, 2009
Deadline for Student Activities Regional Vice Chair for Student Activities to forward the best entry in each category to Society Student Design Project Competition Subcommittee.

June 19, 2009
Society level competition under the direction of the Student Activities Student Project Competition Subcommittee Chair will select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each category. Please Note: This level of the competition is conducted during Executive Session and is closed to team members and/or faculty advisors. Any violation of this notice can result in a team’s disqualification from the competition.

August 7, 2009
Winners are announced no later than this date. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for each category are selected.

Awards

Awards will be presented to the winners of each of the three competition subcategories as follows:

• A list of the 2008 winners is available here.

First Place: $1,500 Plus a representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the ASHRAE 2010 winter meeting in Orlando, Florida, where the award will be presented.

Second Place : A representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the 2010 winter meeting in Orlando, Florida, where the award will be presented.

Third Place : A representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the 2010 winter meeting in Orlando, Florida, where the award will be presented.

Permission to Release, Produce, and Copyright

By participating in the ASHRAE 2009 Student Design Competition, the student design competition team member grants and assigns to ASHRAE or its agent the rights, whole or in part, to release the project. These rights include reproduction, translation, and citation. It is understood that ASHRAE does not accept responsibility for any content within the presentation that may be found to be libelous, infringing on copyright or other intellectual property rights, invading individual privacy or to be otherwise unlawful.

Project Guidelines

The ASHRAE 2009 Student Design Competition features a 15,650 ft² office building. The original project was designed for the Nashville, TN area. The office building includes:

• First floor parking
• Second floor retail and office space
• Third floor office space

The teams may compete in one of the three categories: HVAC System Design, HVAC System Selection, or Integrated Sustainable Building Design/Architectural Design.

HVAC Systems Design– For students at schools with only 1-3 HVAC courses. Focuses on "right-sizing" HVAC equipment and systems to provide an energy efficient design for the facility. Students are required to determine heating and cooling loads, and design an HVAC system for the office tower while complying with ASHRAE Standards 55-2004, 62.1-2004 and 90.1- 2004.

HVAC Systems Selection– For all undergraduate students. Encourages students with a solid HVAC base to use life-cycle cost process to select the building HVAC system(s) as well as incorporate the sustainability process promoted by ASHRAE by integrating the US Green Building Council's LEED™ Rating System (or equivalent in the home country of international students.)

Integrated Sustainable Building Design/Architectural Design HVAC & other Building Service Systems –  For a team of architectural and engineering students. Graduate students may also compete in this category only.  Teams are asked to design their own building for the program described in the effort to approach a Zero energy building.  Students will be asked to document select LEED credits (or equivalent energy rating system in their home country) to measure how their design meets the sustainability goals.  An emphasis in ISBD or whole building design is on architectural, construction, mechanical, electrical and other technical systems integrated approach throughout the design process. 

Student Design Competition Judging Criteria

   HVAC System Design

   HVAC System Selection  

   Integrated Sustainable Building Design/Architectural Design Criteria

Questions?

Please submit your questions here.
Please allow 2 - 5 business days for a response.