Oakland, California, December 18, 2015 – The BEST Center (Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow) will host community college faculty from 16 states at a 4-day Annual Institute to be held at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center and Laney College. The event will be held from January 6 – 9, 2016 and is organized by the BEST Center, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Center of Excellence based at Laney College.
Day One will be at Berkeley Lab, an internationally recognized global leader in energy-efficient technologies and home to FLEXLAB™ the world’s most advanced building efficiency test bed. Faculty attending the Institute will tour FLEXLAB™ and hear about the latest research, technology and tools from leading scientists to improve their own curriculum and better prepare students on building efficiency and ultimately its contribution to the fight against climate change. The day will culminate with a presentation by Steve Selkowitz, Berkeley Lab Senior Adviser for Building Science.
Mary Ann Piette, Director of the Building Technology and Urban System Division and Director of the Demand Response Research Center at Berkeley Lab states, “We are thrilled to engage with the BEST Center’s network of colleges so that faculty in building science programs can benefit from the lab’s research in energy efficiency, providing them with tools, knowledge, and new approaches to train their students on managing buildings efficiently, promote new technology adoption by industry, and address building performance issues in the face of a changing environment.”
Day Two of the Institute will be at the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC), where faculty will learn from experts about research and emerging technology from Western Cooling Efficiency Center, California Lighting Technology Center and Center for Water-Energy Efficiency. The visit will include a tour of the UC Davis West Village, the Zero Net Energy Community so faculty can see first-hand the future trend to new living communities where efficiency and comfort are in balance. The day will conclude with a tour of a ‘living lab’ at Sacramento City College where students learn through manipulation of environmental controls of the building they are occupying.
Days Three and Four of the Institute will be at Laney College and focused on synthesizing the content from the previous days and how it translates to developing skills required by tomorrow’s high performance building technicians which have evolved to include computer proficiency, analytical thinking and the ability to understand the interrelationships between building systems to manage high performance buildings.
Peralta Community College Chancellor, Dr. Jowel Laguerre believes that, “As the largest of the Peralta Colleges with 14,000 students, Laney illustrates stewardship in career technical education as demonstrated through the work of the BEST Center providing exemplary professional development programs for community colleges throughout the nation. This center will educate and train the workforce of the future and we are proud that Peralta is among the institutions exerting environmental and social leadership.”
Dr. Celeste Carter, National Science Foundation Lead Program Manager for Advanced Technological Education, (ATE) indicates that, “The BEST Center is leveraging the country’s centers of excellence in advanced technology by working with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California to share their expertise with faculty who are training our future workforce of high performance building technicians.”
The BEST Center is helping community colleges nationwide expand building technician education in residential and commercial HVAC and building automation control as their primary objective. Engaging science and industry furthers this goal by keeping educators apprised of cutting edge technology in their field. BEST Center also works actively to increase the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) pipeline of high school students coming into this field.
For more information go to: www.bestctr.org; www.laney.edu; www.nsf.gov; www.lbl.gov
Media Contact: Pamela Wallace, BEST Center Director
900 Fallon Street, Library 307
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 464-3248
pwallace at peralta.edu