HPBOP Trainings Wrap Up in Los Angeles and Oakland

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This year, BEST Center conducted High-Performance Building Operations Professionals (HPBOP) trainings at Mt. San Antonio College (Los Angeles area) and Laney College (Oakland). A combined total of 26 employees (from DGS, City of Oakland, Marriott, and others) successfully completed the coursework in October and will continue to share ideas and best practices with each other. Supported by the investor-owned utilities and the California Department of General Services (DGS), the 12-week training was intended to improve the knowledge and skills of existing technicians so they can increase energy savings at their own facilities.

Valencia College’s EMCT Poster Well-Received at HiTEC

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Dr. Lisa Macon, past Dean of Engineering, Computer Programming, and Technology, and big supporter of Valencia’s EMCT AS Degree development and Dr. Deb Hall, professor.

Dr. Deb Hall, Program Chair and Professor of Electronics Engineering Technology, Valencia College, presented a poster about the Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) program at the 2019 High Impact Technology Exchange Conference held this past summer in St. Louis, MO. The poster illustrated the latest updates from the internship program, lab features, and outreach efforts to vets and women. It was well-positioned at the entrance of a hall at the conference for maximum exposure. Conference attendees, including our own Larry Chang, were drawn in by the poster and had wonderful reactions to the information. Some attendees learned about the EMCT program for the first time while others inquired about internship and outreach strategies for their own programs. Congrats, Dr. Hall!

A closer look of the poster’s internship section

Pamela Wallace and James Bevins Retire

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Pam Wallace with her Afghan hound, Oba.

We are sad to bid farewell to Pamela Wallace, BEST Center Director. She recently decided to trade in her business-chic attire for something more casual. Pamela spent the summer healing from minor surgery and decided to transition to a life of leisure. We will miss Pam’s upbeat spirit and “can do” attitude. She asked us to share this farewell letter to the BEST Center community. Thank you for sharing your magic, Pam!

We also heard that long-time BEST Center member, James Bevins, AC/Heating/Refrigeration Instructor at Chippewa Valley Tech College in Wisconsin retired last June. Thank you for your involvement and dedication, Jim!

Bob Clark Named Regional Educator of the Year

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Bob Clark, 2019 Region III Post secondary Career and Technical Educator of the Year

The Association for Career and Technical Education has named Bob Clark, College of DuPage HVACR Coordinator as the Region III Postsecondary Career and Technical Educator of the Year. Read COD’s article.

As a regional winner, Bob is in the running for the National ACTE Postsecondary Teacher of the Year award. National winners will be announced at the ACTE’s CareerTech Vision Conference in early December.

Congratulations and best of luck, Bob!

HVAC Career Map now available

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An interactive map is now available to identify careers in climate control technology.


HVAC Career Map

From the website:
“The Careers in Climate Control Technology map explores an industry exploding with job opportunities in heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technologies (HVAC/R), describing diverse occupations across the industry, charting possible progression between them, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do them well.”

Fall 2018 Newsletter

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Teamwork makes the dream work!

We hope you’re having a productive fall season in your classrooms and labs and are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday. In this season of gratitude, we would like to thank you for your dedication to your students and their education. Keeping the forward momentum can be trying and BEST Center is here to help but there’s also strength in our peer network. Stay connected and support your fellow BEST Center members. Let Pam Wallace’s favorite mantra ring in your ears, “Teamwork makes the dream work!”

 

Here is what’s happening at BEST Center.

Apply Now for BEST Center’s 2019 Annual Institute
The 2019 Annual Institute will be held from Tuesday, January 8 to Friday, January 11 at Laney College in Oakland, CA, where we will focus on the development of project-based learning exercises.  Applications are due on November 30th. Apply now. 


Building Automation Systems Workshop VII
BEST’s 7th Building Automation Systems workshop was held this past June at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, NE. Faculty convened in MCC’s new, impressive Construction Education Center and took a deep, hands-on dive into a capstone-level exercise. In case you missed it, be sure to check out the presentations and videos.  


EasyIO Trainer and Trainee Opportunities
EasyIO’s introductory classes are in high demand and they plan to expand but first, they need more instructors. Find out more.


Summer Internships at U.S. Department of Energy Labs
Applications are open for Workforce Development & Education (WD&E) summer internships at 16 U.S. Department of Energy labs across the country including Berkeley Labs, BEST Center’s partner organization. We encourage you to share with eligible undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate students, and faculty. Read more.


Valencia College Launches New Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Program
In Orlando, FL, Dr. Deb Hall is proud to share that Valencia’s very first “EMCT Fundamentals” class began this fall. Melissa Boutwell also joined the faculty and attended her first BEST workshop in Omaha. Welcome, Melissa!


High-Performance Building Operations Professional (HPBOP) Training in California
Three separate sets of training, sponsored by investor-owned utilities and BEST, were conducted this year. Among the completers were 60 Facilities Management Division (FMD) employees from California’s Department of General Services. Read more. See photos.


Sporlan Training 
In August, the Sporlan Division of Parker Hannifin Corporation held an exclusive training for HVACR instructors. Keith Otten, HVAC Coordinator at Southern Illinois College was there. Read more.


2018 ACEEE Summer Study
At the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Summer Building Study, Larry Chang, BEST Center Manager, presented a poster display about BEST and the development of its future High-Performance Building Operations Professional Certification. Read more.


UN Climate Action Forum
As part of the United Nations Bay Area Climate Action Forum on June 26, Pamela Wallace, BEST Center director, facilitated a small group discussion about local acts of resiliency stemming from the impact of climate change. Read more.


Laney College’s “Smart Home of the Future” Summer Program
Laney College’s “Smart Home of the Future” Summer Program welcomed 20 high school students to explore building science concepts through clean energy technologies. Read more.


ACE Mentor’s Oakland high school team 
ACE Mentor’s Oakland high school team successfully completed its second spring after-school program at Laney College in Oakland, CA. Under the guidance of mentors from the building industry, 30 students from seven schools were engaged in hands-on activities. Read more. Interested in organizing one at your college? Connect with ACE Mentor.


“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”

– John McCain, U.S. Senator,
from his book “Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir”

BEST Center is funded by
a National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological
Education Grant
No. 1700705.

Summer Internships at U.S. Department of Energy Labs – Due Jan. 10, 2019

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Applications are open for all Workforce Development & Education (WD&E) summer internships at 16 U.S. Department of Energy labs across the country including Berkeley Labs, BEST Center’s partner organization. We encourage you to share with eligible undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate students, and faculty.

 

Summer internship applications are due on January 10, 2019. 

 

From the Berkeley Lab’s website:

“The Community College Internship (CCI) program seeks to encourage community college students to enter technical careers relevant to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) mission by providing 10-week internships at one of 15 DOE laboratories. Interns work on technologies, instrumentation projects, or major research facilities related to DOE’s ongoing research and development programs, under the guidance of laboratory staff scientists or engineers.” 

 

Additionally, Berkeley Labs invite potential interns to apply to attend an Internship Preparatory Workshop from January 17-18, 2019. The workshop is meant to give a sense of the breadth of research, world-class scientific instruments, and Berkeley Lab culture. Here’s the workshop flyer. 

 

For more information:
Undergrads can visit Community College Internships (CCI) and
Faculty should refer to the Visiting Faculty Program.
Check out an internship video from Brookhaven Labs in New York. 

Let us know if you decide to apply, and good luck!

EasyIO Trainer and Trainee Opportunities

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EasyIO’s introductory classes are in demand and they plan to expand into advanced and online training programs. First, they need instructors! Instructors are needed across the country who would like to conduct certification training two times (or more) per year. EasyIO would like to find people who are comfortable with the product line and interested in either conducting local training or developing online content.

Here’s more info:
EasyIO_Instructors-flyer.pdf (1306 downloads ) .
EasyIO-Sample-Training-Agenda.pdf (1252 downloads ) .
Upcoming basic training sessions.
Upcoming advance training sessions.

HPBOP Program in Images

Posted by & filed under BEST Center, High-Performance Building Operations Professionals.

High-Performance Building Operations Professional (HPBOP) Training in the Oakland, CA. 

Rooftop view of the San Francisco Bay Area from the Elihu Harris building in downtown Oakland.

Class of the Oakland HPBOP program in Fall 2018.

Carlos Santamaria (far left) holds an energy audit tour of the Elihu Harris building in Oakland, CA.

 

High-Performance Building Operations Professional (HPBOP) Training in Los Angeles, CA.

Students at the HPBOP program at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, CA.

Teaching at the HPBOP program at Mount San Antonio College.

News Release: Peralta Community College District and State of California Department of General Services Supports Global Climate Action Summit Goals and California’s 2030 Climate Commitment

Posted by & filed under BEST Center, High-Performance Building Operations Professionals, News.

Training Aligns with Climate Goals for California and the Paris Accords

BEST-Ctr-CA-HPBOP-PR-091118.pdf (1256 downloads )

(OAKLAND, CA) BEST Center is pleased to announce the start of its High-Performance Building Operation Professionals (HPBOP) 12- session program for a new cohort of energy and building professionals from the Facilities Management Division (FMD) of the State of California’s Department of General Services (DGS). Funded by investor-owned utilities (IOUs), the training is designed primarily for chief engineers, stationary engineers, office building managers and others operating buildings for a variety of departments such as the Department of Justice, Department of Motor Vehicles and Treasury Department. About 50 FMD Employees from Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area will complete the training, with Sacramento having finished in August; southern and northern California cohorts starting September 14 and 21 respectively. The HPBOP curriculum was developed by the BEST Center as part of its mission and in response to the high-demand for prepared technicians to manage new, highly efficient, intelligent buildings and retrofitted buildings in a greater effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The September 14 class will be in the Los Angeles area at Mount San Antonio College; the Bay Area class will be at Laney College (one of the four Peralta Colleges) and San Jose City College, and starts September 21, 2018. Peralta Community College District Chancellor, Jowel Laguerre, Ph.D. states, “Providing this training highlights our ability to train the incumbent and future workforce in a technological field that has global impact on climate change and our future.”

The training will aid FMD, which manages state-run facilities, by improving building performance and reducing energy consumption, which will contribute to California meeting its 2030 Climate Commitment. The curriculum was crafted with industry input and includes sessions on Information Technology, Whole Systems Analytics, BAS (Building Automation Systems), Commissioning, Continuous Quality Improvement to name a few.

“In September, California will host the Global Climate Action Summit in support of the Paris Agreement to exchange new climate change commitments from the global community,” said Jemahl Ämen, Deputy Director of the Facilities Management Division (FMD). “One of the six goals in California’s climate strategy is to double energy efficiency savings in existing buildings and I believe HPBOP training represents an essential step towards achieving this goal,” added Ämen. He went on to suggest that “A workforce with modernized training in building automation, information technology, energy conservation and whole system analysis best positions our workforce to operationally address some of the worst effects of climate change.”

Pamela Wallace, BEST Center Director noted, “It was very rewarding to hear DGS employees consistently emphasize the importance of this hands-on training which optimizes building performance and helps them with current and future on-site projects. Our instructors all have a lot of experience in industry, some of whom have managed facilities for the California State University System, the University of California System. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and Livermore Labs. The training is endorsed by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and supported by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Gas, and California Community College State Chancellor’s Office Sector Navigator for Energy & Utilities.”

About BEST Center:
The Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center supports publicly funded 2-year colleges with programs in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R), building automation controls, and energy/facilities management. Sponsored by Advanced Technological Education grants from the National Science Foundation, this national collaborative promotes state-of-the-art building technician education and dissemination of the latest research, technology, and industry collaborations in energy-efficient buildings.

For more information, go to www.globalclimateactionsummit.org; www.bestctr.org;www.dgs.ca.gov; www.scc.losrios.edu/met/

For more than 50 years, the Peralta Community College District has served the cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont by providing 30,000 students each semester with a range of educational programs and life-long learning opportunities. 

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Tags: California, Climate Change, Paris Accords, COP24, building performance