2018 ACEEE Summer Study

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Larry Chang, BEST Center Manager, attended the 2018 ACEEE Summer Study and presented the poster, “National Certification for High-Performance Building Operations Professionals”. The display highlighted BEST’s mission and the development of its future professional certification for technicians. BEST was the only exhibitor to highlight the work of community colleges in the area of building technician education.

Click here for a PDF of the panel descriptions.

This year’s Summer Study marked the 20th biennial international conference on energy efficiency in buildings and was held from August 12-17, 2018 in Pacific Grove, CA. The event was themed “Making Efficiency Easy and Enticing” and aim to attract “a diverse group of professionals to discuss cutting-edge technologies, strategies, and programs for reducing energy use and addressing climate impacts”.
 
For more information, visit ACEEE.

Sporlan Training

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In August, the Sporlan Division of Parker Hannifin Corporation held an exclusive training for HVACR instructors. Keith Otten, BEST Center member, and HVAC Coordinator at Southern Illinois College attended and thought it was a great opportunity for instructors to get a better understanding of Sporlan products. The train–the–trainer program covered the following topics: TEV, hot gas bypass, EPR, CPR, oil controls, electronic controls, EEV, supermarket refrigeration, and refrigerant updates. The training was held at Sporlan headquarters and included a tour of the facilities. Keith valued the training for its “opportunities to share stories, experiences and support other instructors in the trade”.
 
For more information, visit http://sporlanonline.com.

Laney College’s “Smart Home of the Future” Summer Program

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This year‘s “Smart Home of the Future ” summer program at Laney College welcomed 20 high school students to explore building science concepts through clean energy technologies. They were introduced to the impact of buildings on climate change, and how newer technologies can improve the environment and building performance. Using hands-on labs, students learned about heat transfer, wired and programmed electronic thermostats, and experimented with wind turbine designs. According to one student, “I know more about saving energy, so I will certainly be bugging my mom about all the incandescent bulbs we have in our house.” Well said!

ACE Mentor’s Oakland High School Team 

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ACE Mentor’s Oakland high school team successfully completed its second spring after-school program at Laney College (Oakland, CA). Under the guidance of mentors from the building industry, 30 students from seven schools were engaged in hands-on activities and learned about careers in architecture, construction, engineering, and the building trades. 

Highlights included: 
  • A field trip to see the Golden State Warriors’ new stadium under construction;
  • Guest visits with the UC Berkeley architecture department and Laney trades faculty; 
  • A model bridge design competition; 
  • And a final project to propose re-designs of a local neighborhood park. 
Plans are underway for the Spring 2019 semester. Meanwhile, other BEST Colleges across the U.S. are also exploring collaborations with nearby ACE teams.

UN Climate Action Forum

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In preparation for the Global Climate Summit (held in San Francisco this past September), the United Nations Bay Area Climate Action Forum hosted an affiliated event on June 26. According to Pamela Wallace, BEST Center Director who facilitated a small group, they “primarily discussed suggestions for addressing resiliency in light of the imminent impacts of climate change with respect to catastrophic events that would impact the Bay Area.” There were 100 people who attended the forum in total. See the agenda and background documents.
 
Some suggestions were:
 

News Release: BEST Center and Metropolitan Community College host Building Automation Systems (BAS) Workshop focused on programming and networking for smart/efficient buildings

Posted by & filed under BEST Center, Building Automation, News.

(OMAHA, NE) – BEST Center partnered with Metropolitan Community College to host the seventh Building Automation Systems (BAS) Workshop for 30 community and technical college educators from across the country. Hosted on the Metropolitan Community College (MCC) campus in Omaha, NE from June 7-9, the workshop focused on networking and programming skills required by building technicians to be successful in future roles.

“As building management systems evolve, the skills required of technicians to service these systems also evolve. This workshop was focused on providing instructional methods and ideas for teaching some of the more complex topics in building automation, such as networking and programming to control and meet an established sequence of operation,” says Brian Lovell, BEST Center Co-Principal Investigator.

BEST Center is excited to partner with Metropolitan Community College, the second largest college system in Nebraska, because it is the leading building sciences educator in the region. Last year, MCC built the new Construction Education Center (CEC) which located all of the construction trades in a single building, from carpentry and electrical to heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R), plumbing, welding, and design, for the first time since the college expanded past a single campus.

MCC first began working with the BEST Center during the planning stages of the CEC and as part of its NSF Project Grant: Automate! which focused on the concept of using Building Automation Systems to contextualize Information Technology (IT) education and as an alternative career path for IT. The grant concluded but successfully proved its primary concept; additionally, MCC developed a recruiting workshop known as BoxIT where participants construct a rudimentary model of a strip mall and assemble a zoned heating air system and program the associated control system.

“MCC has been looking forward to the opportunity to host a BEST Center workshop since the first workshop I attended, hosted by Kele. It is our intention to become a beacon in our region for training of HVAC/R and most especially BAS; we see this BEST workshop as one of the first steps in achieving this goal,” says Robert Nirenberg, HVAC/R and BAS Faculty of Metropolitan Community College.

About BEST Center
The Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center supports publicly funded 2-year colleges with programs in HVAC/R,  BAS, 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.bestctr.org; www.laney.edu; www.nsf.gov; www.mccneb.edu

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1700705.

Contact: Larry Chang, BEST Center Program Manager, laneyect@gmail.com

Spring 2018 Newsletter

Posted by & filed under BEST Center, News.

Daylight Savings is Here, So it Must be Spring

The weather might make you think it’s still winter, but we can’t wait for spring so we are charging ahead to present new opportunities for you and your students. Here are the latest news and activities happening at BEST Center.
 

Apply Now for BAS VII Workshop

The Building Automation Systems VII Workshop will be held from June 7–9 at Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE. Applications are due on March 30. Read More.

HVAC Excellence Conference: Addressing the Skills Gap

Will you attend the 2018 National HVACR Educators and Trainers Conference at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas from March 26-28? Join Bob Clark, Jeryll McWhorter, and Larry Chang as they present at two breakout sessions “Current Developments in HVAC Instructional Lab Design” and “The ABC’s of BAS (Building Automation Systems)”. Read more.

“Women in Building Technologies and Trades” Webinar

Join us on April 26, 10am PDT (1pm EDT), for a webinar hosted by BEST and HVAC Excellence, and learn how to recruit more women into building technologies and the trades. Speakers include Dr. Deb Hall (Valencia College), Merry Beth Hall (PHCC), Telese Williams (technician, GA State University), and Samantha Lott (student, Sacramento City College). BEST Director Pam Wallace will facilitate.

BEST Center will Conduct HPBOP Training for the State of California

This year, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and Southern California Gas will fund High-Performance Building Operations Professional training sessions for incumbent workers. Conducted for the State of California Department of General Services, Facilities Management Division, the sessions will be held during summer and fall semesters at Sacramento City College and Mt. San Antonio College, respectively. Read more.

2018 Annual Institute Recap

Thank you to the 32 colleges that made our Annual Institute a huge success. Be sure to read Berkeley Lab’s recap. If you were sad to miss Bob Clark’s live presentation on the “Fundamentals of Building Automation Networking”, he kindly recorded a more succinct version. As always, you can find recordings on our Workshop Materials page.

Focus on Students and Faculty at Bestctr.org

We recently made our website more student-friendly. Our student resources section features fresh Student Success Stories and a robust search tool for career and job opportunities nationwide. Faculty members also have a new page with teaching opportunities provided by other BEST colleges. Please share student profiles and career opportunities with us, and we will add them.

ACE Mentor Collaboration Spreads

ACE Mentor and BEST Center are building on their collaboration that has spread across the country to create pathways from high schools to building technology and trades programs at two-year colleges nationwide. Contact Larry Chang if you want to connect your college to ACE Mentor. Read more.

Fulbright Scholars Visit Laney College

BEST Center recently welcomed Fulbright scholars from Bosnia + Herzegovina and India. Laney College President Tammeil Gilkerson and BEST Center leadership met with the scholars for a dialogue on the role of community colleges within higher education in the US, and specifically, the role that career and technical education plays in addressing industry needs while helping adult learners prepare for careers in high demand. Read more.

BEST Hosts Association of Facilities Engineering

BEST Center hosted the February 22nd meeting of the Association of Facilities Engineering (AFE), San Francisco Chapter, at Laney College. The organization’s mission is closely aligned with the work of the BEST Center in promoting better building performance through building technician education. Peter Crabtree presented current work on developing a national certification and training for High-Performance Building Operations Professionals (HPBOP). Learn more.

Silicon Valley Working Group tours UCSF’s Sandler Neuroscience Center

On February 9, industry members of the Silicon Valley Working Group visited the Sandler Neuroscience Center, a 237,000 square foot, five-story laboratory and clinical research building in the UCSF Mission Bay Campus in San Francisco. The tour was conducted by two former students of the High-Performance Building Operations Professional pilot training program hosted by BEST Center. Read more. 
 

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
― Jane Goodall

BEST Center is funded by
a National Science Foundation
Advanced Technological
Education Grant
No. 1700705.
 
To view the newsletter in a web browser, click here.

BEST Center to conduct HPBOP training for the State of California

Posted by & filed under BEST Center, News.

California Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) have long understood the importance of bringing training to the workforce as a strategy to reduce energy consumption. Aligned with this strategy, BEST Center has been focused since its inception on improving building performance by promoting building technician education in technical and community colleges throughout the nation. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and California Community College State Chancellor’s Office Sector Navigator for Energy & Utilities supported a pilot to develop training designed to bridge the skills gap in the workforce of technicians managing commercial buildings. This program has also been endorsed by BOMA (Building Owners & Managers Association). 

By improving skills of building technicians, the expected result is to improve commercial building performance and ultimately reduce energy consumption. Developing the industry-endorsed curriculum for the High-Performance Building Operations Professional (HPBOP) was very comprehensive. The initial pilot training took place over 12 sessions last year with industry professionals from the public and private sector. 

This year, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and Southern California Gas have decided to fund additional HPBOP training sessions for incumbent workers. The sessions will be conducted for the State of California Department of General Services, Facilities Management Division. Classes will be held in Northern and Southern California during summer and fall semesters at Sacramento City College and Mt. San Antonio College respectively. The course content areas are: Information Technology, Energy Literacy, Building Systems, Whole Systems Analytics, Systems Manuals, Building Automation Control Systems (BAS), Energy Conservation, Commissioning (Cx), and Continuous Quality Improvement. We are looking forward to productive summer and fall sessions.

ACE Mentor Collaboration Spreads

Posted by & filed under high school, mentorship, News.

ACE Mentor and BEST Center are building on their collaboration that has spread across the country to create pathways from high schools to building technology and trades programs at two-year colleges nationwide. Through ACE’s after-school program in Architecture, Construction, and Engineering, students learn from volunteer mentors in the building industry. 

In Oakland, the ACE team is being hosted once again at Laney College, where students and mentors recently met with faculty and toured the Carpentry, HVAC and Building Automation instructional labs. They also visited the construction site for the new Golden State Warriors stadium. 

Meanwhile, Georgia Piedmont Technical College in Atlanta is working with North Springs High School to bring its team on campus for hands-on activities. Elsewhere, BEST and ACE’s regional directors are helping to introduce ACE teams to nearby community and technical colleges so they can begin planning for next year.

Contact Larry Chang if you are interested in connecting your college. 

 

 

 

Fulbright Scholars Visit Laney College

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On Wednesday, February 28th, BEST Center was pleased to welcome scholars and staff of the San Francisco Bay Area Fulbright Visiting Scholars Enrichment Program to Laney College. The two Visiting Fulbright Scholars were: Jasmina Husanovic from Bosnia + Herzegovina who is currently conducting research on Cultural Studies at Stanford University, and Pradip Swarnakar from India who is hosted by the University of San Francisco where he is conducting Environmental Sociology research. Both scholars and other guests met with Laney College President Tammeil Gilkerson and BEST Center leadership for a dialogue on the role of community colleges within the higher education in the US, and specifically, the role that career technical education plays in addressing industry needs while helping adult learners prepare for careers in high demand.

Our guests also toured Laney’s BAS lab where Instructor Hadley Hartshorn described how students engage and learn about energy management through lab installations. Lastly, the group enjoyed lunch at Laney Bistro where student chefs prepared and served a meal that was to everyone’s delight. We encourage faculty in the BEST Center network to also consider welcoming onto your respective campuses/labs educators from around the world and varied academic disciplines to learn about the important role that technician education holds in US community colleges.