STUDENT HONORS, ACTIVITIES, and NEWS

4th Year Chicago Trip
4th Year AE Students and Professor Pier Bandini (Architecture Department) pose for a group photo in front of Chicago’s new Trump Tower project. This tour took place on November 1-3 as part of Architecture 443. During this visit to Chicago, the students toured both modern and historic examples of Chicago architecture as well as visited several professional offices.

AE Students Shine at ASHRAE
Design Competition
A team of Penn State architectural engineering undergraduate students won first place in two of three categories at the 2006 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Student Design Competition.

This year’s contest focused on the mixed-use renovation of the Dallas Power & Light building in an historic area of Dallas. The renovation included converting the majority of the former office building into residential apartments, with retail space occupying the building’s first floor.

Bill Bahnfleth, professor of architectural engineering, director of the Indoor Environment Center and the group’s advisor, says, “There are three categories in the competition: HVAC Systems Selection, HVAC Systems Design and Architectural Design. Our team won the two HVAC categories. Participating students included: Justin Bem, Kevin Kaufman, David Melfi, Jon Gridley, Jessica Lucas and Yulien Wong.

The team was honored at the 2007 ASHRAE winter meeting in Dallas and received a $1,500 prize for each of the winning entries.

Founded in 1894, ASHRAE is dedicated to the advancement of research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education of the sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. The society boasts a membership of more than 55,000 worldwide.

Student Award

Michelle Benoit, an AE under graduate student, was selected as the recipient of the 2006-2007 Richard Harding Scholarship. Congratulations Michelle!

DBIA Student Group Wins ASC Competition
A group of students from our department won the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 1 Competition that was held Friday Nov. 10 to Sunday Nov. 12 in Fairfield, NJ. They competed against nine other schools including Roger Williams University, Old Dominion University, and Temple University. Penn State ranked second in the technical proposal and first in the presentation. Team members included: Travis Smith, Sean Flynn, Devin Learn, Brandon McKee and Kyle Conrad.

Simulating the real world, the competition requires the groups to prepare a proposal on a project, and then to make a presentation to the owner, which is represented by the sponsoring company, in this case Whiting-Turner. Students commence the proposal preparation at 8 AM Friday and must turn in their proposal by midnight. They then complete their presentation the following day. The experience is exhausting but exhilarating. Our team will now go to the national championship March 07, in San Antonio, TX.

Future AEs

Join us in welcoming Charlotte Anne to the AE family! Charlotte, born on August 26, 2006, is the daughter of Heather A. Sustersic and her husband John. AE graduate student Carlos Gomes and wife, Kristin have a new daughter, Sofia May Hoyne Gomes born on March 25th (7lbs. 6 oz, 20.5 in.)

Welcome Charlotte and Sofia!