News

Daylighting for Cognition

In 2017, SyracuseCoE catalyzed a new study on the effect of daylighting on cognitive performance in the workplace. The study compares two different window technologies: conventional roller window shades and electrochromic glazing that changes tint in response to sensors or occupant control.

Study Finds Syracuse Has Good Potential for Transportation Alternatives

The findings of a year long study-FAST: Syracuse were presented at a public exhibition held at SyracuseCoE. The study identified multiple opportunities to promote adoption of multi-modal, sustainable transportation alternatives in the City of Syracuse. The feasibility of three urban mobility systems was evaluated by this study.

  1. Human-Powered Mobility through enhancing walkability and bikeability in strategically targeted areas
  2. Sharing Economy in the form of sharing of bikes and electric vehicles
  3. Public Transportation through better integration with existing regional services

A brief overview of the results and recommendations were presented by Dr. Tarek Rakha, assistant professor of architecture at Syracuse University, who led the team that performed the study. The presentation was followed by an exhibition of the findings, including public engagement for feedback and assimilation of commentary in the final report.

Dr. Rakha spoke to Chris Bolt about the study findings before the exhibition: Syracuse Center of Excellence Finds Untapped Potential for Sustainable Transit in Syracuse

The study, which was funded in part by NYSERDA and NYSDOT, was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, staff members and professionals, including individuals from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, College of Engineering and Computer Science, SyracuseCoE, Barton & Loguidice (B&L), Clean Communities of Central NY, Downtown Committee of Syracuse, and Hitachi Consulting. Project advisors included Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council (SMTC), CENTRO, Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, and the City of Syracuse.

PRESENTER:

Dr. Tarek Rakha is an architect, building scientist and educator. He directs the Performative Praxis Lab (PPL), a Syracuse Architecture research lab housed at the SyracuseCoE. PPL aims to influence sustainable practices in architecture and urban design by leading innovative research in three fields: sustainable mobility and outdoor comfort, daylighting and energy in buildings, and the use of drones in building performance inspection. Dr. Rakha is Principal Investigator on multiple externally funded projects, including FAST: Syracuse, funded by NYSERDA and NYSDOT, Daylighting for Cognition, funded by SageGlass, and Heat Mapping Drones, funded by the Upstate Revitalization Initiative. Prior to joining Syracuse University, he completed his PhD in building technology at MIT, where he was an instructor and part of the Sustainable Design Lab as a member of the developing team for umi, the urban modeling and simulation platform. His research was published in peer reviewed journals, such as Solar Energy and the Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America LEUKOS, as well as in numerous conference proceedings including Building Simulation and PLEA. He was also an invited speaker and critic by a variety of organizations and academic institutions including TEDxCairo, Harvard University and the American University of Beirut.

“So, if the public are not aware of what sustainable transportation means for their lives and their kids’ lives and their grandkids’ lives and for living in the United States in general then we might go in a path that is going to be favoring automobiles rather than people.” – Dr. Tarek Rakha

The students who worked on the project are:

Current Research Interns:

Christian Martinez, MArch (Alumni)

Michaela Wozniak, BArch and Geography Student

Previous Interns (2016-2017): 

Maria Coconato, BArch Student，  Elise Chelak, BArch Student

Deena Darby, BArch Student，  Anuradha Desai, BArch Student

Rutuja Ganoo, BArch Student，  Alice Gorodetsky, BArch Student

Ruting Li, MArch Student，  Stephanie Portmann, BArch Student

Pouya Zhand, MArch (Alumni)

To find more about interview, please visit http://waer.org/post/syracuse-center-excellence-finds-untapped-potential-sustainable-transit-syracuse.

A Public Exhibition at SyracuseCoE explains why in FAST: Syracuse – Streets are for People!

The public is invited to SyracuseCoE for a presentation of a “Feasibility Assessment of Sustainable Transportation (FAST): Syracuse,” a recent study on sustainable transportation alternatives for Central New York. The findings of FAST: Syracuse will be shared in a Research & Technology Forum and Public Exhibition at 3:30pm, June 22, 2017, in room 203, with a reception to follow. For those interested but unable to attend, a webinar will be available. Please register to attend in person or via webinar at the top of this page.

FAST: Syracuse explored the potential of sustainable transportation alternatives to reduce greenhouse gases and improve the vitality of Syracuse and Central New York. The yearlong study identified multiple opportunities to promote adoption of multi-modal, sustainable transportation alternatives in the City of Syracuse. The study evaluated the feasibility of developing, implementing, growing and promoting three urban mobility systems:

  • Human-Powered Mobility through enhancing walkability and bikeability in strategically targeted areas
  • Sharing Economy in the form of sharing of bikes and electric vehicles
  • Public Transportation through better integration with existing regional services

The study, which was funded in part by NYSERDA and NYSDOT, was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, staff members and professionals, including individuals from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, College of Engineering and Computer Science, SyracuseCoE, Barton & Loguidice (B&L), Clean Communities of Central NY, Downtown Committee of Syracuse, and Hitachi Consulting. Project advisors included Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council (SMTC), CENTRO, Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, and the City of Syracuse.

A brief overview of the results and recommendations will be presented by Dr. Tarek Rakha, assistant professor of architecture at Syracuse University, who led the team that performed the study. The presentation will be followed by a reception and exhibition of the findings, offering public engagement for feedback and assimilation of commentary in the final report.

7th International Building Physics Conference Invites Abstracts for Presentations

The 7th International Building Physics Conference (IBPC2018) has released a Call for Abstracts, inviting papers to be presented in September 2018, in Syracuse, NY. The online abstract submission center will be open from June 1, 2017 until October 1, 2017.

IBPC 2018 is jointly organized by SyracuseCoE, Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Syracuse University School of Architecture. The conference will be held at the historic Marriott Syracuse Downtown on September 23-26, 2018.

Building on successes of previous International Association of Building Physics (IABP) conferences—held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Leuven, Belgium; Montreal, Canada; Istanbul, Turkey; Kyoto, Japan; and Torino, Italy, the theme of IBPC2018 is “Healthy, Intelligent, and Resilient Buildings and Urban Environments.” It will provide a forum for scientific, technological and design exchanges through multiple platforms: 1) presentations of original research and development work and findings, 2) demonstrations and exhibitions of innovative green building technologies, and 3) forum discussions of future challenges and opportunities.

IBPC2018 will cover a wide range of topics cutting across multiple scales of the built environmental systems ranging from nano-material applications, to micro-environments around occupants, to rooms and whole buildings, and to neighborhood and urban scales. The goal of the conference is to advance the collective understanding of the nature and behavior of the cyber-physical systems in these different scales, how they interact, and what can be done to optimize their design and operation for healthy, intelligent and resilient buildings and urban environments. Conference topic areas include:
• Building Materials, Assemblies, and Enclosure Systems
• Green Buildings, Green Roofs and the Urban Environment
• Intelligent Monitoring and Management Systems
• Human Factors: Occupant Perception, Behavior, and Impact on Building Performance
• Indoor Environmental Quality (Air, Thermal, Daylighting, Artificial Lighting, Acoustical, Visual)
• Modeling, Simulation and Design Processes
• Innovative Energy and Power Generation and Management
• Policy and Economics
• Mission Critical Environmental Systems

IBPC2018 is the 7th triennial conference of the IABP. IABP conferences provide a forum for scientists, researchers and practitioners from all over the world to disseminate technical information, new ideas and the latest developments and discuss future directions in the fields of building physics.

COGfx Update

The researchers who conducted the groundbreaking COGfx Study returned to SyracuseCoE headquarters in February 2017 to report results from their second study, which examined impacts of indoor environmental quality on cognitive function of workers in office buildings across the country.

The initial study, conducted in 2014 at the Total Indoor Environmental Quality (TIEQ) Lab at SyracuseCoE, quantified the benefits of improved indoor air quality—including lower levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds—on cognitive function of office workers. The second study evaluated indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in 12 office buildings across the United States, including seven buildings that had earned certification in the LEED green-building rating system and five high-performing buildings that were not LEEDcertified. The study evaluated cognitive function of workers in each building by the same methods used in the TIEQ Lab study. Results found that green-certified buildings improve cognitive function in general by 26 percent and that people’s overall health improved by 30 percent, highlighting the health benefits of better indoor environments.

“Over the years, green buildings have grown in popularity, and now this study has proven the positive physical and mental impacts green buildings can have on tenants, creating an even greater benefit for investing in green certification,” says John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer for United Technologies Corporation.

Study principals participating in the forum included Joseph G. Allen, assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Piers MacNaughton, research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Usha Satish, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

NREL Smart Grid Educational Series: The Utility Smart Grid is in Danger of Prolific Cybercrime and Network DDOS Caused by the Explosion of Unprotected IoT Devices in Our Homes

The proliferation of IoT and connected devices in the home, offices and major industrial centers is exposing every utility and Smart Grid to unwanted intrusions and cyber-hacking. To make IoT devices smarter, they need to communicate over short-range low-rate wireless networks like ZigBee and BLE, but also across the Internet to cloud systems, creating an almost endless opportunity for cybercrime with entry points from less secure devices and rogue applications that control the latest IoT solutions. While artificial intelligence, automation, and Smart Homes provide tremendous life-style benefits such as energy savings, security, home care, or entertainment, the utility industry and InfoSec must lead the way in ensuring that our critical electric grids are not undermined when we need those most. Gartner believes that by 2025, the average home will have over 500 connected devices, controlling both mundane and mission critical functions in our lives.

Scott Wu and Richard Yim discussed the emerging threat landscape of the exploding IoT space and the reasons why attackers are surfacing everywhere, anywhere and anytime at a webinar held at SyracuseCoE on May 19. By showcasing several threat events, the webinar articulated why traditional technologies such as antimalware and firewalls are not the solution for IoT infrastructure, and why consumers and their utility providers should seek next generation IoT solutions for their homes now.

The presentation was a segment of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Smart Grid Educational Series, a series of educational webinars on smart grid-related topics, featuring speakers from the lab and the energy industry. The webinar was hosted by Erfan Ibrahim, Ph.D., Director of Cyber-Physical Systems Security & Resilience at the NREL, and introduced by Chetna Chianese, Associate Director of Research at SyracuseCoE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=BqLMMRJwXSI

Presenters:

Scott Wu is CEO of NewSky Security and has led many behavioral detection initiatives in security since 2003. He held engineering/research and management roles for Symantec, Microsoft and McAfee, shipped flagship products of Norton, Windows Defender and McAfee Total Protection, each with over 500 million users. His research team in McAfee spearheaded predictive threat intelligence system, enabling Intel Security’s foothold in APT hunting space. Scott owns multiple patents of behavioral and predictive intrusion detection technology.  Scott is a marathon runner and Cascade cyclist.

Richard Yim is VP Product Management for People Power Company. Early in his career, he helped design the first versions of Symantec’s antivirus and security solutions, going on to lead the development of Oracle’s database for Linux. Recently, he was VP and GM of IGT’s Systems Division, the leading provider of highly regulated and secure gaming platforms, for the world’s largest casinos. Previously, he was Vice President Marketing, Platforms and Ecosystems at SAP. Protecting what’s most valuable to all of us, our homes and families is a passion he shares with his teams at People Power today. In his spare time, Richard enjoys networking with the AI and IoT communities in the Bay Area, and building tree houses.

Industry Partners Innovation: Standard Hydrogen

Hydrogen Infrastructure

California is leading the way in zero-emission vehicle transportation, with more than 2,000 automobiles on the road powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which have a range of 300 to 400 miles and can refuel in three to five minutes. While at least three automakers—Toyota, Kia, and Honda— manufacture hydrogen fuel cell models, the lack of infrastructure to refuel these vehicles prohibits their wide-scale adoption. It’s a problem Paul Mutolo is tackling in New York State.

Along with two business partners, Mutolo founded Standard Hydrogen Corporation in 2012. Initially, the company won a $3 million federal award to bring a fuel cell bus to Ithaca, which would have been the first deployment of a fuel cell bus in the state. But the grant only paid for the bus itself. When the team failed to raise funds for a hydrogen fueling station—due to perceived lack of demand—they had to give the bus back, forcing the company to rethink its business model.

“We realized that we needed to diversify and make sure there was something else we could do with the infrastructure besides serve vehicles,” says Mutolo. That was an unintended blessing. In California, hydrogen stations provide fuel from storage tanks, similar to conventional gas stations. Standard Hydrogen developed a new system to produce hydrogen on site. The goal is to develop a sustainable hydrogen infrastructure to fuel vehicles and to use that infrastructure to help support the power grid across the state.

“After Hurricane Sandy, a lot of cellphone towers were the only things that remained up and running around the New York City area, and that was because they were backed up by fuel cell power units,” explains Mutolo. “That’s exactly what we’re doing, just on a larger scale.”
Standard Hydrogen has a proprietary design for the technology and is looking to build a demonstration station in New York State.

“SyracuseCoE has helped us validate our idea for functionality on the grid and for being able to generate revenues from the grid. With their support, we advanced critical conversations with Con Edison and National Grid,” he says.

An award from SyracuseCoE’s Innovation Fund helped the team develop a print and digital media campaign to educate stakeholders
about hydrogen fuel cell technology and the advantages of this dual-use, multi-revenue station.

Says Mutolo, “New York has goals to replace several million conventional vehicles with zero-emission vehicles over the next several years and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are part of that solution. Standard Hydrogen is helping New York achieve this essential goal.”

Hybrid-Reality for Environmental Design

In an era where smart cities, intelligent buildings, and responsive environments will be expected to equally adapt to the built environment and to the building occupant, the development of new design tools and energy feedback systems are critical for predicting the aesthetic and performance impacts of our future buildings and cities. How will architects, engineers, and city planners visualize and integrate the quantitative and qualitative effects of dynamic energy flows in accordance with adaptable systems and diverse human preferences? Visualizing energy-based data according to multiple perspectives and performance criteria is essential to understanding its spatiotemporal character, impacts on comfort, and relevance in the design decision-making process.

Assistant Professors Bess Krietemeyer and Amber Bartosh (Syracuse School of Architecture), and interactive artist and software developer Lorne Covington (NOIRFLUX) discussed “Hybrid-Reality for Environmental Design” through the lens of ongoing design research at the SyracuseCoE Interactive Design and Visualization Lab (IDVL) and at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MoST). They presented collaborative work that explores innovative simulation workflows that merge contemporary techniques for energy modeling with augmented and virtual reality visualization methods in order to facilitate the integration of energy and user feedback in the architectural design process. Following the presentation there was a demonstration of the hybrid reality design research in the Interactive Design and Visualization Lab on the 5th floor of the SyracuseCoE.

Presenters:

Dr. Bess KrietemeyerDr. Bess Krietemeyer

Dr. Bess Krietmeyeris an architectural designer and researcher whose expertise lies at the intersection of advanced building technologies, interactive systems, and building performance simulation. She leads the Interactive Design and Visualization Lab at the Syracuse Center of Excellence, where her research focuses on hybrid-reality simulations for interactive design and energy analysis. She teaches studios and technical courses emphasizing environmental performance within architectural design. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Dr. Krietemeyer conducted interdisciplinary research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), where she received her Ph.D. in Architectural Sciences. She has practiced with Lubrano Ciavarra Architects and with CASE and Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM) on international projects that integrate next-generation building technologies. Her research has been published and presented in several peer-reviewed forums, including installations in New York City and in Troy, as well as SmartGeometry, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, ACADIA, Human Computer Interaction, and most recently featured in the journal Architectural Design. Her book chapter contributions include “Architecture in Formation,” “Inside Smartgeometry: Expanding the Architectural Possibilities of Computational Design,” and “Architecture and Interaction.”

Amber BartoshAmber Bartosh

Amber Bartosh is an architect and interior designer who has designed and managed award-winning projects for competition, bid & design build processes in the United States, China, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Her interest in sustainability as a standard for all design led to her 2008 accreditation by LEED. She has completed both gold and silver level LEED projects and served as project manager for Emergent Tom Wiscombe LLC, an internationally recognized architectural practice focused on the integration of biology, computation, and contemporary design sensibilities. Following her cum laude double major in Art and Architecture at Rice University she went on to graduate work in the M.Arch2 program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She completed her work at SCI-Arc with a Master’s in Architecture and the Alpha Rho Chi medal. Amber Bartosh is currently an Assistant Professor for the School of Architecture at Syracuse University where she teaches both foundation studios and representation courses focused on expanding the capacity of digital media in architecture.

Lorne CovingtonLorne Covington

Lorne Covington, Creative Director and Principal at NOIRFLUX, creates participatory environments that provide immersive exploration, education, advocacy, and improvisational expression. Lorne is fluent with visual and performing art, electronic hardware, embedded systems and all layers of software development, creates immersive responsive environments using cutting-edge sensing and software technologies. Covington’s work focuses on the intangible space between action and response, the moment-to-moment experience of involvement with a complex system that turns the act of viewing into one of exploration, creation and play. Recent projects include “Affectations” at the Kennedy Center, “Dancing Light Theater” at the MOST in Syracuse and the JournoWall Participatory Media Environment at the Newhouse School, where students and faculty can interact with large-scale visual information and sound.

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Research & Technology Forum Series 

SyracuseCoE offers regularly scheduled forums and networking showcasing innovative research, technologies and other opportunities of interest to stakeholders and community members. Past topics have included groundbreaking industry projects to modernize the HVAC systems at the Sistine Chapel, workshops to help state agencies develop funding priorities, and research on the impact of “green” buildings on cognitive function. To receive notice of these events, sign up for email updates at the “Join our mailing list” tab at the bottom right corner of the website. Visit the Research & Technology Forum page to see the archive.

SyracuseCoE Seeking Innovation Programs Intern

Interested in pursuing a career in energy or environmental research organizations? SyracuseCoE is seeking candidates to work as an intern with its Innovation Programs team. The team supports SyracuseCoE Partner researchers and companies with a variety of programs and projects related to our core focus areas:

  • High performance building
  • Indoor environmental quality
  • Energy and water resources.

The Intern will assist the team with the development of a weekly Funding Guide update for SyracuseCoE Partners and Researchers highlighting new funding opportunities available at the federal and state levels, as well as from non-profit organizations. In addition, the intern will support several staff members and faculty with the development of tasks related to ongoing programs and projects, including events, workshops, sponsored research projects, and development of project proposals.

Interns will develop hands-on research and communications skills through the support of Innovation Programs staff with various assignments: 

  • Research on grant opportunities, identifying those with potential to match Partner interests for weekly outreach
  • Production of weekly outreach to Partner firms and researchers on grant opportunities of interest
  • Assistance to staff on sponsored research projects and/or proposals
  • Updates to databases of Partners and stakeholders
  • Updates to content on SyracuseCoE web site

Additional requirements include:

  • Proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel
  • Ability to communicate effectively and respectfully with people at all levels of the organization, as well as with visitors from all levels of outside organizations/agencies
  • Good written communications skills
  • Ability to manage and prioritize multiple, competing tasks
  • Organized, with keen attention to detail
  • Ability to work both independently and in cooperation with others
  • Ability to understand/calculate capacity for new projects and ask for help when needed
  • Familiarity with and interest in environmental and/or energy issues
  • Familiarity with WordPress and Adobe InDesign valued, though not required

View the Innovations Program Internship application.

Check out our Students Page to learn more about the experience you can have at SyracuseCoE!

SyracuseCoE Hiring Communications Interns For Summer 2017

Ever wonder what it’s like to develop communications collateral for a niche industry such as environmental and energy systems engineering? SyracuseCoE is seeking hardworking and results-driven communications students to intern throughout the summer months. Interns will develop hands-on interpersonal and tactical skills through carrying out various departmental tasks:

  • Maintaining website graphics and copy
  • Supporting print and web-based design to include such items as: writing copy for news and outreach, designing flyers and posters, exhibits, handbooks and other publications
  • Coordinating and executing social media and emarketing campaigns in accordance with monthly communications goals
  • Writing and distributing press releases and other external communications
  • Contributing to the execution of SyracuseCoE and other events
  • Assisting in other departmental projects as needed

Student must have a good understanding and demonstrated experience with written communications, graphic design and typography, MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Proficiencies in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign) are a plus. Excellent communications skills, both written and oral. Knowledge of WordPress is preferred.

View the Summer 2017 Internship application.

Check out our Students Page to learn more about the experience you can have at SyracuseCoE!

Industry Partners Innovation: Cortland Research

Automating for Efficiency

More than 76 percent of electricity used in the United States is consumed in residential and commercial buildings. Central New York-based Cortland Research has developed a novel energy conservation solution for buildings with POUNCE, an inexpensive system of electrical sensors and controls that reduces energy consumption while maintaining comfort based on occupancy of a space.

“Temperature and occupancy are big factors in trying to improve building efficiency based on use,” says Steve McMahon, who founded the company along with his son, John. “Our system allows providers of environmental systems to make them more dynamic and realize savings based on the information POUNCE can provide to them.”

POUNCE is an affordable energy monitoring system that easily integrates into existing wiring via electrical outlets and switches. The web-based system allows users to view and control their system remotely, adjusting thermostats, turning lighting and appliances on or off, and
managing power flow to outlets.

McMahon started Cortland Research in 2010. “We had a vision that building automation systems would become commonplace and our idea could provide building owners in underserved markets better options for sensing and control, leading to energy efficiency,” he says.

Today, POUNCE systems are used by the New York City Department of Education in city schools, Corning, Onondaga Community College, and SUNY Cortland. McMahon attributes much of the company’s growth to assistance received through partnering with SyracuseCoE.

“SyracuseCoE understands the benefit of POUNCE Systems as a complementary component of air quality and energy conservation, and their endorsement of our products gave us credibility,” says McMahon. SyracuseCoE contacts led to important sales, including a new contact that is helping the firm extend its sales reach nationwide.

Cortland Research has received three competitive awards to date from SyracuseCoE, including two from its Innovation Fund and one associated with a regional initiative to grow Central New York’s industry cluster in Advanced Manufacturing of Thermal and Environmental Controls (AM-TEC). The latest award from the SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund enabled Cortland Research to complete engineering design of a CO2 sensor for the system. Via funding awarded to SyracuseCoE by the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to support the AM-TEC initiative, Cortland Research is implementing and studying point-of-use CO2/occupancy/temperature sensing.

Cortland Research installed prototype CO2 sensors into POUNCE switches installed in the Willis H. Carrier TIEQ Laboratory at SyracuseCoE, creating an interface between the POUNCE system and Carrier HVAC systems. The study demonstrated a potential energy reduction of up to 34 percent in office environments. McMahon says the POUNCE platform allows for many additional features.

“SyracuseCoE has been an incredible resource and we would not have come this far without them,” he says.

2017 Innovation Fund Call for Proposals Now Open to Partners

This call for proposals is closed. Check back soon for the deadline for fall 2017.

The Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) invites proposals to the SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund from current SyracuseCoE Partners for up to $10,000. The Innovation Fund is funded by SyracuseCoE Partner Program and is designed to support Partners’ efforts to overcome barriers to the commercialization of potentially transformative innovations. Projects must be aligned with commercialization of innovative products/technologies and focused on one or more of SyracuseCoE’s three core areas:

  • Indoor Environmental Quality and Building Energy Efficiency
  • Clean & Renewable Energy
  • Water Resources

Last year, the Syracuse 2016 Innovation Fund Award granted five companies a total of $36,199. This year, it is anticipated that there will be up to six awards.

To apply, you must submit the application below and complete and return the following documents by 5:00pm EST, Friday, March 31st, 2017.

Learn More

Faculty Fellows Research: Visualizing Stream Temperatures from Storm Runoff

Christa Kelleher

Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University

Published research for this project:

Airborne thermal infrared videography of stream temperature anomalies from a small unoccupied aerial system

Relative information from thermal infrared imagery via unoccupied aerial vehicle informs simulations and spatially-distributed assessments of stream temperature

Project: Monitoring longitudinal patterns of stream temperature and levels of storm flow along Onondaga Creek.

The Basics: Numerous culverts along Onondaga Creek funnel storm water into the creek, which flows into Onondaga Lake. Storm water is warm and typically raises the temperature of the water it flows into, potentially making an ecological impact on the biology of the body of water.

Nuts and Bolts: Kelleher is building visual temperature models with data she’s collecting through use of a thermal camera mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle. “Conventionally, if you wanted to measure temperature, you’d install sensors at various points along the stream,” says Kelleher. “The camera on the drone allows me to look at patterns and differences across the stream.”

What She Knows: Some of the water inputs are colder than expected. “There’s a natural spring coming in near the top of the study reach, which as expected, is coming in very cold. But there are culvert inputs along the way, some of which are warm and some are colder than anticipated,” she says. “These things just light up like a Christmas tree on the imagery. It’s great.”

Lessons to Learn: Other research of this type has been conducted in warmer climates, so Kelleher says it’s possible that thermal pollution may not be as big an issue in Syracuse. “We also haven’t done a test in the heat of the summer yet, so we’ll see how different things look then.”

SyracuseCoE Impact: A $10,000 competitive award from the SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellow Program allowed Kelleher to purchase the thermal camera, pay for a pilot to fly the drone, and support Syracuse University Earth sciences graduate student Sam Caldwell to assist on the project. “As a new faculty member in a variable funding environment, it’s been great to get support for a local project, both to help me learn the area and to connect with other researchers on campus,” says Kelleher, who is organizing a session on Water in Urban Environments at the 2017 SyracuseCoE Symposium.

Bottom Line: In the Eastern United States, storm water is a big concern that will increase with climate change and urbanization of the landscape. “The more that we can understand how storm flow changes water quantity and water quality, the better we can design structures or rehabilitate existing infrastructure to help things downstream,” Kelleher says.

Read more about the researchers in the SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellows Program.

SyracuseCoE Accepting Applications for Funding of Paid Student Internship Opportunities

SyracuseCoE is seeking applications from its Industry Partners for funding available through the 2017 Summer Industry Collaboration Internship Program.  The program supports paid internship opportunities for SyracuseCoE Partner Program companies to host a student pursuing a degree in science, engineering, or architecture. Throughout the course of the internship, the student will increase his or her knowledge and technical skills by engaging in hands-on work at SyracuseCoE Partner firms related to indoor environmental quality (IEQ), high performance/green building, clean and renewable energy, and water resources.

In addition to increasing the technical skills of students, the program also aims to introduce students to local industry leaders. Program goals include increased post-graduation student retention in the Central Upstate region and the establishment of valuable relationships between college students and local firms. Interns will be invited to SyracuseCoE networking events throughout the summer, and they will develop and present an end-of-summer poster showcasing the project(s) on which he/she worked.

To date, 31 companies and 93 students have participated in this program, which is supported by annual fees paid by companies that participate in the SyracuseCoE Partner Program. This year, SyracuseCoE intends to fund up to 8 summer internships at Partner firms, with each commitment providing up to $3,000 per company.

View the 2017 Summer Industry Collaboration Internship Program page and application.

Green Buildings and Health: From the Lab to the Real World

Dr. Joseph Allen and Dr. Piers MacNaughton of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dr. Usha Satish of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University returned home to the Syracuse Center of Excellence yesterday to discuss the results of their second COGfx study “Buildingomics.” After their initial project revealed a connection between indoor environmental air quality (i.e. low carbon dioxide and volatile organic compound levels) and cognitive function, the researchers wanted to follow-up by looking at work environments as a whole. To do so, they posed the following question: what impact does an entire building have?

Moving from the TIEQ Lab at SyracuseCoE, used in the first study, to real-world office buildings across the United States, the group compared and contrasted variables between high-performing non-certified buildings and high-performing green-certified buildings. Their results revealed that green-certified buildings improve cognitive function in general by 26 percent, but people’s overall health improved by 30 percent, shedding light on the health benefits of enhanced environments. Not only were occupants able to to strategize better, respond faster, appear more focused and manage tasks more efficiently, they were also able to sleep better after they left, showing the long-lasting impact better buildings can have. The difference between the two types of buildings? Controllable thermal comfort and lighting options.

At the presentation John Mandyck said he believes these findings are the missing piece of what he calls the “Green Building Trifecta.” Over the years, green buildings have grown in popularity, but now this study has proven the positive physical and mental impact green buildings can have on tenants, creating an even greater benefit for investing in green-certification. Soon, job candidates may be asking their potential employers at interviews: What are the CO2 levels in the office? What’s the ventilation like in the building I will be working in?

Presenters:

  • Dr. Joseph G. Allen, Assistant Professor, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Dr. Piers MacNaughton, Doctoral Candidate at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Dr. Usha Satish, Professor, Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University
  • John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer, United Technologies Corporation

 

Research & Technology Forum Series

SyracuseCoE offers regularly scheduled forums and networking showcasing innovative research, technologies and other opportunities of interest to stakeholders and community members. Past topics have included groundbreaking industry projects to modernize the HVAC systems at the Sistine Chapel, workshops to help state agencies develop funding priorities, and research on the impact of “green” buildings on cognitive function. To receive notice of these events, sign up for email updates at the “Join our mailing list” tab at the bottom right corner of the website. Visit the Research & Technology Forum page to see the archive.

Studies are Igniting a Healthy Building Research Revolution

The Syracuse Center of Excellence was recently featured in the May issue of the American Psychological Association as host of the original COGfx Study. The article — “Healthy buildings, productive people” — provides a summary of a variety of additional studies underway akin to that of “buildingnomics,” the latest report published by Joseph Allen and Piers MacNaughton from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with Usha Satish, a psychologist from SUNY Upstate Medical University.

The Well Living Lab in Minnesota and Hillman Hall at Washington University in Missouri both captured similar results to COGfx: that buildings do, in fact, have an impact on people’s behavior.

For the American Psychological Association, this is “big news.” The above research provides further evidence that the higher the indoor environmental air quality of a building, the better occupants will feel and function. And although we spend most of our time indoors, not a lot of attention has been given to monitoring those spaces. It’s why the research performed in SyracuseCoE’s Willis H. Carrier Total Indoor Environmental Quality (TIEQ) lab is so important.

The piece also highlights the fact that this type of work isn’t restricted to just engineers or architects, but also requires input from health-care practitioners and psychologists. Additionally, it’s equally important to realize that green buildings shouldn’t be reserved for our office spaces alone — the same strategies can also be applied to all buildings, like our homes, retail stores and restaurants.

These strategies include the following:

  • Bigger windows for more natural light

  • Controllable lighting features

  • Reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide

  • Increased ventilation, lower humidity levels

  • Increased water quality

  • Promotion of physical activity

Going forward,  the Well Living Lab researchers will be exploring “how various lighting conditions affect cognition, productivity and life outside the lab, including sleep.” Their research, combined with the COGfx studies and the research completed at Washington University, will most likely be used to better inform architects on how to design optimal work and living spaces, as cognitive psychologist Anja Jamrozik is quoted saying in the article.

Syracuse University to Host International Building Physics Conference in Fall 2018

Experts on the science and engineering of buildings will convene in Syracuse, NY in September 2018, for the 7th International Building Physics Conference (IBPC). This is the first time this conference is being held in the United States; it is coming to Syracuse based on the region’s strength in research, development and innovations related to indoor environmental quality and high-performance buildings. The conference is jointly organized by the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Syracuse University School of Architecture.

The theme of IBPC2018 is “Healthy, Intelligent, and Resilient Buildings and Urban Environments.” It will provide a forum for scientific, technological and design exchanges through multiple platforms:

1) Presentations of original research and development work and findings

2) Demonstrations and exhibitions of innovative green building technologies

3) Discussions of future challenges and opportunities

The IBPC attracts researchers, practitioners, architects, engineers, as well as faculty and students involved in building physics, who share the latest research results with the broader buildings community. The conference takes place every three years as part of the official international conference series of the International Association of Building Physics (IABP). The 7th IBPC builds on the success of the previous six conferences held at cities around the world, including Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2000); Leuven, Belgium (2003); Montreal, Canada (2006); Istanbul, Turkey (2009); Kyoto, Japan (2012); and Torino, Italy (2015).

“IBCP2018 will be the first time this international conference is being held in the United States. It provides an opportunity for more North American delegates to participate in this important international event” says Jensen Zhang, Chairman of IBC2018 and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University. “Syracuse University is honored to lead the program committee as the first American host for this transformative event in building physics. A multi-disciplinary team of faculty members from Syracuse University serves on the Technical Program Committee to lead the organization of the various Topic areas ranging from nano-scale materials to building and city scale energy and environmental systems.”

“Syracuse is the ideal location for IBPC’s inaugural US visit because Central New York’s industry cluster in environmental and energy systems has become an international leader with research strengths in high-performance building systems,” says Ed Bogucz, Executive Director of SyracuseCoE. “SyracuseCoE looks forward to welcoming colleagues from around the world who will share the latest advances in research and innovations for healthy and resilient buildings and urban environments.”

“Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is home to international leaders in research, development and demonstration of technologies that contribute to healthy, intelligent and resilient buildings,” says Teresa A. Dahlberg, Dean of the College. “IBPC2018 will bring together outstanding and accomplished thought leaders in indoor environmental quality and high-performance buildings, providing promising opportunities for future collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“Architecture is a practice in transition, and Syracuse Architecture is evolving with it,” says Michael Speaks, Dean of Syracuse Architecture. “IBPC2018 will address crucial issues in architectural practice. Our new faculty have a strong focus on the research and design of high performance buildings, and there is tremendous opportunity for impactful international collaborations at this event.”

The conference, to be held September 23-28, 2018 at the Marriott Downtown Syracuse (formerly the Hotel Syracuse), will cover a wide range of research topics cutting across multiple scales of built environmental systems ranging from nano-material applications, to microenvironments around occupants, to rooms and whole buildings, and neighborhood and urban scales. The goal of the conference is to advance the collective understanding of the nature and behavior of the cyber-physical systems in these different scales, how they interact, and what can be done to optimize their design and operation for healthy, intelligent and resilient buildings and urban environments.

IBPC2018 Session Topics include:

  • Building Materials, Assemblies, And Enclosure Systems
  • Green Buildings, Green Roofs and the Urban Environment
  • Intelligent Monitoring and Management Systems
  • Human Factors: Occupant Perception, Behavior, and Impact on Building Performance
  • Indoor Environmental Quality (Air, Thermal, Daylighting, Artificial Lighting, Acoustical, Visual)
  • Environmental Control Equipment and Systems
  • Modeling, Simulation and Design Processes
  • Innovative Energy and Power Generation and Management
  • Policy and Economics
  • Mission Critical Environmental Systems

More information on the conference, including an overview of the program and specific subject examples for each Session Topic, is available at http://ibpc2018.org. Sponsorship opportunities for the conference are available, and inquiries may be directed to tlrosani@syr.edu.

About SyracuseCoE

SyracuseCoE is New York State’s Center of Excellence for Environmental and Energy Systems. Led by Syracuse University, SyracuseCoE engages faculty, students and collaborators to catalyze innovations that improve energy efficiency, environmental quality and resilience in healthy buildings and cleaner, greener communities. Visit centerofexcellence.syracuse.edu for more information.

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private, co-educational, urban university dedicated to advancing knowledge and fostering student success through rigorous scholarship and transformative research. SU has a long legacy of excellence in the liberal arts and professional disciplines that prepares students to achieve personal and professional success and make a difference in the world.

‘Precision’ Medicine and Environments: Emerging Opportunities for Individualized Care and Comfort

 
SyracuseCoE and Central New York Biotechnology Accelerator (CNY BAC) partnered in a joint Research and Technology Forum yesterday that explored emerging approaches at the interface of health care and environmental control. The Forum included presentations by Dr. Robert Corona, SUNY Upstate Vice President for Innovation and Business Development, and Mike Wetzel, President and CEO of Air Innovations. The presenters offered insight about how to utilize precision medicine to customize healthcare and to take into account the biological, environmental and behavioral factors that drive disease.

Right from the start, many SyracuseCoE partners have pursued a vision for leveraging one of Central New York’s signature industry clusters to catalyze innovations in technologies for built environments that would improve occupant health and wellness. Synergistically, the Central New York Biotechnology Accelerator (CNY BAC) envisions building on regional strengths to advance innovations in”precision medicine,” which seeks to improve disease treatment and prevention by taking into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.  

Presenters:

Dr. Robert CoronaDr. Robert Corona

DO, MBA, FCAP, FASCP, John B, Henry and Chair of Pathology, Medical Director of Neuropathology/Pathology, Vice President for Innovation and Business Development, Central New York Biotech Accelerator, Upstate Medical University

Making sense of a lifetime of big data that each individual generates will allow us to better predict and prevent disease, personalize our health care, and engage each of us to participate in the management of our care.

Each individual generates billions of bits of information from conception, through fetal development, the birthing process and then throughout life until death. Newer technologies will be capturing new types of personal data that we may use to improve the quality of our lives. We produce physiologic data detected by our wearable sensors, laboratory data, imaging data, vital sign monitoring data, data from our genes and the proteins our body manufactures.

Can we build a learning health system that extracts data patterns from EMRs, gene sequencers, laboratory tests, medical imaging, social media, mobile health and e-health technologies? We will be able to forecast disease, predict outcomes and responses to therapies? The applications for actionable data are endless. This is the future of precision medicine.

Michael WetzelMike Wetzel

President and CEO, Air Innovations

Air Innovations has a long history of engineering environments to meet a wide variety of specific challenges. While many of our applications are for protecting sensitive processes or valuable goods, we are seeing more applications emerging related to human health and wellness. And access to individualized environmental control is just on the horizon.

Moderator:

Ed Bogucz

Executive Director, SyracuseCoE, Associate Professor, Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

 
 
 

 

 

Research & Technology Forum Series

SyracuseCoE offers regularly scheduled forums and networking showcasing innovative research, technologies and other opportunities of interest to stakeholders and community members. Past topics have included groundbreaking industry projects to modernize the HVAC systems at the Sistine Chapel, workshops to help state agencies develop funding priorities, and research on the impact of “green” buildings on cognitive function. To receive notice of these events, sign up for email updates at the “Join our mailing list” tab at the bottom right corner of the website. Visit the Research & Technology Forum page to see the archive.

Industry Partners Innovation: Avatar Sustainable Technologies

Processing Biochemicals from Paper Waste

As readership of paper publications has declined, paper production has shifted to serve the growing market in online sales and associated shipping.

“Packaging paper production in the U.S. has been growing at more than double the rate of the rest of the economy,” says Bandaru
Ramarao, professor of paper and bioprocess engineering at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and director of the Empire State Paper Institute.

Ramarao and his business partner, Bhavin Bhayani, are developing technologies to use waste produced during the processing of paper for shipping cartons to create biofuels. Together, they established a startup venture, Avatar Sustainable Technologies.

Most packaging is made from recycled paper. Recycling involves chopping up used paper, mixing it with water and chemicals, then heating it, which breaks it down into strands of cellulose, a type of organic plant material. The process also produces undesirable gritty fiber waste fragments. The fragments slow down paper machines and reduce production.

“The problem,” says Ramarao, “is that they are solid waste and you have to pay to landfill them.” Avatar has developed a process using enzymes to convert these waste fragments into useful byproducts that can be used to make biochemicals, including biofuels and bioplastics, essentially replacing fossil carbon with natural carbon in their processing. A project with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) could advance the technology further. NREL has engineered a new, more reactive enzyme that could speed the process at lower cost.

Avatar won a Small Business Vouchers Pilot award from the U.S. Department of Energy to work with NREL to conduct studies using this new enzyme. The investigation is also supported by a competitive award from the SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund. “This could lead to a better and shorter process, saving money and energy,” says Bhayani. Not to mention the boost the company receives collaborating with NREL. “We get exposure at a whole new level within the industry,” he says.

Avatar got its start in 2013 when Bhayani was a doctoral student at SUNY ESF and won $10,000 from SyracuseCoE in an award made through the Raymond von Dran IDEA student competition. The company is located in the SyracuseCoE headquarters building
and uses space within SUNY ESF’s Biofuels Pilot plant. Bhayani says it would be challenging for Avatar to continue without support from SyracuseCoE.

“This is a difficult time because funding in this area has dried up due to changing priorities of the current administration,” he says. “The SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund has helped fill the gap and keeps us moving forward.”

Lt. Governor Hochul Visits SyracuseCoE As It Continues Its Indoor Air Quality Research Efforts

New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul visited the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) again on Tuesday, December 13, to take a tour of the building and labs and learn about ongoing projects to study human health and performance in indoor environments. Hochul was joined by SyracuseCoE Executive Director Ed Bogucz for a tour and discussion of the research initiatives going on within both the Intelligent Control of Urban and Built Environments (ICUBE) and Willis H. Carrier Total Indoor Environmental Quality (TIEQ) Lab.

Researchers from Syracuse University, Upstate Medical, and SUNY ESF use the labs to determine how different indoor environmental factors influence human productivity and efficiency. The TIEQ Lab allows researchers to control environmental factors such as humidity, lighting, temperature, and sound in order to study and document how to improve internal environmental quality and energy efficiency. The factors are tested and documented within the ICUBE test bed, which is designed to simulate a wide variety of common settings in commercial office buildings, including cubicles, offices and meeting rooms.

Hochul was interested in how these research projects and facilities promote entrepreneurship and ultimately boost the economy in Central New York. The support of student researchers and entrepreneurs prepares them for jobs at companies within Central New York, and the facilities help to draw bright faculty members to Syracuse University and SUNY ESF.

 

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Faculty Fellows: Better Boiling for Faster Heat

Expertise: Energy conversion and heat transfer; Shalabh C. Maroo heads Syracuse University’s Multiscale Research and Engineering Lab.
 
Research Problem: Reducing energy consumption and improving per formance of manufactured goods through development of nanomaterials that lead to faster heat transfer.
 
Backstory: Maroo’s research hinges on fundamentally changing the boiling process. Experimenting with different nano/micro patterns on silicon and silicon-dioxide surfaces, Maroo and his team found they could increase the bubbles forming on the surface of boiling water, increasing heat transfer compared to smooth heating surfaces. With funding from SyracuseCoE’s AM-TEC initiative, the team was able to define the critical height of the surface pattern to optimize heat transfer, increasing heat transfer by 120 percent.
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: Maroo received $100,000 from SyracuseCoE in 2013 under an award from the U.S. Department of Energy in support of a regional initiative to strengthen Central New York’s cluster of Advanced Manufacturers for Thermal and Environmental Controls (AM-TEC). “That funding allowed us to demonstrate our experimental capabilities, leading to additional support for new research,” says Maroo.
 
Lab Report: Maroo is studying how the surface pattern developed under the AM-TEC award can be used within boiler systems to improve heating and save energy costs. Another area of research focuses on cooling of electronics. Maroo received an NSF CAREER Award in 2015 to investigate the fundamental physics associated with nanoscale meniscus evaporation and passive liquid flow to remove large amounts of heat from surfaces in very short amounts of time. Eventually, this knowledge could be applied to achieve next-generation heat exchangers for thermal management of electronics and renewable energy technologies such as concentrated solar photovoltaic cells.
 
Aha Moment: Studying the boiling process, Maroo’s research group has created a single vapor bubble in a pool of liquid that can remain stable on a surface for hours, instead of milliseconds. “This will help us understand and predict the boiling process further so we can design structures and surfaces accordingly,” he says.

From Idea to Market: Perspectives from Student, Faculty, and Industry Entrepreneurs

SyracuseCoE celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week with a Research & Technology Forum that featured three perspectives on commercializing innovations energy and environmental systems. Those who presented were a founder and CEO of a student-led venture, a faculty entrepreneur who participated in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, and a founder of a start-up company that brought game-changing LED lighting to sporting arenas across the country, including a stadium that hosted the Super Bowl. The presenters offered personal insights on opportunities and challenges along the paths of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Presenters:

Joe CasperJoe Casper

Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ephesus Lighting
 
Joe is uncompromisingly committed to creating a whole new evolution in LED lighting technology. He drives design and engineering solutions to deliver what the customer needs rather than what the industry has been making. Joe brings to Ephesus 30+ years of experience and career achievements, which include work with industry leaders like Motorola, Fairchild Semiconductor, Lockheed Martin and part of the startup team for WaferTech, a Washington state-based semiconductor facility he helped grow to 1400+ employees and $1 billion in revenue.
 

Yan-Yeung LukYan-Yeung Luk

Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University
 
Luk is a faculty member in the Chemistry Department of Syracuse University since 2004. With a few of technologies spun out of his laboratory, and with his scientific advisory experiences to two biotechnology companies, Luk founded LifeUnit LLC, a startup company that develops chemical innovations for controlling bacteria-related diseases and problems. LifeUnit LLC has won the Innovation Corps grant from National Science Foundation, and Luk is the acting Chief Scientific Officer for the technical operation of LifeUnit.

Joshua Aviv

Founder and CEO, SparkCharge
 
Josh Aviv, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SparkCharge, holds a bachelors degree in Economics from Syracuse University with a focus in Environmental Economics and currently finishing his master’s degree in Information Science, with a C.A.S. in Data Science. Josh is in charge of product development and day-to-day operations including establishing relationships with electric vehicle (EV) owners. Josh, an EV owner himself, has extensive EV expertise and has been in the industry for the past 3 years.
 

 

Research & Technology Forum Series

SyracuseCoE offers regularly scheduled forums and networking showcasing innovative research, technologies and other opportunities of interest to stakeholders and community members. Past topics have included groundbreaking industry projects to modernize the HVAC systems at the Sistine Chapel, workshops to help state agencies develop funding priorities, and research on the impact of “green” buildings on cognitive function. To receive notice of these events, sign up for email updates at the “Join our mailing list” tab at the bottom right corner of the website. Visit the Research & Technology Forum page to see the archive.

Faculty Fellows: Operating off the Grid

Research Problem: Develop alternative energy technologies that improve current thermal systems while reducing harmful emissions by furthering the understanding and application of fuel cells in the energy field.
 
Lab t0 Market: Joengmin Ahn and his research group are experimenting with flame-assisted fuel cells to convert chemical reaction with heat directly to electricity. The idea is to modify existing home furnace/boiler systems with flame-assisted fuel cells that could generate electricity while generating heat, allowing it to run off grid. “If you lose power, your furnace/boiler could still be operated to supply heat and hot water and also generate enough electricity to run your lights and your refrigerator,” Ahn says. When the power is on, the flame-assisted fuel cell technology can offset residential electrical loads up to 20 percent during peak hours of operation, reducing demand on the grid and the electric bill. “Flame-assisted fuel cell technology has the potential to provide a resilient and efficient solution for residents during power interruptions,” says Ahn, who has received interest from potential commercial partners. He has six patents issued or pending related to fuel-cell technology.
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: Ahn runs Syracuse University’s Combustion and Energy Research (COMER) Lab, which is located at SyracuseCoE. The new 1,500-square-foot lab was designed by Ahn and is equipped with state-of the-art instrumentation specifically to fabricate fuel cells, batteries, and other electrochemical devices and to characterize and test them with thermo chemical systems. In 2013, Ahn received funding from SyracuseCoE’s AM-TEC initiative, allowing him to demonstrate proof-of concept of the flame-assisted fuel cell and to publish several papers. Subsequently, he has received SyracuseCoE assistance with additional funding proposals; most recently, he won a competitive award from NYSERDA to advance the project.
 
Extra Credit: Ahn teaches a Syracuse University course on Fuel Cell Science and Technology for both undergraduate and graduate engineering students, one of the few of its kind in the country. The class is held at SyracuseCoE, including time spent in classroom space and in his lab. “Students go to my lab and actually fabricate and test their own fuel cells,” he explains. “It gives them hands-on learning experience working on real-world problems.”

SyracuseCoE Awards Funding for Six Research and Innovation Projects by faculty members at Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

SyracuseCoE announced today that six research and innovations projects led by faculty members from Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) were competitively selected to receive awards totaling $114,000. The projects engage a total of 12 faculty members from four schools and colleges at Syracuse University and SUNY ESF.

The awards expand the Faculty Fellows program that SyracuseCoE launched in the 2015-2016 academic year. Each faculty member who is involved in a project will be appointed as a SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellow for a three-year term, joining the ranks of 22 SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellows who were appointed last year.

Projects were selected based on proposals received through a request for proposals issued by SyracuseCoE earlier this year. SyracuseCoE is New York State’s Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, which is led by Syracuse University in collaboration with SUNY ESF, SUNY Upstate Medical University, CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity and dozens of partner firms.

“These new projects will engage faculty members and students to address strategically targeted questions that align with SyracuseCoE’s mission to catalyze research that accelerates innovations in environmental and energy systems,“ says Executive Director of SyracuseCoE, Ed Bogucz, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University. “We look forward to growing this program and the support it provides to the researchers throughout the region.”

“In addition to supporting individual faculty research,” noted Sherburne Abbott, Vice President for Sustainability Initiatives and University Professor at Syracuse University, “the SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellows Program fosters a broad culture of innovation and collaboration in support of the University’s research excellence initiatives.”

The projects, principal investigators, and their collaborators are:

VIS-SIM: A Framework for Designing Neighborhood Energy Efficiency through Data Visualization and Calibrated Urban Building Energy Simulation
Elizabeth Krietemeyer, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
Tarek Rakha, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
Jason Dedrick, Professor, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Thermo-Mechanical Fuel Reforming for Fuel Cell Energy Systems
Benjamin Akih-Kumgeh, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Syracuse University
Jeongmin Ahn, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Syracuse University

Air Pollutants and their Effects on the Syracuse Urban Landscape
Charles T. Driscoll, University Professor of Environmental Systems, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Syracuse University

Temporal Changes in Methane Concentrations in Domestic Groundwater Wells in the Marcellus Shale Region
Laura Lautz, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University
Gregory Hoke, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University
Zunli Lu, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University

Water Resources Quality in the Urban Heat Island: Exploring Longitudinal Patterns of Stream Temperature via UAV
Christa Kelleher, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences & Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Syracuse University

Valorization of Biorefinery Lignin
Biljana Bujanovic, Associate Professor of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering, SUNY ESF
Arthur J. Stipanovic, Professor of Chemistry, SUNY ESF

More information on each project can be found on SyracuseCoE Researchers Page.

The awards were made possible by funding to support SyracuseCoE actitivites awarded by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). The next request for proposals for the SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellows Program is planned for in April 2017 for projects beginning in July 2017.

U.S. Power Plant Carbon Standards and the Potential for Clean Air, Human Health and Ecosystem Co-benefits

Charles Driscoll and Kathy Fallon Lambert presebted the results of an ongoing project on co-benefits associated with policies to control carbon dioxide emissions from electric utilities by a boundary-spanning organization, the Science Policy Exchange. Carbon dioxide emissions standards for U.S. power plants will influence the fuels and technologies used to generate electricity, altering emissions of pollutants and affecting ambient air quality and public and ecosystem health. Three alternative scenarios for U.S. power plant carbon standards were evaluated for changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone concentrations in ambient air, and resulting public health and ecosystem co-benefits For two of the three policy scenarios, carbon standards for existing power plants can substantially decrease emissions of co-pollutants, and improve air quality and public health beyond existing air quality policies. A stringent but flexible policy that counts demand-side energy efficiency toward compliance yields the greatest health and ecosystem benefits, and a favorable benefit-cost analysis. The magnitude and the nature of the co-benefits associated with this policy were highly distributed spatially with all of the coterminous states receiving some health benefits and many states experiencing ecosystem benefits. Their work involves an evaluation of options considered for implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Power Plan. In addition to the presentation on co-benefits, there was a discussion of the Science Policy Exchange and the outreach effort associated with the project.

Presenters:

Professor Charles T. DriscollProfessor Charles T. Driscoll

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University
Charles T. Driscoll is a Distinguished and University Professor at Syracuse University. He received his BS from the University of Maine and MS and PhD from Cornell.  Driscoll’s research addresses the effects of disturbance on forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems, including air pollution (acid and mercury deposition), land-use, and climate change. Driscoll has testified at Congressional and state legislative committee hearings, and served on many local, national and international committees.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
 

Kathy Fallon LambertKathy Fallon Lambert 

Science Policy Exchange, Harvard Forest, Harvard University
Kathy Fallon Lambert directs the Science Policy Exchange and the Science & Policy Integration Project at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University. The Science Policy Exchange is a consortium of six universities and research institution (including Syracuse University) working at the science-policy interface to enhance the influence of science on environmental decision-making. Previously, Kathy was the executive director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) where she helped develop the Science Links program to bridge the gap between long-term biogeochemical research and related public policy. Kathy has collaborated with Dr. Charles Driscoll, Syracuse University Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering, on three high-impact projects that link science with policy: Acid Rain Revisited, Mercury Matters, and Co-Benefits of Powerplant Carbon Standards. Kathy holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.F.S. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is a Switzer Fellow, Leopold Schepp Scholar and recipient of the U.S. EPA Environmental Merit Award. 
 

 

Research & Technology Forum Series 

SyracuseCoE offers regularly scheduled forums and networking showcasing innovative research, technologies and other opportunities of interest to stakeholders and community members. Past topics have included groundbreaking industry projects to modernize the HVAC systems at the Sistine Chapel, workshops to help state agencies develop funding priorities, and research on the impact of “green” buildings on cognitive function. To receive notice of these events, sign up for email updates at the “Join our mailing list” tab at the bottom right corner of the website. Visit the Research & Technology Forum page to see the archive.

Faculty Fellows: Enabling New Combustion System Development

Expertise: Aerodynamics and propulsion, energy conversion and heat transfer, and fluid mechanics.

Research Problem: Enabling the design of advanced combustion systems through models of renewable and clean fuels to contribute to a more sustainable energy economy. Ben Akih-Kumgeh uses experiments and computations to study the physical and chemical processes that occur during energy conversion with a special focus on the combustion behavior of alternative fuels.
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: Akih-Kumgeh directs Syracuse University’s Thermodynamics and Combustion Lab, located in the lab wing at SyracuseCoE. He designed the lab, which has been operational since December 2014, specifically to accommodate the 10-meter shock tube used in combustion experiments, as well as equipment to investigate flame propagation. SyracuseCoE provided funding that enabled him to purchase a laser used to quantify pollutant formation during combustion events. “Combustion research is not only concerned with engines but also with its effects on the environment. Our location at SyracuseCoE is of great benefit to my students; they can put their research in the broader context of energy and environmental systems,” Akih-Kumgeh says.
 
Research Method:
The shock tube allows Akih-Kumgeh and his students to create very clean conditions of high temperature and pressure to characterize the ignition behavior of promising fuels. Engines operate at various conditions and the research focuses on how these conditions affect ignition. Physical experiments are used to test and improve mathematical models that can predict ignition behavior under a wide number of conditions, eliminating the need to build expensive experiments to test every condition. “Computational analysis of complex processes like combustion allows you to reduce the amount of time needed to develop or modify a cleaner and more efficient engine,” Akih-Kumgeh says. Akih-Kumgeh’s team is also studying the chemical compounds formed during the combustion process—such as carbon monoxide—including how much remains once the combustion process has finished. “We can quantify and compare the emissions of different fuels with the idea of reducing the emission of carbon monoxide into the environment,” he says.
 
Lab to Market:
Akih-Kumgeh says the same combustion principles that apply to automobiles, jet engines, and rockets can be applied to boilers and residential furnaces that use natural gas. “If you want to increase the use of biofuels inside these systems, then you need to know how the combustion behavior would change and make sure the emissions from that particular modification are within the required limits,” he says.

2016 SyracuseCoE Student Poster Competition Winners

Nine student presentations on research and innovation projects win awards at 16th annual SyracuseCoE Symposium

SyracuseCoE today announced the winners of its annual competition for presentations of student research and innovation projects. Thirty-three students from four academic institutions presented posters in the competition, which was held in conjunction with SyracuseCoE’s 16th annual Symposium. Projects addressed topics including:

  • Advanced building technologies
  • Clean and renewable energy
  • Design resilience
  • Healthy buildings
  • Indoor environmental quality
  • Recycling strategies
  • Sustainable urban design
  • Water resource management

Students from Syracuse University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), Clarkson University, and Rochester Institute of Technology presented posters. Students’ presentations were evaluated on the information presented about their projects, the layout and design of their posters, and their knowledge and ability to answer questions from the judges. Judges met with each student for 5-10 minutes to discuss their projects.

“The students did outstanding jobs addressing complex and important topics related to environmental and energy systems,” said Edward Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University. “We applaud their accomplishments and look forward to supporting their success in the future.”

Posters were judged in three categories: undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. Winners were:

Undergraduate winners:

1st Place: Bryan Morris, Mechanical Engineering major, Syracuse University, “Design and Testing of a Micro Scroll Compressor”; Faculty advisor: H. Ezzat Khalifa.

2nd Place: Olivia Chen, Chemical Engineering major, Syracuse University, “UV Method for Total Mercury Analysis”; Faculty advisor: Charles Driscoll.

3rd Place: Joshua Saxton, Civil Engineering major, Syracuse University, “Design and calibration of a rainfall simulator for plot scale experiments”; Faculty advisor: Cliff Davidson

Master’s winners:

1st Place: Matthew Rushby, M.S. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major, Syracuse University, “Exploring the Performance of Dual-Phase Oxygen Transport Membranes for Carbon Capture Purposes”; Faculty advisor: Jeongmin Ahn.

2nd Place: Leah Harnish, M.S. Environmental Studies major, SUNY ESF, “Comparing Water Source Knowledge in Cities that exceed the Lead Action Level”; Faculty advisor: Sharon Moran.

3rd Place: Sebastien Simonnet & Christine Robillard, Master of Architecture I majors, “Light Breeze”; Faculty advisors: David Shanks and Bess Krietemeyer.

PhD winners:

1st place: Meng Kong, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. candidate, Syracuse University, “Modeling and Experimental Study of Using Micro-environment Control for Thermal Comfort”; Faculty advisors: Jianshun Zhang, Thong Dang and H. Ezzat Khalifa

2nd Place Ryan Milcarek, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. candidate, “Flame-Assisted Fuel Cells for Combined Heat and Power and Jet Engine Applications”; Faculty advisor: Jeongmin Ahn

3rd Place: Kristina Gutchess & Shannon Garvin, Earth Sciences students, Syracuse University, “Increased salinity in central New York headwater catchments associated with long-term road salt application”; Faculty advisors: Laura Lautz, Zunli Lu, and Li Jin (SUNY-Cortland).

Poster judges included Yahya Al Rayyes, HealthWay Home Products; Vincent Bongio, SBB, Inc.; Joseph Borowiec, NYSERDA; Aimee Clinckhammer, NYS DEC; Robert DelZoppo, SRC, Inc.; Hugh Henderson, CDH Energy; Peter King, King + King Architects; and Lawrence Wetzel, Air Innovations.

Click here to view a pdf of all of the student abstracts submitted for the 2016 SyracuseCoE Symposium Student Poster Competition.

SyracuseCoE Invites Applications for 2016-17 Faculty Fellows Program and Announces 2015-2016 Faculty Fellows

SyracuseCoE—New York State’s Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems—recently launched a new round of its Faculty Fellows Program. The intent of the program is to strengthen faculty scholarship in SyracuseCoE’s core technical areas: clean and renewable energy, indoor environmental quality, and water resources. The Faculty Fellows Program will fund projects to provide research leadership to SyracuseCoE and support engagements with academic and industry partners.

For the 2016-2017 Academic Year, SyracuseCoE is opening the Faculty Fellows Program to all faculty at SyracuseCoE Partner institutions Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University (UMU), and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). SyracuseCoE has released a Request For Proposals and intends to award up to $100,000 in this round. The deadline for applications is October 2, 2016.

The following Syracuse University faculty were designated as Faculty Fellows for the 2015-2016 Academic year in the first round of the Faculty Fellows program:

  • Jeongmin Ahn – Associate Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Ben Akih-Kumgeh – Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Amber Bartosh – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
  • Don Carr – Professor, College of Visual + Performing Arts
  • David Chandler – Associate Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Hamid Dalir – Associate Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Thong Dang – Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Cliff Davidson – Thomas C. and Colleen L. Wilmot Professor of Engineering, Environmental Engineering Program Director, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Jason Dedrick – Professor, School of Information Studies
  • Charles Driscoll – University Professor of Environmental Systems and Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Melissa Green – Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science. Syracuse University
  • Chris Johnson – Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • H. Ezzat Khalifa – NYSTAR Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Bess Krietemeyer – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
  • Laura Lautz – Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Shalabh Maroo – Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Todd Moss – Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Faculty Director and Sustainable Enterprise Partnership, Whitman School of Management
  • Daekwon Park – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
  • Tarek Rakha – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
  • Pete Wilcoxen – Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
  • Teng Zeng – Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science
  • Jianshun Zhang – Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science

 

 

 

16th ANNUAL SYRACUSECOE SYMPOSIUM Transforming Design and Energy for a Sustainable and Resilient Future

Square News Graphic

SyracuseCoE will host its 16th annual Symposium next week, featuring advances in research and technology that are transforming design and energy for sustainable and resilient built environments. The  Symposium will be held on September 21 and 22 at the Crowne Plaza on 701 E. Genesee St. and at SyracuseCoE Headquarters, 727 E. Washington St., in Syracuse, NY.

The one-and-a-half day Symposium will bring together experts on high-performance buildings, the electrical system and smart grids, and opportunities for future innovations impacting the built environment. This year’s program will feature five keynote speakers and more than 40 speakers in sessions that address topics from high-performance buildings to human-centered urban design, from nanoscale-enabled energy systems to cyber-physical interactive environments, and from smart grids and power system resiliency to adaptive building systems and performance augmentation materials.The event also includes a poster session and competition featuring 31 students from four universities, a dynamic networking reception, and tours of new SyracuseCoE Laboratories.

Keynote speakers are:

  • Michelle Addington, Hines Professor of Sustainable Architectural Design, Yale University will present Technological Pasts and Futures
  • Jennifer Gerbi, Program Director, ARPA-E will present ARPA-E: Saving Energy Outside the Box
  • Gurdip Singh, Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University will present Perspectives on Smart and Connected Communities and Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Skylar Tibbits, Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT will present Self-Assembly & Programmable Materials
  • Fei Wang, assistant professor at the School of Architecture, Syracuse University will present Design Energy Futures

“The SyracuseCoE Symposium offers our stakeholders in academia, industry and government an opportunity to come together with others in the community to share cutting edge research and develop new collaborations to address key challenges and opportunities for clean energy innovations for a vibrant future.” said Ed Bogucz, executive director of SyracuseCoE.

“Attendees will take away knowledge about the latest research in sustainable and resilient built environments that range from nano-scale to city-scale.” said Symposium Committee Chair, Dr. Tarek Rakha from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, “Topics will address integration of design with energy for a sustainable future within the confines of new market conditions.”

Program Schedule

Review the Symposium Program Schedule here.

Registration

Registration is required and seating is limited – please visit the SyracuseCoE Symposium Registration page for more information and to register.

International Experts on Advanced Building Systems to Convene at SyracuseCoE on September 8-10

More than 20 leading researchers from around the world will gather at the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy (SyracuseCoE) this week to participate in a workshop and a meeting on advanced building systems. The events will highlight exceptional research capabilities available at Syracuse Univerity and in Central New York relating to improving indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency in buildings.

The 13th International Forum and Workshop on Combined Heat, Air, Moisture and Pollutant Simulations (CHAMPS) will be held on Thursday, Setember 8. The Forum and Workshop, which is open to the public, will include presentations by the international visitors and Syracuse University faculty and students. Beginning Friday, visitors will participate in the 2nd Expert Meeting of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 68 Project Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings.

The importance of engineering high-performance buildings has become increasingly significant for improving human health and performance and reducing energy consumption. In industrialized countries, about 40% of energy consumption is associated with operations of buildings, including heating, cooling, and lighting. In addition, natural resources and energy are increasingly scarce as a result of industrialization, and human health and productivity are increasingly compromised due to levels of pollution. To create a sustainable future, innovations are needed to create advanced building systems that reduce energy use, and improve environmental quality for the betterment of human health.

“The forum and the expert meeting engage global leaders in research of the indoor environment,” said Jianshun Zhang, conference chair and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “We are very glad to welcome participants from China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, France, the United States and other countries to Syracuse to focus on major challenges facing the combined heat, air, moisture and pollutant simulations for the design and operation of sustainable buildings.”

“Syracuse is very well known in the international community of indoor air quality and sustainable building technology experts as a hub of research expertise and innovation,” said Ed Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “We’re thrilled to host our colleagues from around the world, and we look forward to leveraging the intellectual collisions that will result.”

CHAMPS 2016  will focus on major challenges facing the combined heat, air, moisture and pollutant simulations for the design and operation of sustainable buildings, highlight the most recent progresses, and identify opportunities for further collaboration in CHAMPS research, development and applications. Topics will include but are not limited to whole building environmental quality, the effects of climate change on indoor environmental quality and of different climates on building performance, and the application of CHAMPS for building systems design. The public is invited to register for the CHAMPS meeting and reception, scheduled for September 8, 2016, at SyracuseCoE headquarters in Syracuse.

Participants in the IEA Annex 68 Expert Meeting will share progress made to date on the project, and discuss the plan for the next steps. The meeting will include general sessions and separate working group sessions for all subtasks including pollutant loads in residential buildings, modeling, strategies for design and control of buildings and field measurements and case studies. More information about the Annex 68 project can be found in http://www.iea-ebc-annex68.org/.

Faculty Fellows: Interacting with the Built Environment

Expertise: Emerging material technologies, human interaction, and computational simulations influencing the design of sustainable built environments.
 
Backstory: As a doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bess Krietemeyer was part of a team that developed an innovative facade system installed at the SyracuseCoE headquarters as a demonstration project. After she joined the faculty of the Syracuse University School of Architecture, she turned to SyracuseCoE as a natural partner for assistance with developing her own research projects.
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: Krietemeyer leads the Interactive Design and Visualization Lab at SyracuseCoE, where she conducts interdisciplinary research on advanced building technologies and human interaction using immersive simulation techniques. “The lab is intended to support different systems being tested in the building,” she says. “A lot of the work I do explores reactive facade systems that respond to weather conditions and people’s movements within a space. These products are often too expensive to prototype at a large scale, but we absolutely need to know what they’re going to look like and how they behave with building inhabitants. By using simulation in the lab, we can explore a range of design, engineering, and human factors issues and make modifications early on.”
 
Lab Report: With funding provided by SyracuseCoE, Krietemeyer is developing a computational tool that combines traditional energy analysis with virtual reality tools. The project includes collaboration with fellow Syracuse University School of Architecture Professor Amber Bartosh, Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science Professor Jianshun Zhang, and visual artist Lorne Covington. “We’re conducting energy analysis and translating that information into dynamic, spatial, 3-D visualizations so we can virtually experience energy flows within a building in an interactive way,” Krietemeyer says.
 
Extra Credit: Another aspect of the project examines energy flows at the urban scale. Krietemeyer has created what she calls a “Projective Urban Design Laborator y” using a scale model of the City of Syracuse that she uses to project dynamic energy information onto—data ranging from light pollution to solar radiation—to better visualize ambient energy flows in the city that are typically invisible. The interactive display has been installed at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) in Syracuse. “We want to extend this research outside of the lab so we can engage a much wider audience,” Krietemeyer says. “We’re hoping end users and stakeholders will make use of it for potential design decisions for the city.”

New Nanotechnology for Vintage Single-Pane Windows: ARPA-E’s SHIELD Research Program

Research and Technology Forum, August 30, 2016

Single-pane windows are a legacy of an earlier era of building construction. Despite their inefficiency compared to modern panes, they are still fairly common even in a cool climate such as Syracuse’s. There’s enough energy to be saved by improving them that ARPA-E, one of the newest agencies in the U.S. Department of Energy, has just launched the “SHIELD” program of fourteen research projects. This talk introduced the intricate science underlying the performance of the apparently simple single pane window. Dr. Blanchet then described the very challenging materials developments that are needed to improve them. The same developments in science may also lead to new technologies for windows in new construction. Finally, Dr. Blanchet provided a narration for the development of SHIELD as an example of how ARPA-E funds energy research, and summarized the portfolio of windows research projects that have been funded by ARPA-E.

Presenter:

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Dr. Graciela Blanchet
Technology-To-Market Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agaency, ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy

Dr. Graciela Blanchet helps prepare breakthrough energy technologies for transition from lab to market, specifically focusing on renewable energy and carbon footprint mitigation.

Prior to joining ARPA-E, Blanchet served as the Chief Technical Officer at NanoTerra for five years. While in this role, Blanchet recruited and hired top-tier scientists and guided them in the process of development and commercialization of functional nanomaterials, water purification reactors, and high resolution printing of silicon-photovoltaic cells. Prior to working at NanoTerra, Blanchet spent much of her career at DuPont where she held multiple positions. While at DuPont, Blanchet led the printable electronics and laser imaging efforts developing technologies that have since been successfully commercialized.

Blanchet holds her Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires. Blanchet has more than 60 patents and has published more than 65 academic papers.

Lt. Governor Hochul Celebrates Opening of New Labs at SyracuseCoE

Lt Governor Kathleen Kathy Hochul Visits COE Labs Ribbon Cutting Regional Economic Development Council
Lt Governor Kathleen Kathy Hochul Visits COE Labs Ribbon Cutting Regional Economic Development Council

New York State Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the headquarters of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) on Wednesday, Aug. 24, to celebrate the opening of new labs that will fuel research, teaching and industry collaboration by students and faculty members from Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). Hochul was joined by Syracuse University Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie, SUNY ESF President Quentin Wheeler, Centerstate Corporation for Economic Opportunity President and CEO Rob Simpson and SyracuseCoE Executive Director Ed Bogucz in offering remarks and cutting the ribbon.

The new labs are designed to support research, teaching and industry collaboration on combustion technology, energy conversion, flow visualization, energy-efficient building systems and biofuels production. They will be used by by students and faculty from Syracuse University, SUNY ESF and corporate partners of SyracuseCoE. Initial research and development projects that are already underway are funded by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Industries associated with environmental and energy systems are critical to New York State’s economy and research universities are drivers of New York’s economic success. Central New York benefits from these facilities by strategically enabling Syracuse University and SUNY ESF to recruit bright new faculty members and prepare students for jobs at companies in Central New York and around the world.

The new labs were constructed as a component of an $8.7 million investment in new facilities at SyracuseCoE that was catalyzed by a $3 million award from New York State that was made through the process of annual awards focused on priorities developed by Regional Economic Development Councils. The balance of funding for the project came from private and federal sources.

TEChack Winners – MEOWTH

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TEChack | 2-day hackathon at SyracuseCoE | August 1st & 2nd, 2016
9 Hackers | 4 Hacks | 3 Winning Teams

Mission: Design and develop IoT-enabled capabilities for products in Central New York’s thermal and environmental controls cluster.

Outcome: Students and industry professionals competed in teams to conceive, develop and demonstrate actual working product concepts for IoT-enabled embedded devices utilizing Anaren’s Atmosphere IoT Development Platform, a web-based development platform that enables IoT capabilities in systems using Bluetooth® Low Energy devices.

There were 3 winners.

Special thanks to Anaren for their guidance and leadership throughout the hackathon.

Groups & Participants

(1st Place Winner) meowth  Ricky Laishram, Yiou Xiao, Qiuwen Chen, Zhiruo Zhao
(2nd Place Winner) Problem solving concepts  Mahesh Mhatre, Yuewen Yue
(3rd Place Winner) IoT Anemometer  Jeff Berezin, Paul Gelling, and Ed Lipson
Food Service Safety Jeff Berezin, Paul Gelling, and Ed Lipson
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9191″ img_size=”450×300″ style=”vc_box_rounded” css=”.vc_custom_1471550116511{padding-left: 100px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Participants listening to Mihir Dani as he guides them through the TEChack’s process. 

During TEChack, teams were guided by Mihir Dani of Anaren, a Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science graduate and a recognized award-winning “hackspert” who has mentored numerous teams who went on to become hackathon winners at IoT World 2015, 2016 and Sensors Expo 2016.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”8946″ img_size=”350×300″ alignment=”right” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Participant working on his team’s product during the overnight TEChack.

“TEChack exemplifies opportunities for firms in Central New York to incorporate ‘data-to-decision’ technologies into their next-generation products,” said Cindy Oehmigen, president of the CNY Technology Development Organization.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9190″ img_size=”350×300″ alignment=”right” style=”vc_box_rounded” css=”.vc_custom_1471549907353{padding-left: 200px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Participant demonstrating the functionality of his group’s project. Participants developed actual working products during the TEChack.

“The Internet of Things continues to create an amazing variety of new and innovative solutions for companies around the world, and we welcome this opportunity to help students and professionals in Central New York explore possibilities and perhaps set the stage for prototyping the next great IoT innovation,” says Mike Bowyer, Anaren’s Director of Business Development, Wireless IoT.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Participant explaining his group’s idea and product.

“TEChack brings together three cornerstones of the Central New York economy: thermal and environmental controls, precision sensing and data analytics, and engineering and science research and education,” said Ed Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director. “We celebrate the strengths and creativity in each sector, and we look forward to the ideas that will be emerge when they come together.”

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Sponsored by

 

SyracuseCoE_SU Logo RGB          Anaren_logo           case          tdo

 

 

 

Designing Cities for Comfort

Expertise:Modeling urban energy flows and human-powered mobility; daylighting and energy in building technology applications; the use of unmanned drones for building performance inspections.
 
Research Problem: Designing cities for pedestrian comfort. Tarek Rakha’s work on sustainable urban mobility looks at how weather conditions and the built environment influence walking and biking in urban communities. “It’s about planning for thermal and visual comfort under predictable conditions, such as cold winters and hot summers,” says Rakha.
 
Backstory: Rakha’s doctoral dissertation from MIT focused on comfortable and walkable cities. He was also part of a research team that developed a citywide building energy model for Boston, which estimated the gas and electricity demand of every building in Boston.
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: Rakha was attracted to Syracuse University, in part, because of the resources available through SyracuseCoE. “I was excited about the kind of support I could get here that I couldn’t get anywhere else,” says Rakha. That includes networking, access to industry partners, lab space to develop research activities, and assistance with grant proposals. Prior to the official start of his faculty position, SyracuseCoE helped Rakha submit a proposal in response to a solicitation from NYSERDA. The proposal was funded, supporting a study of sustainable transportation alternatives in Syracuse. Subsequently, SyracuseCoE assisted Rakha develop a proposal to SageGlass for a study of daylighting and energy in buildings; he also is using space in the SyracuseCoE lab wing to test his drone with various sensors.
 
Lab to Market: Rakha’s NYSERDA-funded study examines the walkability and bikeability of downtown Syracuse, including outdoor thermal comfort, as well as sharing economy technologies in the City of Syracuse (e.g., bike and car sharing), and public transit and regional relationships between Syracuse and Central New York. “SyracuseCoE has relationships with all the relevant stakeholders so whatever outcomes we present from our feasibility study will directly link to each of them,” says Rakha.

SyracuseCoE Announces The First Round of 2016 Innovation Fund Winners

SYRACUSE, NY, July 29, 2016 – Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) recently announced that five Central New York companies have received the SyracuseCoE 2016 Innovation Fund Award in total $36,199. The Innovation Fund is supported by funding from SyracuseCoE Partners and is designed to support Partners’ efforts to overcome barriers to the commercialization of potentially transformative innovations.

The five award-winning companies and their projects are:

  • The Standard Hydrogen Corporation of Ithaca, for their project to clear remaining obstacles in building the initial demonstration station by building a financial and physical model of the proposed system.
  • Sparkcharge of Syracuse, for their project of the portable electric charging stations. Their model allows electric car owners to choose the amount of portable energy they bring and provides a safety net when traveling long distances where charging stations are scarce.
  • EkoStinger, Inc of Rochester, for their product called EkoStinger that addresses the emissions reduction from semitrailers pulling 48’ and 53’ trailers.
  • Kohilo of Auburn, for increasing the number of shifts from one to three thereby increasing the output of clean energy wind turbines and the number of jobs available in the Syracuse area.
  • LC Drives of Potsdam, for making improvements in efficiency, and overall weight of the wind technology in hopes of decreasing the cost of a wind turbine system.

“The Innovation Fund Awards are a remarkable example of how members of the SyracuseCoE Partner Program have a direct impact on moving technology toward commercialization and creating meaningful opportunities for Central New York companies,” said Ed Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director. “The awards, based on technical merit and sound principles, have tremendous potential to strengthen each company through the success of their projects.”

After an initial review by SyracuseCoE staff, selected applicants were invited to participate in a proposal pitch to a panel of judges, including members of the SyracuseCoE Industry Partners Council, SyracuseCoE staff and others. Proposals for Round 2 of the SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund will be invited to submit again in 2017.

Eligibility for awards is extended to all current members of the SyracuseCoE Partner Program. Proposals may include collaborations with non-Partner Program firms and academic partners; however, proposals must be submitted and led by members of the SyracuseCoE Partner Program.

 

Innovative Students And Professionals Sought For ‘Hackathon’ To Envision New Products For Thermal And Environmental Control

SYRACUSE, NY, July 25, 2016 – Targeting emerging opportunities for a new generation of innovative products in the Central New York’s industry cluster in thermal and environmental controls (TEC), SyracuseCoE invites students and professionals to participate in “TEChack, “a 2-day “hackathon” on August 1 and 2. SyracuseCoE organized TEChack in partnership with Anaren, Inc., the CNY Technology Development Organization, and CASE at Syracuse University.

TEChack is designed to conceive TEC innovations that are capable of operating within the exponentially growing “Internet of Things (IoT).” – Students and industry professionals will compete in teams to conceive, develop and demonstrate actual working product concepts for IoT-enabled embedded devices utilizing Anaren’s Atmosphere IoT Development Platform, a web-based development platform that enables IoT capabilities in systems using Bluetooth® Low Energy devices. Winning teams will receive cash prizes, and each participant will receive an Anaren Multi-Sensor Development Kit and access to the free Anaren Atmosphere development platform.

During TEChack, teams will be guided by Mihir Dani of Anaren, a Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science graduate and a recognized award-winning “hackspert” who has mentored numerous teams who went on to become hackathon winners at IoT World 2015, 2016 and Sensors Expo 2016.

Seating at TEChack is limited and advanced registration is required; interested students and professionals can get additional information and register at techack.eventbrite.com

“TEChack brings together three cornerstones of the Central New York economy: thermal and environmental controls, precision sensing and data analytics, and engineering and science research and education,” said Ed Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director. “We celebrate the strengths and creativity in each sector, and we look forward to the ideas that will be emerging when they come together.”

“Anaren is very pleased to partner with SyracuseCoE in developing TEChack,” said Mark Bowyer, Anaren’s Director of Business Development, Wireless IoT. “The Internet of Things continues to create an amazing variety of new and innovative solutions for companies around the world, and we welcome this opportunity to help students and professionals in Central New York explore possibilities and perhaps set the stage for prototyping the next great IoT innovation,” Bowyer added.

“TEChack exemplifies opportunities for firms in Central New York to incorporate ‘data-to-decision’ technologies into their next-generation products,” said Cindy Oehmigen, president of the CNY Technology Development Organization. “CNYTDO is strategically targeting ‘D2D’ opportunities in our activities, and we look forward to working with local firms to pursue commercialization of ideas that are conceived at TEChack.”

“CASE welcomes the opportunity to partner with SyracuseCoE in TEChack,” said Pramod Varshney, CASE director and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University. “We look forward to leveraging our networks of students and firms that are engaged with our co-op program.”

TEChack is supported by the Advanced Manufacturing in Thermal and Environmental Controls (AM-TEC) initiative, which is designed to strengthen the cluster of Central New York manufacturers of systems that heat and cool buildings, refrigerate produce, control manufacturing processes, and enable a variety of other applications. AM-TEC is led by SyracuseCoE in partnership with CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity, Manufacturers Association of Central New York, NYSTAR, Central New York Technology Development Organization, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and Onondaga Community College Small Business Development Center.

Additional information about TEChack is available at techack.eventbrite.com.

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About SyracuseCoE

SyracuseCoE, New York State’s Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems at Syracuse University engages collaborators at 200+ companies and institutions to address global challenges in clean and renewable energy, indoor environmental quality, and water resources. Our members conduct targeted research, demonstrate new technologies, commercialize innovations, and educate the workforce.

ABOUT ANAREN

About to enter its 50th year in business, Anaren, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells custom high-frequency solutions and standard components for the wireless communications, space and defense electronics, wireless consumer electronics, and IoT markets. Additional information can be found at www.anaren.com.

ARPA-E: Saving Energy Through Precision Comfort

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for buildings have traditionally been “one-size-fits-all”—a single thermostat controlling the temperature in an office or classroom. But occupants aren’t “one-size-fits-all” in terms of comfort—with this approach, at least 20 percent of occupants are typically dissatisfied with the temperature they experience.
 
With support from SyracuseCoE, faculty and students at Syracuse University and their collaborators have been working for years to transform HVAC systems through the development of personalized environmental control systems (PECS), that would allow individual occupants to adjust heat and cooling to their own level of comfort. The PECS vision took a big leap forward with the award of a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and companion awards of $319,000 from NYSTAR, and $400,000 from NYSERDA.
 
The new project responds to an ARPA-E vision for saving energy nationally by localizing thermal management on an individual level while changing the set points for thermostats for large spaces to 66 degrees in winter and 79 degrees in summer (from 70 degrees and 75 degrees respectively). The approach promises to save more than 15 percent of energy used for HVAC nationally, while simultaneously improving occupant comfort and indoor air quality.
 
NYSTAR Distinguished Professor H. Ezzat Khalifa leads the Syracuse University team that is developing a near-range micro-environmental control system. The system will provide local cooling and heating via a box about the size of medium-tower computer that will fit under an individual’s desk. The unit has a high-efficiency micro-vapor compression system with a tiny scroll compressor and an evaporator embedded in a phase-change material. This material will store the cooling or heating produced by the micro-vapor compression system at night, releasing during the day to make occupants more comfortable.
 
“Buildings consume nearly 40 percent of the energy used in the United States and other industrialized countries,” says Khalifa. “Ultimately this transformative technology will create a much more affordable and energy-efficient way to ensure individual occupant comfort.”
 
In addition to researchers at Syracuse University and SyracuseCoE, the three-year project includes partners United Technologies Research Center, Air Innovations, Bush Technical LLC, and Cornell University. The SU team was one of 11 funded nationally. This is the first ARPA-E grant awarded to Syracuse University. SyracuseCoE aided the project team in the development of the proposal and is a key player in the execution of the research, including bringing the technology to market.
 
“We see a great future for personal environmental control. By reducing the control point to each user, we only condition areas that need conditioning, and to the specific needs of that individual,” says Michael Wetzel, president and CEO of Air Innovations. “Not only will this program reduce future energy costs, but it allows individual choice of comfort settings.” 

Healthway: Exporting Clean Air to Asia

China’s rapid industrialization has come at a cost: The country is afflicted with some of the worst air pollution in the world.
 
But one Central New York company is improving air quality in China—and throughout Asia—one building at a time.
 
HealthWay Products manufactures air cleaning and filtration products for homes, businesses, and medical environments.
The Pulaski-based company originally developed air cleaners to remove smoke from bars. When legislation banned smoking indoors, the company changed focus, developing proprietary technology to clean air from entire buildings, capturing 99.99 percent of air contaminants.
 
“The World Health Organization has ranked indoor air quality as a top health concern facing humans,” says HealthWay President Vinny Lobdell. “It’s beyond smoke and allergens, but ultrafine particles that can cause cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer.”
 
HealthWay develops products that clean air at point of use by filtering contaminants generated within a space and at point of entry by cleaning air filtered into a building as part of its HVAC system. Customers include the Cleveland Clinic, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott, Harvard University, Starwood Hotels, Texas Instruments, BMW, Volkswagen, and Crystal Cruises. The company, named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies in North America, sells its products in 30 countries.
 
Asia is the biggest growth market and SyracuseCoE has been an important partner in HealthWay’s expansion efforts. In 2013, HealthWay received a $50,000 Commercialization Assistance Program grant from SyracuseCoE to help commercialize and test a disinfecting filtration system specifically for the Asian market. The grant supported the assistance of Syracuse University Professor Jianshun Zhang, who conducted testing of the product. 
 
At the Building Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES) Laboratory in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University, Zhang simulated air pollution to evaluate the filter’s performance in cleaning air “breathed in” by building HVAC systems in China.
 
“That grant was very important in helping us get that product to market,” says Lobdell. Installations include BMW corporate headquarters in China, the Saudi Ministry of Health, and hotels throughout Asia.
 
Lobdell says that product—the 2000 SC—is now the cornerstone of the company’s commercial line. In 2015, HealthWay purchased an additional facility in Pulaski to accommodate its manufacture, as well as to bring back other products the company was manufacturing in China, adding approximately 20 jobs to the Central New York region.
 
“We’re really grateful to have an organization like the SyracuseCoE locally,” says Lobdell. “Syracuse has become a hub for innovation in indoor air quality because of their efforts, and they continue to help us grow.”

Measured Performance

Expertise: Measuring the impact of environmental conditions on cognitive function.
 
Backstory: Usha Satish has broad experience using the research tool Strategic Management Simulation (SMS) to study how wide-ranging variables impact cognitive function and real-world productivity, from drugs and alcohol to sleep deprivation to head injuries. In 2006, after completing a study on how various medications for seasonal allergies and rhinitis affect cognitive function, she was sought out by SyracuseCoE to see if her methods might be effective for a forthcoming study on the impact of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paint on indoor environments. Satish collaborated on the project, using SMS to evaluate the impact of VOCs on productivity and decision-making and expanded her area of research interest in the process.
 
Sound Bite: “Studying the impact of indoor air quality wasn’t originally on my radar, but it wasn’t out of the realm of imagination either,” says Satish. “Whether I’m looking at different levels of alcohol, antihistamines that cause drowsiness, or VOCs—they all have the potential to impact thinking capacity.”
 
SyracuseCoE Connection: In 2007, SyracuseCoE awarded nearly $300,000 for a two-year project led by Satish in collaboration with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to study the implications of low levels of carbon dioxide on people’s decision making and perceptions of indoor air quality. In 2009, SyracuseCoE awarded nearly $300,000 for a two-year project led by Satish in collaboration with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to study the impacts of daylighting on human decision making and productivity. Satish was a co-investigator of the 2014 COGfx study, leading the cognitive testing and analysis component. “The SyracuseCoE is a wonderful organization for showcasing the research treasures we have in Upstate New York,” she says.
 
Current Project: Satish is collaborating with Syracuse University engineering professor Jianshun Zhang and King + King Architects to evaluate whether building renovations at Pine Grove Middle School in East Syracuse, New York, impact student learning. Data from SMS taken before and after the renovation under controlled conditions will be used to assess the impact of the built environment on student performance.

TIEQ Lab: Building Productivity

SyracuseCoE is home to the Willis H. Carrier Total Indoor Environmental Quality (TIEQ) Lab, a one-of-its-kind facility that enabled what climate expert Joe Romm calls “the seminal green building study of our time.” The recent groundbreaking study on “The Impact of Green Buildings on Cognitive Function” (COGfx) found participants’ cognitive function not only changed in response to the quality of their indoor environment, but also doubled in environments with enhanced green building ventilation.

The COGfx study “explains the great mystery of why better ventilation increases productivity,” says Romm, who heralded the findings at the 2015 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo for providing hard data that demonstrates the health and productivity benefits of green buildings.

Findings from the COGfx study showed that cognitive performance doubled in conditions that replicated green buildings with enhanced ventilation and in some functional areas—including strategy and information usage—nearly tripled. Just as important, quantitative analysis of that increased productivity found that air quality and cost are no longer a trade-off. According to the study, doubling the ventilation rate in typical office buildings can be reached at an estimated annual energy cost of between $14 and $40 per person, depending on location; this investment can result in improved productivity valued at, on average, $6,500 per person per year.

The COGfx study was led by researchers from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University, in collaboration with faculty members from Upstate Medical University and Syracuse University, and was supported by funding from United Technologies Corporation. Experiments were conducted at the TIEQ Lab in the fall of 2014 and results were published in a series of peer-reviewed papers beginning in fall 2015.

The COGfx study has important implications for the design and operation of environmental systems for office environments. “We spend 90 percent of our time indoors. It’s logical that this has an outsized impact on our overall health and well-being, as well as productivity,” says Joseph Allen, assistant professor and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard Chan School.

The COGfx study was specifically designed to take advantage of the capabilities of the TIEQ Lab. “This study is exactly the kind of pioneering research that we envisioned right from the start,” says Ed Bogucz, SyracuseCoE executive director. “As with many other projects that have been conducted in the TIEQ Lab, the unique capabilities of the facility and the expertise of local researchers familiar with using it attracted collaborators to Central New York.”
 
The TIEQ Lab consists of two rooms resembling a typical office environment; however, from the floor below, environmental conditions—such as ventilation rate, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration— can be controlled with a high degree of precision. “This allowed us to make changes to the indoor environmental quality in the TIEQ Lab while keeping the participants blinded to test conditions,” says Allen.
 
The COGfx study enlisted 24 professionals from Central New York firms and institutions to relocate to the TIEQ Lab for six days to per form their regular work. Near the end of each workday, they were given a cognitive assessment that evaluated real-world decision-making. Over the course of those six days, the indoor environment was modified to reflect conventional buildings, green buildings, and green buildings with enhanced ventilation.
 
Not only were participants unaware of changes in environmental conditions, but researchers involved in the cognitive testing were also “blind” to changing conditions as well.
 
“The double-blind nature of the study strengthens the integrity of our results,” says co-investigator Suresh Santanam, a Syracuse University Professor of engineering and computer science who is an expert in indoor air quality and air pollution control, and director of SU’s Industrial Assessment Center.
 
Usha Satish, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Upstate Medical University, led the testing using the Strategic Management Simulation, a highly reliable cognitive testing tool. The computer-based test posed diverse situations based on real-world challenges, allowing users to respond and strategize in their own cognitive style.
 
“The simulation scenarios have been validated to replicate people’s daily decision-making,” says Satish.
 
This study—and the impact its results are expected to bring— is precisely what was anticipated when the lab was conceived.
 
“Research is a long and costly process,” says Santanam. “It would not have been unusual if it took a decade for published research to have come out of the TIEQ Lab.
 
The impact the lab has made in our knowledge base in a relatively short time is really quite remarkable.”

Blowing Off Steam: The Case for Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Heat Pumps To Replace Steam, New York’s Biggest Energy and Water Glutton

Steam heating systems are widely used in New York State, in all kinds of buildings: universities, large high-rises, schools, and even homes. We know that converting steam to hot water systems routinely saves 50% of the heating energy use, as well as saving water. But it is not known how much steam heat, in fact, exists in the state – it is just not something that is inventoried in any of the various building information databases. So we set out to estimate how much steam is used in different kinds of buildings and were surprised by the results. We also evaluated the savings to convert from steam to a new type of heating technology, variable-refrigerant flow heat pumps. Join us to learn how much steam we are blowing off, and how much we could save by converting steam to VRF heat pumps, in a fast-moving and information-filled session.

Funding for this project was provided by the SyracuseCoE Partner Program Innovation Fund.

Presenter:

IanIan Shapiro
Senior Engineer, Taitem Engineering

Ian started Taitem Engineering in 1989. He has led several applied energy conservation research projects, has led many design and energy projects, and has delivered workshops in the area of energy and ventilation. He has also led the development of several computer programs which are used in the HVAC, energy, and indoor air quality fields, including TREAT (Targeted Residential Energy Analysis Tools), which was awarded the 2005 national R&D100 Award. He also developed an innovative desiccant cooling system, for which he holds a U.S. patent. Prior to starting Taitem Engineering, he worked for seven years at Carrier Corporation in Syracuse, where he designed heat pumps and air conditioning equipment, and holds eight patents from this work. He is the co-author of the book Green Building Illustrated (John Wiley and Sons), and is the author of the forthcoming book Energy Audits and Improvements for Commercial Buildings (John Wiley and Sons, April 2016). He holds an undergraduate degree from McGill University, and an M.S. from Columbia University, both in mechanical engineering. Ian is a licensed engineer in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

Up to $3,000 Paid Internship Opportunities for SyracuseCoE Partners

SyracuseCoE is seeking applications from current members of the Partner Program to the 2016 Summer Industry Collaboration Internship Program.  The program supports paid internship opportunities for SyracuseCoE Partner Program companies to host a student engaged in work related to a SyracuseCoE focus area, including:

  • Indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
  • Clean and renewable energy, including high performance/green building
  • Water resources

In addition to increasing the technical skills of area students pursuing degrees in science, engineering, and architecture, program goals include increased post-graduation student retention in the Central Upstate region and the establishment of valuable relationships between college students and local firms. To date, more than 30 companies and 90 students have participated in this program, which will provide up to $3,000 toward an intern’s wages. The deadline to apply is March 31st.[vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Learn More!” style=”custom” custom_background=”#d44500″ custom_text=”#ffffff” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fcenterofexcellence.syracuse.edu%2F2016-summer-industry-collaboration-internships%2F||target:%20_blank”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Open to Partners! 2016 Innovation Fund Call for Proposals

SyracuseCoE invites proposals to the SyracuseCoE Innovation Fund from current Partners for up to $10,000. The Innovation Fund is funded by SyracuseCoE Partner Program and is designed to support Partners’ efforts to overcome barriers to the commercialization of potentially transformative innovations. Projects must be aligned with commercialization of innovative products/technologies and focused on one or more of SyracuseCoE’s three core areas:

  • Indoor Environmental Quality and Building Energy Efficiency
  • Clean & Renewable Energy
  • Water Resources

Deadline March 24, 2016[vc_btn title=”Learn More!” style=”custom” custom_background=”#d44500″ custom_text=”#ffffff” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fcenterofexcellence.syracuse.edu%2Fwhat-we-offer%2F2016-innovation-fund%2F||target:%20_blank”]

Commercializing Renewable Energy

For 30 years, researchers at SyracuseCoE academic Partner SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) have studied new forms of renewable energy. In the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering, researchers use sugars derived from willow biomass to create biofuels with very low greenhouse gas emissions that will replace their fossil fuel counterparts.
 
That research moved from the lab bench to production scale with the opening of the SUNY-ESF Biofuels Pilot Plant at SyracuseCoE in 2015. “We want to make the same portfolio of products you can make from fossil fuels,” says Art Stipanovic, ESF professor of chemistry and director of the Pilot Plant.
 
The new facility is a small-scale, commercial grade pilot plant that allows researchers to scale up the size of their production significantly, so that they can develop and demonstrate processes that will evolve into full-scale commercial production.
 
“Equipment like this is hard to find,” adds Thomas Amidon, professor and chair of paper and bioprocess engineering at ESF. “It’s too small for most manufacturers but too big for almost anywhere else. You’d rarely find this on a college campus.”
 
The Pilot Plant includes a 1000-Liter fermenter that creates an optimal environment for microorganisms to convert wood-based sugars to fuels such as ethanol and butanol, and a 30-gallon-per-hour distillation column to distill the biofuels produced in the fermenter to high purity fuels suitable for testing in engines.
 
The facility provides a more robust learning and research environment in a real-world setting. “The goal is to move science into a technology and then into a commercial business,” says Amidon.
 
That’s already happening.
 
New companies that have originated from ESF’s research include Avatar Sustainable Technologies, founded by Bhavin
Bhayani, Ph.D., and Bandaru V. Ramarao, professor of paper and bioprocess engineering at ESF and director of the Empire
State Paper Research Insitute.
 
It was during an internship at a paper mill while an ESF doctoral student that Bhayani had his aha moment. “There was a tremendous amount of paper waste that was already beaten and pulped,” he says.
 
Bhayani saw this cellulosic waste as a readymade option for producing the sugars needed for fermentation to biofuels. He and Ramarao, his doctoral advisor, received NYSERDA funding to develop and demonstrate the concept on a lab scale. Bhayani also won $10,000 from SyracuseCoE in Syracuse University’s RvD IDEA student competition in 2013;the award served as a catalyst to start Avatar Sustainable Technologies to commercialize its proprietary technology for producing fermentable sugars for bioproducts industries.
 
“Different biofuels and bio-plastics require different qualities of sugar. We’re working with people in academia, at the paper mills, and biofuels companies to make sure our processes are in alignment with their requirements,” he says.
 
In addition to continued use of the ESF Pilot Plant, SyracuseCoE provides the firm with office space, funding through a $25,000 Innovation Fund award, and guidance in commercialization.
 
“It would be very difficult to do this without the support of SyracuseCoE,” Bhayani says.

Flint: Water + Lead + Infrastructure

Flint, a city of about 100,000 in southeastern Michigan, is known as the birthplace of General Motors and for subsequent Rustbelt decline. Two new words define the city nationally: lead poisoning. Contamination of the municipal water supply and a shocking list of resulting health problems are a product of uniquely toxic chemistry, politics, and power within the region and the state. However, aging infrastructure and social inequality, problems shared by many other American cities, were also key ingredients in this disaster, prompting the question of whether this could happen elsewhere, and how to prevent it.

On February 9th, 2016 we were joined by Michigan Congressman Dan Kildee who spoke from Washington, D.C. via webinar about the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and its connections with the city’s infrastructure. Rep. Kildee is a lifelong Flint resident who founded the pioneering Genesee County Land Bank and co-founded the Center for Community Progress, a national organization promoting urban land reform and revitalization.

This event was a special presentation for Syracuse University class ARC 407 Studio|Next: Building the Post-Carbon City. #citybynext

Panelists:
Telisa M. Stewart, Assistant Professor, Upstate Medical University
Paula C. Johnson, Professor, Syracuse University College of Law
Session chair and organizer: 
Susan Dieterlen, Research Assistant Professor, Syracuse University School of Architecture, Faculty Research Fellow, SyracuseCoE

AM-TEC Analysis and Design Center: Virtual Production

In a lab on the third floor at SyracuseCoE headquarters, a group of Syracuse University graduate students works on a prototype for a heat exchanger that transfers heat with a low-pressure draw. Later that afternoon, another team will work on a structural analysis of a low-vibration cryo frigeration system in an attempt to find ways to reduce the vibration level even further.
 
They’re working in the Analysis and Design Center, a NYSERDA funded resource created to assist firms in Central New York’s thermal and environmental control cluster accelerate development of innovative products. Under the super vision of faculty members from Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, these students are helping solve real-world problems for AM-TEC companies such as Cryomech, a world leader in cryorefrigeration and helium recovery systems.
 
“As a small company, we have limited manpower,” says Chao Wang, Ph.D., director of research and development at Cryomech. “Collaborating with the resources at Syracuse University and SyracuseCoE gives us research and development capabilities we just don’t have on our own.”
 
That’s where the Analysis and Design Center comes in. The center provides AM-TEC companies with assistance from a team of specially trained students from Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, who work under the super vision of faculty members. The students per form analysis and design using software for computational fluid dynamics or finite-element analysis.
 
In addition to helping AM-TEC manufacturers develop new products, the Analysis and Design Center also benefits the students who are engaged. “By getting to work on problems not ‘well-posed’ in classroom homework or an exam, students have to make their own assumptions to solve the problem,” says Thong Dang, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University.
 
One of those students is Pratik Manandhar, a master’s student in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University, who has worked on projects for Ekostinger and Kohilo Wind. “Working in the Analysis and Design Center has provided me with an excellent opportunity to work hands-on in a professional environment and gain practical experience in implementing classroom knowledge to solve real-life problems,” he says. “In addition, attending meetings and interacting with company professionals has also helped me learn how to communicate effectively and will help me make a smooth transition from academia to industry.”

Researchers Return to Present #TheCOGfxStudy Findings

In a six-day study in SyracuseCoE’s Total Indoor Environmental Quality Lab twenty-four professional employees – architects, designers, programmers, engineers, creative marketing professionals and managers – participated in a study examining the impact of green buildings on cognitive performance and decision-making performance. This week, researchers returned to SyracuseCoE to present the findings of this pioneering study to an audience of more than 140 total, including 70 via web and more than 70 in the room.

Study Info:

“The Impact of Green Buildings on Cognitive Function” study found that participants’ cognitive performance scores averaged 101 percent higher in green building environments with enhanced ventilation compared to a conventional building environment.

Researchers measured cognitive function for nine functional domains, including basic, applied and focused activity levels; task orientation; crisis response; information seeking; information usage; breadth of approach; and strategy. The largest improvements in cognitive function test scores was found in the areas of crisis response, information usage and strategy.

  • Crisis response scores were 97 percent higher for the green environment and 131 percent higher for the green environment with enhanced ventilation and lower carbon dioxide levels compared to the conventional environment.
  • Information usage scores for green and enhanced green environments were 172 and 299 percent higher than in the conventional environment, respectively.
  • For strategy, green and enhanced green scores were 183 and 288 percent higher than the conventional environment.

DSCN2923 DSCN2944 DSCN3037

Panelists and speakers:

Introduction by: John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer, United Technologies Corporation.

  • Joseph G. Allen, DSc, MPH, Principal Investigator, Assistant Professor of Exposure Assessment Science
  • Piers MacNaughton, MS Project Manager, Doctoral Candidate
  • Suresh Santanam, ScD, PE, Co-Investigator, Director, Industrial Assessment Center, Associate Professor, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering
  • Usha Satish, PhD, Director, Strategic Management Simulations Institute for Human Performance

Because the study reflects conditions in indoor environments that many people encounter daily, these findings have far ranging implications for worker productivity, student learning, and safety.

Green building design that optimizes employee productivity and energy usage will require adopting energy efficient systems and informed operating practices to maximize the benefit to human health while minimizing energy consumption.

View the recorded webinar:

For more information about the Total Indoor Environmental Quality Lab, contact tlrosani@syr.edu.

See more at:

http://thecogfxstudy.naturalleader.com/

http://www.chgeharvard.org/resource/impact-green-buildings-cognitive-function

 

Lighting a Bright Future

A shift to LED lighting is saving sports teams millions of dollars and improving fan experiences, in large part using products developed and manufactured by Central New York’s Ephesus Lighting. Since 2013, Ephesus lighting has been installed at more than 100 sports venues across the United States and Canada, saving an estimated 45-million kilowatts of energy and eliminating 34,000 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.
 
Ephesus developed an ultra-high performance LED technology with a patented lens design that is 75 percent more energy-efficient than the metal halide lights traditionally used at stadiums, providing fuller illumination and casting fewer shadows. And at much less cost—the average arena installation reduces energy costs by up to 85 percent, bringing a return on investment in less than five years.
Since entering the sports LED market, Ephesus’ revenue has grown an average of more than 300 percent in each of the last three years. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without SyracuseCoE,” says Joe Casper, who founded the company in 2010 with his wife, Amy.
 
The Caspers had worked for advanced technology companies across the United States, including Lockheed Martin in Syracuse and Motorola. They returned to Central New York with a vision to translate their combined expertise in semiconductor design and production to develop new energy-efficient technologies in LED lighting. Casper sought out Ed Bogucz at SyracuseCoE, who in turn connected the Caspers to a broad array of resources, including business incubation, potential research and development collaborators, and other services to develop, test, and commercialize their innovative, energy-efficient lighting products.
 
In 2012, Ephesus won a Commercialization Assistance Program award from SyracuseCoE that enabled the company to develop its own patented LED chip using gallium nitride on diamond. Subsequently, Ephesus developed an LED light for sports arenas that was installed at the historic War Memorial Arena at The Oncenter, home of the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League.
 
In 2014, Ephesus developed a next-generation light suitable for large stadiums; the performance of the first prototype was tested successfully at SyracuseCoE headquarters in May. The first installation of the new light was the University of Phoenix Stadium, which hosted the Super Bowl in February 2015. That exposure led to a jump in sales. “Ever y new venue will be built with LED,” says Casper, adding that stadium and arena lighting is just one aspect of business. Ephesus has also developed lighting for industrial and commercial use and for broadcasting. And that’s just the beginning.
 
“The intellectual collisions that happen at SyracuseCoE spawn a lot of new ideas,” says Casper.
In October 2015, Ephesus Lighting was purchased by Eaton Corporation, a global technology leader in power management solutions.

SyracuseCoE TEC Innovates Network

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