ASHRAE - Student Branch

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide research and educational opportunities for students and serve the local community towards a more sustainable future. Some of our activities include:

Support Students with Scholarship and Career Opportunities
Capstone Design Project – ASHRAE Undergraduate Equipment Grant
Performing Research Projects on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Systems Related to Buildings
Students Training and Community Service
Hosting Seminars and Presentations from Experts in the Field
Encourage and Support Students to Attend Conferences

Join Florida Tech's ASHRAE Students Branch Today to learn about sustainable, energy efficient and healthy built environments! Contact us if you want to volunteer to help with our next event/project!

Florida Tech's ASHRAE Students Branch President (2023-2024): Syed Arafun Nabi, MS student in Mechanical Engineering

Florida Tech's ASHRAE Students Branch President (2021-2023): Mariana Migliori, PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering

Florida Tech's ASHRAE Students Branch President (2020-2021): Mariana Migliori, PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering

Recent Activities:

Most Recent Seminar

Career Opportunities in Buildings Energy and HVAC Sector (Mar 22, 2023)
Presented by: Justin Mulhollan, PE, LEED, Principal from TLC Engineering Solutions and Bruce Lindsay, Business Development Team Leader for Thermal Energy Storage, Trane Technologies
The event was also attended by several professional ASHRAE members from local industries to provide students with the opportunity to explore internships or job opportunities at their companies

Scholarships

Congratulations to Syed Arafun Nabi, a Master's student at the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering to be selected as one of the recipients of 2023's ASHRAE Space Congress Endowed Scholarships!

The Space Congress Endowed Scholarships, managed by the ASHRAE Foundation, were established by the ASHRAE Space Coast Section through years of Space Congress golf tournaments organized by the Chapter. These scholarships support ASHRAE Student Members, with undergraduate major in Mechanical Engineering and graduate studies in energy systems and the building environment, in the Spacecoast ASHRAE Student Branches.

ASHRAE Journal Publications and Podcast

ASHRAE Space Coast Community members John Constantinide, PE, CEM, CFPS and Dr. Hamidreza Najafi discuss HVAC in space and extraterrestrial environments in the Jan 2022 episode of the ASHRAE Journal Podcast:

https://www.ashrae.org/news/ashraejournal/ashrae-journal-podcast-season-2-episode-1

H. Najafi, J. Constantinide and B. Lindsay, ASHRAE Building EQ Empowers Schools, Teaches StudentsASHRAE Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, Jan 2022.
J. Constantinide and H. Najafi, Present State and Future of Environmental Control Systems In Space, ASHRAE Journal, vol. 62, no. 7, July 2020. [Featured Article-Cover Page]

Students Training and Community Services

In collaboration with Brevard Public School (BPS), Florida Tech Student Branch performed energy audit for selected schools in the surrounding of it’s campus. The school site visits were performed in spring 2019 and the students and branch advisor presented some of their findings in the ASHRAE’s Space Coast Chapter Seminar in Oct 2019. The projects findings were also presented in the ASHRAE Winter Conference in Orlando, FL in 2020. The lessons learned through this project are published as two journal articles:

H. Najafi, J. Constantinide and B. Lindsay, ASHRAE Building EQ Empowers Schools, Teaches Students, ASHRAE Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, Jan 2022.
G. Doiphode, H. Najafi and M. Migliori, Energy Efficiency Improvement in K-12 Schools: A Case Study in Florida, Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities,JESBC-20 1019, Oct 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4048894

Senior Design Projects

Dr. Najafi received ASHRAE Undergraduate Equipment Grant for 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 academic years. The grants were used to support two Capstone Design Projects to design and develop a thermoelectric based system for building cooling and heating applications and demonstrate thermal management of thermoelectric systems. Three groups of students (total of 25), majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, worked on these project. Two lab apparatuses were designed and manufactured through these grants which are currently in use in the Heat Transfer Lab at Florida Tech for teaching purposes.

Seminars and Presentations

Florida Tech’s ASHRAE Student Branch hosts experts to present for students. Some of the recent presentations include:

Career Opportunities in Buildings Energy and HVAC Sector, Presented by Justin Mulhollan, PE, LEED, Principal from TLC Engineering Solutions (Mar 22, 2023).
Core Recommendations for your HVAC Systems in the Age of COVID-19, by Wade Conlan, Manager at Hanson's Commissioning & Energy Discipline, Oct 2021.
HVAC Industry and Sale Engineering, by Jason Aki, Account Manager and Team Lead at Trane U.S. Inc, Oct 2019.
Net Zero Energy Schools in Florida, by Philip Donovan, Studio Principal, Community at Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, April 2019.
ASHRAE Building Energy Quotient, by John Constantinide, Sr. Mechanical Engineer at Alpha MRC Architects Engineers, Nov 2018.
Energy Consumption in Schools, by Bruce Lindsay, Manager of Energy and Resource Conservation at Brevard Public Schools, Nov 2018.
Career Opportunities in HVAC&R, by Jake Rardin, Sales Engineer at Envelop Group, Oct 2018.
ASHRAE Informational Session for Engineering Week at Florida Tech., By: Lee Guthrie, Feb 2017.
Best Practice for Evaluating and Improving Commercial Building Performance, by Bruce Hunn (ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer), Sept 2016.
Building Energy Modeling Using IES VE Pro by, Ed. Gillett, Project Manager, Government & Commercial Services, SGM Engineering, April 2016.
ASHRAE President Presentation, David T. Underwood, Nov 2015.
Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Built Environment, Dr. Kishor Khankari (ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer), Oct 2015.
ASHRAE Opportunities for Students, by John Constantinide- Sr. Mechanical Engineer at Alpha MRC Architects Engineers, Sept. 2015.

Research

Several of Florida Tech’s ASHRAE Branch students participate in research projects on various Energy and HVACR related topics: Net-zero energy buildings, energy efficient educational facilities, renewable energy systems, Innovative HVAC systems, Combined Cooling, Heating and Power Generating (CCHP) Systems, and more.

Conference Presentations

Florida Tech’s ASHRAE branch students actively participate and present the outcome of their research works in national/international conferences. Some of the recent presentations include:

Nivedha Madhusudhan, Alex Callinan and Dr. Najafi, ASME IMECE (Nov 2022)
Mariana Migliori and Dr. Najafi, ASME Energy Sustainability (July 2022)
Dr. Najafi and Obinna Uyanna, ASHRAE Winter Conference (Feb 2020)
Mohadeseh Seyednezhad and Anuj Pant, ASME IMECE (Nov 2019)
Ganesh Doiphode, ASME Energy Sustainability Conference (July 2019)
Obinna Uyanna, ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference (July 2019)