March 9, 2005—An HVAC&R lab at Pennsylvania State University is one of 26 educational projects being built with the help of ASHRAE grants.
The grants, totaling some $110,000, that have been awarded by ASHRAE to colleges and universities worldwide to promote the study and teaching of HVAC&R, encouraging undergraduate students to pursue related careers. The grants are used to design and construct projects.
ASHRAEs Student Activities Committee received 41 applications for the 2005 Senior Undergraduate Grant Program, a 20 percent increase over last year. Grants are awarded ranging in amounts from $5,000 (the maximum amount available per project) to $1,725.
Currently, Penn State juniors majoring in architectural engineering are exposed to HVAC&R equipment primarily through course lectures, a few site visits and weekly practicum where problems are solved on paper, but they lack hands-on experience. The lab will give them a place to interact with HVAC&R equipment and principles they learn about class. It will include an air handling unit, two air-conditioning window units, a small heat pump, low differential pressure instruments and manometers, carbon dioxide meters, VOC meters and a human simulation device.
Other ASHRAE grant recipients include: the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, for an energy recovery demonstration module; Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, for a refrigeration testing laboratory unit; Rochester Institute of Technology, a traveling energy and the environment activity kit for middle and high school girls.
ASHRAE is an international organization of 55,000 persons. Its sole objective is to advance through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education in the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve the evolving needs of the public. For more information, visit its Web site.
