Regina students win global contest on energy efficiency

Three graduates of the University of Regina Faculty of Engineering are the first Canadian students to win a global design contest.

The competition was put on by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). According to its website, "the ASHRAE Student Design Competition recognizes outstanding student design projects, encourages undergraduate students to become involved in the profession, promotes teamwork, and allows students to apply their knowledge of practical design."

It feels pretty good. We were definitely pretty proud when we won the competition.-BrentYeske

The U of R group consisted of Brent Yeske, Eva Rennie, and Brad Lulik. All three membersgraduated in the spring.

"Basically, we were supposed to come up with something that affected the community," Yeske said.

For their winning project, the group worked with Regina's Little Souls Daycare a childcare facility associated with Souls Harbour Rescue Mission to complete an energy assessment.

According to Yeske, the facility doesn't have any ventilation or air conditioning.

"When were actually able to visit the building itself.It's rather uncomfortable in there for the children, as well as the workers," he said. "Our goal was to come up with some solutions to their ventilation requirements. And most importantly because they are a not-for-profit organization we wanted to do this at the lowest possible cost."

Participants from 51 universities

The Regina-based group had to beat out some major competition with participants from 51 universities taking part, including MIT and the University of Toronto.

Yeske said the group was surprised to take home the top prize.

"It feels pretty good. We were definitely pretty proud when we won the competition," he said. "I took a look at the quality of submissions from the other schools and definitely some top quality reports that were coming in."

Souls Harbour is currently in the process of implementing the changes.

The team was awarded a cash prize and were invited to attend the 2017 ASHRAE Winter Meeting in Las Vegas to be officially presented with their award.