ASHRAE awards $163,000 in equipment grants to fund 34 undergraduate projects

ASHRAE announced it is awarding a total of $163,000 for the 2023-2024 academic year to fund 34 projects through ASHRAE Undergraduate Program Equipment Grants.

The ASHRAE Undergraduate Program Equipment Grants provides grants to engineering, technical and architectural schools worldwide. Its goal is to increase student knowledge, learning and awareness of the HVACR industry through the design and construction of senior projects. Grants are used to fund equipment and supplies from one academic term up to one year.

“We hope that the projects funded through the ASHRAE Undergraduate Program Equipment Grants will provide students with an invaluable learning experience and also serve as an instrument of advancing HVAC&R innovations. Congratulations to the selected schools.” said Mai Anh Dao, chair of the ASHRAE Student Activities Committee.

A total of 77 applications were submitted for the grants and seven countries were represented among the projects selected. Successful projects were chosen based upon the following guidelines: relevance as an ASHRAE-related topic; long-term student impact of the project; amount of funding requested; and the participating students’ involvement with ASHRAE.

The two highest-ranking project teams are invited to present their projects during the Student Program at the 2024 ASHRAE Winter Conference, taking place Jan. 20-24, 2024 in Chicago.

The top two projects and schools are as follows:

“Design and Development of Three Stage Vapor Compression System for Ultra-Low Temperature Refrigeration as a Training and Demonstration Unit,” Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi, India; and
“Design and Development of a Test Bench to Evaluate the Performance of Various Energy Recovery Devices,” MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, India.

The remaining projects and schools are as follows:

“Vapour Compression Test Rig with Dedicated Sub Cooler Cycle,” ABES Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India;
“Cascade Refrigeration Test Rig,” ABES Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India;
“Split Air Conditioning Test Rig,” ABES Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India;
“Cal Poly Microfabrication Laboratory Particle Counting and Fume Hood Testing” (Teaching Lab Module and Routine Measurements), California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California;
“Novel Phase Change Material (PCM) Ventilation System,” Concordia University, Montreal, Canada;
“PID Control of Heat Exchanger System using a PLC,” Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington;
“Implementation of a Didactic Test Bench to Study the Actual Operation of a Domestic Heat Pump to Produce Hot Water,” Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Quito, Ecauador;
“Training the Next Generation of Architectural Engineering Students to Understand Operation of Vapor Compression Cycles,” Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago;
“Design and Development of Solar Powered Vapor Adsorption Refrigeration System using Silica Gel,” Lokmanya Tilak College of Engineering, Navi Mumbai, India;
“Design and Development of Free Piston Stirling Cooling System as a Training and Demonstration Unit,” Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi, India;
“Development and Experimental Study of Eco-friendly Vapour Absorption Refrigeration Test Rig using Hybrid Nanofluid,” Marathwada Mitramandal College of Engineering, Pune, India;
“Development of Internet of Things based Indoor Air Quality and Smart Energy Management System for HVAC System,” NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan;
“Development of a Solar PV powered M Cycle Evaporative Cooling system as a Training and Demonstration Unit,” Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India;
“Studies on Improvement of Performance of Air Source Heat Pump,” Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India;
“Development and Testing of a Solar Photovoltaic Cold Storage System Integrated with Phase Change Materials and as a Laboratory Training Unit,” Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India;
“Development and Testing of a Solar Photovoltaic Assisted Split Air Conditioner Integrated with Humidification-Dehumidification Desalination Unit,” Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India;
“A Low-Cost Hybrid Environment to Study Occupant Comfort and Behavior,” Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma;
“Thermally Integrated HVAC System,” Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana;
“Desktop Refrigeration Unit with Boiling and Condensation Visualization,” The Pennsylvania State University, Penn State Harrisburg, Middleburg, Pennsylvania;
“Natural Refrigerant Residential Air-Conditioning (RAC) System IOT Integrated Experiment Setup,” Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia;
“The Development of Internet of Things-Connected Laboratory Training Equipment for Evaluating the Airflow Performance of Multi-Angle Ducting,” Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia;
“Building Materials and Their Thermal Properties,” University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;
“Development of Experimental Testing Rig for Solar Thermal Collectors,” University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain;
“Design and Development of an Innovative Passive Building Envelope Integrated with Phase Change and Insulating Materials: Advancement Towards Future Buildings,” University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Taxila, Pakistan;
“Design and Development of an Evaporative Cooling Refrigeration Educational Unit with Integrated Thermoelectric Harvesting Systems,” University of North Texas, Denton, Texas;
“Development of a Variable-Speed Blower Testbed to Understand Effect of Variable-Air-Volume Operation on System Performance,” University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma;
“Plug and Play Potable Heat Exchanger with BMS,” University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada;
“Design and Fabrication of Multi-Evaporator Refrigeration System for Different Food Storage as a Training and Demonstration Unit,” Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India;
“Design and Development of Cooling Tower with Improved Performance as a Laboratory Experimental Set-Up,” Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India; and
“Design and Development of a Cryocooler Based on Linde-Hampson Refrigerating Cycle for Different Specimen Preservation with Performance Optimization using ML Model," Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.