Passive Building Prototype 2024
Are you interested in sustainable design, getting hands-on building experience, and becoming a member of an all female-identifying design project?
For the Fall of 2024, WEST has teamed up with Introba to create an exciting design challenge geared towards sustainable building practices and student-led innovation.
The focus of the Passive Building Prototype (PBP) project is to demonstrate how implementation of a passive building design can create spaces that are comfortable and safe for occupants, while minimizing the requirement for external inputs. Your challenge will be as follows:
As a representation of a small high-performance sustainable building, design and build a prototype enclosed structure that maintains the most stable indoor air temperature possible, using passive building design strategies.
Over the course of the semester, you and your team will design and build a prototype enclosed structure that meets a given list of constraints. Once the prototypes are built, the final structures will be exposed to real outdoor weather conditions with a temperature monitoring probe and data recording to evaluate their performance.
As a hands-on, industry-backed project you will gain valuable skills in:
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Passive building design techniques
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Teamwork and communication
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Public speaking and networking
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Tools training
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CAD (computer-aided design)
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Energy modeling
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Contract administration and writing RFIs
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Project management
Participants in the PBP project will get to:
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Tour a certified LEED Platinum building to see sustainable engineering in practice
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Be mentored by industry leaders through all stages of design and building
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Attend our Women In STEM panel event
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Present their work at our end-of-term Project Showcase where we invite members of the community and industry professionals to celebrate each teams’ designs
Please let us know if you have any additional questions, and we look forward to your application for the Passive Building Project!
Introba is an international building engineering and consulting firm with over 1000 employees in offices in Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia. As a collection of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, sustainability analysis, energy modelers, policy researchers, and climate resilience planners, they collaborate with clients to create “Living Systems” that are smart, secure, resilient, and connected.
Introba’s work spans buildings in the Commercial, Education, Residential, Healthcare, Science & Technology, Government, and Cultural sectors. They bring green building technology to places for living, working, healing, and learning – including passive building design, heat pumps and heat recovery systems, advanced lighting, rainwater harvesting, renewable energy and storage systems, and building automation.
The Introba 2024 Project will be an exciting opportunity for you to get hands-on experience with passive building design, manufacturing, and prototype development. In this new project, students will have a chance to design and build their own model building and test it in real-environmental conditions! Read below to learn more about the problem statement and timeline of the project!
What is the timeline of the project?
Starting September 12th and ending in December, the project runs approximately for 3 months with workshops every week and has an approximate time commitment of 3-6 hours per week. There are four main deliverables that will be completed during the project: a proposal presentation, a progress presentation, a pitch presentation, and a physical prototype. For all of these deliverables, groups will be led through the process by WEST Project Coordinators and Introba.
What does participation in this project look like?
Everyone participating in this project has a few items they have committed to:
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Attending the weekly lectures and build sessions on Thursdays from 5:00 - 8:00 pm PST in person at UVic
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Submitting the three deliverables with their teammates
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Attend the Project Showcase (date TBD) in December to pitch their solutions.
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Attending a site visit and Women in STEM Panel Event
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Collaborating with their teammates, Introba, WEST, and presenters outside of the workshops/session hours to complete their projects.
Project Eligibility:
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Applications for the Introba 2024 Project are open to female-identifying and women+ students only.
Project Application Information:
Given there are only 25-30 spots available in the project, all applications will be reviewed after the application close date on September 7th and selected participants will receive an email on September 10th confirming their acceptance into the project. The following considerations will be taken into account when selecting the final participants:
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female-identifying or women+
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students that are first time WEST participants or do not have prior experience will be prioritized
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students in disciplines related to the project or with significant interest in the project's subject will be prioritized
After notification of acceptance into the project, students will be required to pay a $30 cash deposit to secure their spot to participate. The deposit will be due on September 12th at the Project Kickoff and can be paid to the project coordinators.
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This deposit will be fully returned to students at the end of the Introba project after December 7th if the student completes the project and participates in all deliverables, including the Project Showcase
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The deposit will be donated to WEST if a student drops out of the project throughout the semester
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If a student drops out of the project due to extreme circumstances (health, injury or family related), the WEST team will review the case and may consider returning the deposit.
Application Deadline: Sept 6th, 2024
Click the button below to sign up for this new project!