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Nominee: Omar Abdelaziz
Employer: Research and Development Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Education: Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park; Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Power Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Notable Accomplishments: Dr. Abdelaziz has distinguished himself as an outstanding researcher, publishing over 30 papers and journal articles related to building equipment. His work involves solving a variety of complex technical problems related to the development of highly efficient heat pumps, water heaters and appliances. He is working with several major manufacturers to introduce new technologies to the market. In addition, he is coordinating the development of a life cycle climate performance tool with major refrigerant suppliers and building industry partners to enable the analysis of low global warming potential refrigerant solutions for different applications.
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Nominee: Theresa L. Allen, P.E.
Employer: Mechanical Engineer, McGuire Engineers, Chicago, Ill.
Education: Bachelor of Science and Professional Master’s in Architectural Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Notable Accomplishments: Since starting her career in mechanical engineering, Allen has worked on over 200 projects in the Chicago area. She is constantly trying to show that architectural engineering is a valuable career path that prepares engineers for working in the building systems market. By practicing both plumbing and mechanical engineering, she is able to add a level of coordinated design and communication that can easily get lost when engineers don’t fully understand what other disciplines do. In her advocacy for sustainability, she has worked on over 400,000 square feet of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) projects, 25 percent of those achieving Platinum certification. Through performing design and energy modeling on those projects, she has helped clients save approximately 6,500 million BTUs of energy and 200,000 gallons of water annually. On her LEED projects, the average energy savings is 30 percent. Allen attributes this not to her engineering alone, but also to the fostering of a good communication channel between all project parties. Her most notable project to date was a new commercial building in downtown Chicago that achieved over 50 percent energy savings, 2 percent of which was through renewable energy. Allen’s promotion of sustainability also includes pursing commissioning projects and encouraging clients to track energy usage through Energy Star certification.
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Nominee: Fadi Alsaleem, Ph.D.
Employer: Cooling System Engineer, Emerson Climate Technologies, Sidney, Ohio
Education: Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Binghamton
Notable Accomplishments: Alsaleem uses his micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) experience in the HVAC industry. As evidence of his research success in the field, he has published 27 papers in prestigious journals or presented at major scientific conferences. Due to the influence of his work, his research has been cited more than 70 times in peer-reviewed scientific articles. During his academic career, he designed new types of smart MEMS devices that can be used in different types of sensing applications. During his industrial carrier, he invented a new type of controllers that can be used in HVAC&R systems along with electronics expansion valve to optimize their performance. These controllers have the advantages of eliminating operator need for tuning their gains as is the case for conventional controller.
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Nominee: Jeffrey N. Beeden, P.E.
Employer: Division Manager, Becht Engineering BT, Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.
Education: Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Business Administration in Technology Management with a concentration in project management, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J.
Notable Accomplishments: Beeden is responsible for the business aspects of the entire division including mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection technical content. Jeff is also responsible for the business aspects of the division including proposal and contract negotiation, finding new clients and new projects and seeing the projects through successful implementation. His projects include designs for a semi-conductor manufacturing facility, pharmacy clean room, kilo-lab, office space and data center and a flavor production facility.
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Nominee: John Patrick Castelvecchi Jr., P.E.
Employer: Manager, AECOM, Roanoke, Va.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg
Notable Accomplishments: Castelvecchi is a driving force in the use of the integrated design process to achieve high performance within complex building projects. Through his focused efforts of applying sustainable design to all of his work, he balances green design with traditional high energy requirements to maximize building performance. He has demonstrated success in using this collaborative design process on intricate projects involving historically significant structures and high security standards, including airborne biological, chemical and radiological threat protection systems. Castelvecchi’s high-performance designs have proven that national building treasures and security can be maintained while achieving a high level of sustainable features that provide user comfort and energy conservation features. One of his beneficiaries of this collaborative approach to achieve building high-performance is the newly renovated McGinnis-Wickham Hall at Fort Benning, Georgia originally constructed in 1964. This project is designed to save 35 percent in energy consumption over a minimally code compliant building in addition to the nearly 5 million gallons of potable water saved by innovative features included in the design.
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Nominee: Thomas M. Chirdon
Employer: Design Engineer, Southland Industries, Dulles, Va.
Education: Bachelor and Master of Architectural Engineering with a mechanical option, Penn State University, University Park, Pa.
Notable Accomplishments: Chirdon has pushed himself to attain an intimate understanding of the entire design, construction and commissioning of a building. He has started his journey in the design of complex mechanical systems. He worked on the design of the U.S. government’s Defense Information Systems Agency Campus, approximately 1.1 million square feet, which utilized an under floor air distribution system, creating a controlled and adaptable work environment. He was also instrumental in the design of the remote, independent structures of the Washington Headquarters Services building, a 1.8 million square foot office complex. After working on the preliminary design of the Carl R. Darnell Army Medical Center, a 970,000 square foot military hospital, Chirdon transitioned to a commissioning role with the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital project. Having previously worked on the design of a similarly sized hospital in Texas, he was able to better understand the systems and sensitivity of the various spaces and service offered by world class military hospitals. Testing and verifying system operation in a healthcare campus is of the utmost concern to allow civilian and military care givers to save lives and protect U.S. heroes. The commissioning process with this 1.2 million square foot campus also included ongoing training for the operators of the hospital so they understand the system and maintenance requirements of the diverse equipment installed. Chirdon has embraced core engineering values that focus on design and installation that create a functional and sustainable product for the owner and operator of buildings.
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Nominee: Christine C. Cloutier, P.E.
Employer: Mechanical Engineer, HDR Architecture Inc., Pasadena, Calif.
Education: Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Notable Accomplishments: Cloutier has been involved in engineering design for hospitals, medical office buildings, offices, jails, sheriff station, border patrol, manufacturing, university labs and central plant design. She is currently involved in her fourth LEED® project, slated to receive LEED Gold, as the mechanical coordinator. She has done air and hydronic design, central utility plant design, load calculations, energy modeling, LEED paperwork, submittal, request for information review and punch list for project in construction. She was the lead designer on Palm Desert Sheriff Station that is to achieve LEED gold. She is also managing San Gorgonio’s Patient Tower in Banning, Calif.
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Nominee: Jeffrey Colby
Employer: Design Engineer, Southland Industries, Dulles, Va.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Notable Accomplishments: Colby says he’s fortunate to have been involved in a couple of incredible projects, including HVAC design on the Walter Reed/National Naval
Medical Center new construction and renovation project in Bethesda, Md. The opportunity to
design a state-of-the-art medical treatment facility for the U.S. military was a real privilege and a small way of giving back, he said. He has spent the majority of his time designing, building and
commissioning a 2 million square foot Department of Defense complex in Alexandria, Va.
During this time, he helped to accommodate tenant needs during design. This design was
important because over 6,400 government employees will occupy the building, and ensuring their comfort and productivity was a monumental task. He also spent two years in the field verifying that the design was installed correctly. He helped to coordinate a team of 25+ technicians during the building "shakedown" process, and saw the final commissioning process through to completion. This building has literally changed the Washington, D.C., skyline and having the opportunity to say that he was a part of it gives him a huge sense of pride.
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Nominee: Patrick Fahy
Employer: Mechanical Engineer, AECOM, New York, N.Y.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn.
Notable Accomplishments: Fahy has served on various design teams for projects across multiple business lines such as water, energy and transportation. His broad background coupled with his dedication and desire for technical excellence has contributed to the design and construction of numerous projects in and around New York City, including high-profile public works projects for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Striving for excellence in all that he does, Fahy has worked to ensure vital transportation hubs and their mechanical systems remain functional during expansion projects, and numerous New York City and state-owned facilities reduce their energy usage. Most recently, he has provided mechanical design support for the construction of a major upgrade to a wastewater treatment plant in New York City, which will result in improved water quality in the Long Island Sound and East River.
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Nominee: Daniel K. Flora, P.E.
Employer: Sustainable Engineering Department Manager, Talbot and Associates Consulting Engineers, Charlotte, N.C.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, minor in mathematics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Notable Accomplishments: Flora has been responsible for designing heating, air conditioning and plumbing systems for many different building types. The focus of his designs is to maintain a long equipment life while minimizing energy usage and owner maintenance. He has had the opportunity to design facilities that exceed ASHRAE and IES’s 2007 energy standardby as much as 50 percent. He has worked with local vendors to develop a skid mounted water treatment system for harvesting rainwater to be distributed as toilet flushing water and cooling tower makeup water. He has performed energy analyses to predict energy usage and life cycle cost for owners and code authorities. He has been responsible for implementing his company’s building information modeling standards and procedures on our first two projects in REVIT MEP 2011.
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Nominee: Benjamin Fuller, P.E.
Employer: Mechanical Engineer, AECOM, Minneapolis, Minn.
Education: Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Notable Accomplishments: Fuller’s professional career has been shaped by projects in a variety of market sectors including health care, government, corporate, higher education and sports — exposing him to the various facets of mechanical engineering. He is a strong believer that any successful engineering design must address sustainability. As an advocate for incorporating sustainable designs into any project he works on, Fuller has leveraged energy modeling tools and worked with his design team and clients through an integrated design process, to help evaluate and reduce the energy impact. Fuller helped his team apply this process toward the Patagonia Distribution Center project in Reno, Nev. The Center was his first and most challenging energy model project to date. Fuller worked with his collaborative design team and client to help the Center reach 45 percent energy cost savings, which was below the local energy codes at the time, and achieve the first LEED® Gold rating in Nevada.
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Nominee: Tyler Glesne, P.E., ASHRAE-Certified Commissioning Process Management Professional
Employer: Lead Mechanical Engineer, M.E. Group, Omaha, Neb.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames
Notable Accomplishments: Glesne continually achieves success in procuring and managing complex, demanding projects. His projects and activities focus on representing himself and his company as one of the fastest growing leaders in the high performance building consulting and commissioning industry. Glesne’s work typically includes LEED® rated facilities, including the first LEED Gold service facility in Omaha, Neb., and a small net zero facility in Western Nebraska. His commissioning activities include several Postal Service distribution centers, hospitals and historic buildings in the Central U.S. in addition to over 7 million square feet of federally owned facilities in the hearts of New York, Chicago and Washington DC, including the Ronald Reagan Building which is the third largest U.S. federal building.
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Nominee: John Guignard, P.E.
Employer: W.B. Guimarin Co., Columbia, S.C.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, S.C.
Notable Accomplishments: Guignard serves as a leader at troubleshooting while project managing for the 100+-year-old company for which he works. He has worked in various capacities including overseeing design build construction jobs from initial customer need all the way to project completion and has been the lead project manager for complex healthcare mechanical construction projects. Projects include a pediatric surgery up-fit at Palmetto Richland, McLeod Health eight floor upfit, Trident Tech Culinary School and an HVAC renovation at Irmo Middle School.
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Nominee: Michael Hass
Employer: Mechanical Engineer, Arup, Los Angeles, Calif.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Notable Accomplishments: Upon graduating from the University of Colorado, Hass set off wanting to make a positive contribution to the world and started his career designing and installing photovoltaic systems for commercial and residential buildings. After a few years in the industry, he realized the importance of energy conservation and decided to redirect his focus to the design of the HVAC&R systems that are responsible for using a majority of the energy in those buildings. Over the past two years, Hass has contributed to the design of the Central Utility Plant Replacement Project at Los Angeles International Airport, the Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi and Torre Reforma sky scraper in Mexico City.
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Nominee: Joseph Higham
Employer: Sales Engineer, Norman S. Wright Co., Albuquerque, N.M.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro; Master of Business Administration, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Notable Accomplishments: Higham spent nearly three years with a consulting engineering firm designing energy efficient HVAC systems for K-12 schools, laboratories and colleges. During that time, he designed Highland High School’s New Figge Hall and Central New Mexico Community College’s Rio Ranch campus using a ground coupled heat pump system, both of which earned LEED® Gold. Higham then took advantage of the opportunity to lead the effort by Norman S. Wright Company to increase the market penetration for variable refrigerant flow (VRF) HVAC systems. As part of this effort, he has worked with engineers, architects and building owners to increase their understanding of VRF technology and reduce the cost of implementing this highly efficient system.
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Nominee: Ryan Hougham, P.E.
Employer: Project Manager/Design Engineer, HDR Engineering Inc., Folsom, Calif.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Business Administration, California State University, Sacramento
Notable Accomplishments: Hougham is dedicated to helping HDR’s drinking water group succeed in Northern California. He assists the project manager with activities such as invoices, tracing project progress scheduling, facility reviews, to name just a few of the myriad tasks that Ryan becomes intricately involved in.
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Nominee: Rupesh Satish Iyengar, P.E.
Employer: Researcher, ETH, Zurich
Education: Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India; Master of Science in Building Performance and Sustainability, National University of Singapore; and currently pursuing a Doctorate of Science in Zero Emission Building Design, ETH Zurich
Notable Accomplishments: Iyengar’s interest in the field of HVAC, energy efficiency and thermal science took him to a MEP consulting firm in Bangalore where he started his career. He was always looking at designing systems in a more energy efficient way. He designed the hydraulic system of a 250 room, a 3 star hotel project in Bangalore, incorporating high efficiency variable frequency drive driven pumps combined with a water recovery system that recycled water and delivered it for other purposes, giving a 30 percent water saving potential. For another hotel project at Kakinada, he designed a water cooled chiller with a coupled heat recovery unit, using the extracted waste heat to run boilers. The chiller supplier had to customize his design to suit Iyengar specification; thus saving the client huge operational energy costs. In Singapore, he was involved in a zero energy building project where he conducted an energy audit of the systems and made recommendations to improve the design of the water side systems in order to maximize efficiency by another 40 percent. In another project collaborated with National University of Singapore, he designed a high performing building for a private client, and proved through daylight, energy and computational fluid dynamics simulations that the energy consumption could be lowered by more than 30 percent compared to a normal design. He incorporated clear glazing, achieved more than 75 percent day lit spaces and kept solar radiation and glare at bay. The project also introduced an urban farm design, included design of an innovative way of ventilating and cooling the collaborative spaces in the atrium using exhaust air from the rooms. He is now working on a zero energy building in Bangalore, focused on high performing and innovative concepts of natural ventilation using earth air tunnel, underfloor air distribution systems, natural lighting etc., to enhance indoor environmental quality. This project is also in the process of securing a LEED® platinum certification.
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Nominee: Stillman Jordan III
Employer: Mechanical EIT, HDR Engineering, San Antonio, Texas
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas, San Antonio; currently pursuing a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Notable Accomplishments: Jordan strives to design buildings that consume less energy and also teach others how they can design buildings that consume less energy. He says the key to reducing energy consumption of a building is to find cost effective design solutions that will give building owners and operators the most bang for their buck. The way that we find these cost effective design solutions is to create energy models for designed buildings. With an energy mode, simulations are run to compare the different design alternatives to accurately predict how much energy consumption is raised or lowered with each of the different solutions. This allows engineers to pick the design solutions that will have the greatest impact on the amount of energy consumed by that particular building. Jordan has worked on the design of several federal buildings in Kansas and Texas as an energy modeler, working with architects to select appropriate envelope components to give the building the requested energy savings and to determine the amount of insulation required as well as the needed heat transfer properties of the windows and doors. He was part of the mechanical design team, assisting in selecting the key equipment components to provide the most energy savings with the budget. On these projects, he ensured that the building met its target energy consumption level of 30 percent below ASHRAE and IES’s energy standard while also staying under the project’s budget. Energy is valuable resource that impacts every aspect of the world we live in – Jordan says it’s his responsibility as an engineer to conserve as much of it as possible.
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Nominee: Brandon Keatley
Employer: Sales Engineer, Faulkner/Haynes and Associates, Lexington, S.C.
Education: Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia
Notable Accomplishments: Through his work with Faulkner/Haynes and Associates, which serves as manufacturers’ representatives dealing in a wide range of HVAC applications, Keatley is exposed to many of the niches that lie in the industry: computer and pool rooms, hospital filtration and ventilation, public school work and the gamut of day-to-day commercial buildings. He has had the opportunity to sell and oversee installation of products in his high school and university alma maters. The new Horizon Research Building at the University of South Carolina is one of his more notable projects. He also has been involved in many local K-12 schools, hospital projects including Carolinas Medical Center at Pineville, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center and Palmetto Health and numerous buildings adding to the wellbeing of his communities such as churches, parks, recreation centers and retail. Keatley said it is a privilege to have a hand in the proper operations of buildings that we all use in living healthy, productive lives.
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Nominee: Ryan Lambert, P.E.
Employer: Senior Energy Management Engineer, Puget Sound Energy, Bellevue, Wash.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Gonzaga University, Seattle, Wash., currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration with sustainability specialization at Seattle University
Notable Accomplishments: Lambert strives to provide innovative and sustainable energy solutions for his customers. During his career, he has helped several school districts and hospitals implement various conservation measures, including lighting retrofits, control upgrades, plumbing upgrades, envelope improvements and HVAC replacement. In the last two years, Lambert has helped three Washington school districts save 1,445,445 kwh, 34,696 therms and 8,403 MMBTU (17 percent reduction), for a total carbon emission reduction of 758 GHG tons/year. The energy conservation measures will save over $113,000 a year, which will provide additional funds for textbooks, teacher or improved facilities. Even though the schools did not have a significant amount of funds, Lambert helped secure rebates and state incentives to ensure the schools had the financial capacity to implement the necessary energy measures. For the Washington schools, he assisted in securing $1,385,256 in Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction funds and $365,746 in rebates.
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Nominee: Ashley N. Lester
Employer: HVAC Engineer, Klingstubbins, Philadelphia, Pa.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering (HVAC concentration) and Master of Science in Civil Engineer (heat transfer/indoor air quality concentration), Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa.
Notable Accomplishments: Lester has been at the forefront of energy modeling innovations, engineering dozens of buildings with a focus on increased sustainability and health performance while minimizing energy usage and environmental impact. She has performed energy modeling and presented energy savings and indoor air quality design strategies for numerous LEED® projects. For a 2.4 million square foot campus in Virginia—the largest governmental facility ever to be LEED certified—her energy modeling over two years led to a reduction in energy consumption of 16.7 percent below the ASHRAE baseline and a LEED Gold certification. Later, her work on two Delaware office buildings (400,000 square feet total) resulted in energy reductions of 21 percent and 28 percent below the baseline, while exceeding indoor air quality standards by providing 97 percent of occupants with individual climate controls.
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Nominee: Jonathan Maglott
Employer: MEP Engineer in Training, Johnson and Pace Inc., Longview, Texas
Education: Bachelor of Engineering Technology with Mechanical Concentration, LeTourneau University, Longview, Texas; Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, University of Toledo, Ohio
Notable Accomplishments: As the manager of the Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Engineering department, Maglott has worked hard to develop new customer contacts and build relationships. To find potential customers, he searches for businesses in particular industries. He then sends them information about the services he can provide and follows up with calls and visits. He has been successful because of his diligence and earnestness. He was able to contribute to the company with his mechanical engineering skills as the company worked on its largest project ever. On this $33 million project, he provided designs for cold storage in addition to other mechanical and plumbing systems for a multi‐use facility.
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Nominee: Luka Matutinovic, P.Eng.
Employer: Performance Simulation Team Leader, Halsall Associates, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Education: Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Science Infrastructure Option, University of Toronto
Notable Accomplishments: Combining his experience with predictive, whole-building energy modeling, and on-site retro-commissioning, Matutinovic helps people make energy management decisions for new and existing buildings. Whether it is advising architects on the most energy-efficient cladding design, or working with property managers to reduce comfort issues and improve operational performance, Matutinovic brings technical expertise, big-picture thinking and a passion for sustainability to every project. Since joining Halsall, he has worked on over 30 LEED® projects and managed simulations teams on more than 60 projects, representing over 5,000,000 square feet of buildings. By using performance simulation to guide design decisions, he has helped save over 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions by improving the energy efficiency of buildings and communities. Similarly, by performing retro-commissioning on four recent existing building projects, he has helped identify over 13,500 MWh of annual operational energy savings, with typical paybacks of less than three years. By recognizing that buildings represent close to 40 percent of total energy use, Matutinovic’s goal is to use techniques such as energy modeling, retro-commissioning and the integrated design process to make energy (carbon) and people (occupant comfort) the new paradigms for making decisions about the built environment and about our society’s future.
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Nominee: Matt Morgan, P.E.
Employer: Engineer, Karpinski Engineering, Cleveland, Ohio
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Penn State University, State College, Pa.
Notable Accomplishments: Morgan has been key to the mechanical design for projects totaling over 300 million in construction cost of which the majority of his design has been with one of the nation’s top three hospitals (US News and World Report ranking). On a new 300,000 square foot hospital in Northeast Ohio, his role was to design the hospital’s air distribution system. This system served 147 patient beds and eight operating rooms. His design responsibility on this project progressed into a leadership role as a construction administrator where the $150 million project finished under budget and on schedule. Since this hospital was located in the Morgan’s hometown, the quality of patient care took on a very personal meaning to him. He also recently designed mechanical systems for a renovation at the Cleveland Natural History Museum. Using an innovative design approach, Morgan provided HVAC to the renovation area while eliminating any disturbance to the adjacent historical exhibit. His design incorporated the use of an existing stairwell as a mechanical room and an underground trench as the vehicle to provide under-floor air distribution around the perimeter of the building.
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Nominee: Marco Ottavino
Employer: Modernization and Retrofit Solutions Specialist, Honeywell – Building Solutions Division, Markham, Ontario, Canada
Education: Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto; Master in Business Administration candidate, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo
Notable Accomplishments: As a modernization and retrofit service account manager, Ottavino is responsible for providing solutions to building owners and operators that will make their facilities more reliable, efficient and comfortable. Promoting Honeywell’s breadth of offerings, including mechanical services, building automation and controls, fire protection, life safety and security solutions, he helps customers reduce their overall energy consumption, increase their employee’s productivity and make their workplaces more safe and secure. As he has only recently joined Honeywell Building Solutions in May 2011, Ottavino is in the process of developing energy based solutions for multiple commercial, industrial, residential and retail partners across Toronto. Currently, he is working on various facility upgrade solutions that will help customers reduce their overall energy consumption and improve their site’s impact on the environment. He looks forward to working with building owners with the overall goal of becoming more energy efficient and sustainable.
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Nominee: Aakash Ashok Patel
Employer: Project Manager, Volpak Systems, Gujarat, India
Education: Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Mumbai University, Mumbai, India; post-graduate diploma in business management – marketing, T.A. Pai Management Institute Manipal, Karnataka.
Notable Accomplishments: Patel has successfully integrated equipments like chillers, variable frequency drives, air handling units, pumps and variable air volume boxes on a single
platform (intelligent building management system) for Gujarat State Electricity Corp. headquarters in Baroda, Gujarat. He also was successful in integrating services like complete HVAC, fire detection, fire fighting, elevators and plumbing machines for Courtyard by Marriott,
Ahmedabad, a five-star property with 186 rooms. He also incorporated sales of variable refrigerant volume machines.
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Nominee: Laura Gardner Petrillo, P.E.
Employer: AHRI (Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute), Arlington, Va.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Notable Accomplishments: As a certification engineer at AHRI, Petrillo is working to ensure human comfort, productivity and safety, while practicing environmental stewardship. Through her work with the forced circulation Air-Cooling and Air-Heating Coils (ACHC), Central Station Air-Handling Units (AHU), Room Fan-Coils (RFC) and Unit Ventilators (UVNT) AHRI Certified® programs, she strives to save energy, improve productivity and ensure a better environment. By establishing relationships with wide variety of manufacturers, she leads a team through the process of developing reliable equipment standards for related products (specifically AHRI Standards 410, 430, 440 and 840) and oversees certification testing that will ultimately allow consumers to make product comparisons and choose dependable, efficient heating and cooling equipment. She also is assisting environmental regulators at the federal, state and local levels as they look to AHRI for accurate and unbiased evaluation of HVAC&R equipment. Using her experience as a design engineer, Petrillo is nearing completion of a year-long effort to update and improve the directories of ACHC, AHU, RFC and UVNT equipment, making it easier to identify dependable, efficient equipment.
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Nominee: Rebecca Reel, P.E.
Employer: The RMH Group Inc., Lakewood, Colo.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
Notable Accomplishments: A lucky person is able to connect her passions with her profession, and Reel is able to do just that. She is an avid believer in the potential of sustainable design and strives to bring it into everyday practice. Reel lends her engineering expertise and passion for sustainable design to large, complex military, higher education and justice facilities. She has participated on more than 10 LEED® registered or certified projects, including the Warrior-in-Transition facility at Fort Bliss, Texas. This was a design-build project to construct a housing complex for soldiers recuperating from injuries sustained during military service. Reel was the energy modeler for the project and was instrumental in helping the facility achieve LEED-NC Silver certification. Reel’s dedication to sustainable living permeates everything she does, her firm says.
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Nominee: Nishant Saxena
Employer: Project Manager, Bosch Engineering Solutions, Bosch Thermotechnology Corp., Irvine, Calif.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineer with specialization in heat and mass transfer, University of California, Los Angeles
Notable Accomplishments: Saxena has contributed significantly and passionately in both engineering and project management on projects across multiple HVAC&R technologies. Using his comprehensive knowledge on solar thermal and strong understanding of combinations of technologies such as photovoltaic, geothermal heat pumps, boilers and tankless water heaters, Saxena has successfully engineered and managed a variety of projects including designing and sizing over 200 residential and commercial solar thermal systems and managing large scale and high profile energy efficient HVAC&R applications. Other projects include net zero solutions for homes, schools and commercial buildings; and requirements development/quality testing for multiple sizing software. One specific example is the meticulous management of the high profile Maricopa County Jail System’s solar thermal system, in which he oversaw the design, optimization, installation, start-up, commissioning, troubleshooting and assisted in post marketing. In addition to his project management responsibilities, he designed the initial systems, including the 880 collector rooftop array layout for the highly complicated Buckeye Food Factory. This project encompassed four systems and 1209 collectors total, providing energy savings of 3.2 gigawatt hours and reduction of 1.5 millions tones of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing 250,000 cars from US roads.
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Nominee: Heather Schopplein, P.E.
Employer: Engineer, Bender Dean Engineering, San Diego, Calif.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara
Notable Accomplishments: Starting as a project engineer, and later as a project manager, with a mechanical contractor, Schopplein had the opportunity to learn the basics with a hands-on approach. She worked on design build and plan spec projects, allowing her to look at HVAC systems with both a technical and fiscal eye, balancing energy efficiency with cost effective installation to maximize client satisfaction. Her desire to help owners save energy and money lead her to commissioning and energy auditing. Schopplein was the commissioning agent on several San Diego LEED® projects a couple being, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the San Diego Natural History Museum. She performed energy audits for buildings such as Hotel Del Coronado and Encinitas Library. Through commissioning and audits, looking at the HVAC, plumbing and lighting systems, she was able to save on average 15-20 percent energy consumption on existing buildings and help identify and resolve hundreds of construction deficiencies for new buildings. As a professional engineer, she has incorporated her construction and commissioning experience to design Millennial Tech Middle School and The Mason, an independent living low rise facility for the mentally disabled, at 24 percent and 37 percent better than California Title 24 respectively.
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Nominee: Todd Soukup
Employer: Design Engineer, BSA LifeStructures, Chicago, Ill.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Notable Accomplishments: Soukup has had the opportunity to design a variety of projects from American Institute of Architects winning Serta corporate headquarters to educational facilities, high-rise residential buildings, industrial food processing plants and LEED® Gold projects. He plays an integral role in the design and implementation of complex mechanical, engineering and plumbing systems and green building innovations. The success of his leadership has built a wide portfolio of various system designs, including outsized chilled water and boiler plants, variable air volume, ground source heat pumps, chilled beams and other new technology. His success in the architectural/engineering industry is built on trust and the care he gives to his clients, projects and community.
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Nominee: Johnathan C. Woodside
Employer: Engineering Intern, Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P), Nashville, Tenn.
Education: Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee State University, Nashville
Notable Accomplishments: Woodside’s passion for engineering began with a box of Legos at a very early age and motivated him throughout his adolescence and college years. Soon after being hired by Gresham, Smith and Partners, he established himself as one of the company’s standout young leaders. His experience includes HVAC, building controls and piping design for commercial/institutional facilities and an emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. He is also a firmwide leader in ASHRAE and IES’s Standard 90.1 for energy efficiency, energy modeling and developing computer models that forecast a building’s end use and energy consumption. Woodside led a field team for a Tennessee Valley Authority sustainability improvement project and helped design the first of GS&P’s LEED®-certified buildings.
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Nominee: Eric O. Vieira
Employer: Engineer Intern/Project Manager, Consulting Engineering Associates, Tampa, Fla.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa
Notable Accomplishments: Vieira has been the project manager for many tenant improvement projects, educational facility renovations, commercial projects and most recently was the lead HVAC designer for Microlumen’s new facility. He is also an expert on commissioning and LEED® administration, acting as commissioning authority for Mosaic’s new Florida Headquarters, Progress Energy’s Wildwood Facility and several Sarasota fire stations. He also provided the LEED Gold HVAC design and energy model for Magnify Credit Union – Florida’s first net zero energy commercial building.
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