The 2010 Design Competition Instructions have changed significantly from 2009.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

Your team must download the necessary files for the competition.

Your team must register for the competition with society by clicking on the link below.

ASHRAE sponsors this design project competition to encourage students to become involved in the dynamic profession of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning, to apply their knowledge to practical design use, and to promote team work. Students of all disciplines are encouraged to enter the competition. Students studying the fields of architecture, construction, building service, mechanical, electrical, environmental, technology, IT, business, management, etc. may find that the Integrated Sustainable Building Design (ISBD) contest is most suited to their interests or abilities.

ASHRAE will recognize the outstanding student design projects at the ASHRAE Winter Meeting to be held in Las Vegas, NV on January 29th – February 2, 2011.

The student design competition’s guidelines provide enough background information to enable the teams to design or select the HVAC system for the given building or to develop through an integrated building design process the architectural design and supporting mechanical and electrical systems for the given program.

Teams may compete in one of the three categories:

• HVAC System Design
• HVAC System Selection
• Integrated Sustainable Building Design (ISBD)

ASHRAE recommends that the project groups consist of at least two members from an undergraduate engineering or architecture curriculum for the HVAC System Design and HVAC System Selection categories, and at least three members (architecture or construction, mechanical & electrical) for the ISBD category. Team members can be from multiple colleges. All team members must be enrolled in an undergraduate (or graduate for ISBD) program during the semester/term in which they contribute to the design in the HVAC System Design and HVAC System Selection categories. Graduate students may only participate in the Integrated Sustainable Building Design – ISBD.


The report should be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and may contain no more than 50 slides. The slides should be uncluttered and should not include excessive information that makes them difficult to read. Liberal usage of the notes field on each slide is allowed.

The presentation should include, at a minimum, the following:

• Statement of category criteria and major goals,
• Descriptions of how the design satisfied these criteria and goals,
• A review of all major assumptions
• Descriptions of how and why the final HVAC system or integrated sustainable building design/architectural design was selected,
• Supporting calculations, and
• Relevant drawings and/or schematic diagrams.

In order to conserve our resources we require that all entries be submitted electronically. Information on how to submit entries will be provided to only those teams that register for the competition. The deadline for receipt of entries is May 7, 2010.

The report should be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and may contain no more than 50 slides. The slides should be uncluttered and should not include excessive information that makes them difficult to read. Liberal usage of the notes field on each slide is allowed.

It is imperative that the following information be included on the title slides:

• Title of project
• Competition Category
• Team members’ names
• Present addresses and telephone numbers
• Permanent addresses and telephone numbers
• Current e-mail addresses
• Students’ status (e.g., junior, senior, etc.)
• Students’ majors
• Date of anticipated graduation
• School name(s) and address(es)
• Faculty advisor’s name, address, telephone number
• Name of sponsoring ASHRAE chapter
• Names of local ASHRAE mentors (if any)
• Students’ signatures and date
• Faculty advisor’s signature and date

All of the above information is required, and furthermore, if missing, could result in teams not being able to participate.

What is the Evaluation Time Schedule? 

There will be four levels of evaluation. Evaluators at all levels will judge the design project reports, not only for content, but also for compliance with the contest rules.

May 7, 2010
Entries must be submitted electronically by this date by uploading the entry to the ASHRAE Society FTP site established for this purpose. Only teams who register will get the FTP site information emailed to them, so please register. Only chapters with registered teams will get the FTP site emailed to them as well.

Teams that do not have local chapters, are required to adhere to this same deadline. Your entry will be evaluated by your Region Vice Chair (RVC).

May 21, 2010
Deadline for local ASHRAE Chapters to forward their selection of the best entry in each category to the Student Activities Regional Vice Chair (RVC) FTP site. (This will be given to only those Chapters that have registered teams.)

June 4, 2010
Deadline for Student Activities, Regional Vice Chair to forward their selection of the best entry in each category to the Society Student Design Project Competition Subcommittee FTP site (this will be send to all RVCs).

June 25, 2010
Society level competition under the direction of the Student Activities Student Project Competition Subcommittee Chair will select 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each category. In order to encourage additional schools to participate a Rising Star winner will be chosen within each category from among those schools that have not had a winning entry in the category in the previous three years. Please Note: The Society level of the competition is conducted during Executive Session and is closed to team members and/or faculty advisors. Any violation of this notice can result in a team’s disqualification from the competition.

August 6, 2010
1st, 2nd, 3rd place and Rising Star winners for each category are selected. Winners are announced no later than this date.

Awards will be presented to the winners of each of the three competition subcategories as follows:

• A list of the 2009 winners is available here.

First Place:$2,000 plus a representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the ASHRAE 2011 winter meeting in Las Vegas, NV where the award will be presented.

Second Place:A representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the ASHRAE 2011 winter meeting in Las Vegas, NV where the award will be presented.

Third Place:A representative from the team will receive free transportation, two nights lodging and $100 expenses for attendance at the ASHRAE 2011 winter meeting in Las Vegas, NV where the award will be presented.

Rising Star:A representative from the team will receive free transportation and two nights lodging for attendance at the ASHRAE 2011 winter meeting in Las Vegas, NV where the award will be presented.

By participating in the ASHRAE 2010 Student Design Competition, the student design competition team member grants and assigns to ASHRAE or its agent the rights, whole or in part, to distribute, publish, post and/or release the project as it may see fit. These rights include reproduction, translation, and citation. It is understood that ASHRAE does not accept responsibility for any content within the presentation that may be found to be libelous, infringing on copyright or other intellectual property rights, invading individual privacy or to be otherwise unlawful.

The ASHRAE 2010 Student Design Competition’s project is The Ginsburg Tower at Florida Hospital in Orlando. This structure, the tallest hospital building in the state of Florida, is a 15-story patient tower that will contain the Florida Hospital Cardiovascular Institute, 440 patient beds and one of the largest Emergency Departments in the country. Patient floor 8 is typical of all patient floors 9-14. Only the new structure at columns <14 is included in this project.

Each entry must include design for the following major areas:

• 1st Floor Lobby and Reception
• 1st Floor Emergency Room
• 1st Floor Food Service Area
• 1st Floor Gift Shop
• 2nd Floor Diagnostic Imaging
• All Patient Rooms
• All Conference Rooms
• All Common Areas

Teams may compete in up to three categories:HVAC System Design, HVAC System Selection or Integrated Sustainable Building Design (ISBD includes Architectural, HVAC, & other Building Services design disciplines).  

HVAC Systems Design – For students who have attended 1-3 HVAC courses. Focuses on "right-sizing" HVAC equipment and systems to provide an energy-efficient design for the facility. Students are required to determine heating and cooling loads, and design an HVAC system for the office tower while complying with ASHRAE Standards 55-2004, 62.1-2007 and 90.1- 2007.

HVAC Systems Selection – For students at schools completing a dedicated HVAC curriculum. Encourages students with a solid HVAC base to use life-cycle cost process to select the building HVAC system(s) as well as incorporate the sustainability process promoted by ASHRAE by integrating the US Green Building Council's LEED™ Rating System (or equivalent in the home country of international students.)

Integrated Sustainable Building Design/Architectural Design HVAC & other Building Service Systems –  For a team of architectural and engineering students. Graduate students may also compete in this category only. Teams are asked to design their own building for the program described in the effort to approach a Zero energy building. Students will be asked to document select LEED credits (or equivalent energy rating system in their home country) to measure how their design meets the sustainability goals. The emphasis in ISBD is on whole-building design, integrating architectural, construction, mechanical, electrical and other technical disciplines in an integrated approach throughout the design process.

   HVAC System Design

   HVAC System Selection   

   Integrated Sustainable Building Design/Architectural Design Criteria

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