Launched in September 2013, our new four-year Bachelor of Building Science program offers students the opportunity to train in an emerging sector of the building and construction industry. Please watch our new Bachelor of Building Science video to find out about this program and how industry is geared up for graduates of this program.
Chris Hahn, Chair, Construction Trades and Building Systems; and Chef Scott Warrick, Coordinator, Culinary Programs, will be on 1310 News’ new show, “Talk to the Hand”, on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. to discuss employment in the trades. They will be joining the Honourable Brad Duguid, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities; other local subject matter experts; and host Ed Hand for a lively discussion on why students should consider trades programs and other student issues. Look for a podcast link to follow in the near future!
Saturday, October 12th – update from Rick Briginshaw, Coordinator of the Green Architecture program –
“Hi Everyone,
We just found out that we took FIRST PLACE overall in the Engineering contest, and 6th PLACE OVERAL for the entire competition!!!!
The team is thrilled with those results! See links provided previously for detailed results.”
Friday, October 11th– update from Rick Briginshaw, Coordinator of the Green Architecture program
“Hello Everyone,
Well, after yesterday’s great results, we were brought back to earth a bit today with the Communications and Architecture contests, coming in 8th place in each. Still respectable results, but our team was hoping to do better.
With those results, we have slipped to 8th place overall, still very respectable, and we are hopeful to do well in tomorrow’s final competition: Engineering.
More public tours take place today, followed by an evening reception for all participants, and an open house for all teams to visit each other’s homes and socialize some more.”
For those keeping track here is how we did
Check out the results of the Solar Decathlon competition here – http://www.solardecathlon.gov/blog/archives/2872 . Also, notice that there is a picture of Team Ontario’s house featured on the results page! Great job to everyone from Algonquin College, Carleton University and Queen’s University!!
Our latest update from the Team Ontario ECHO entry into the Solar Decathlon comes again from Rick Briginshaw, the Coordinator for the Green Architecture program.
“Hello from California!
The last three days have been fairly
quiet since the houses have been closed to the public for jury
walkthroughs. I just got back from the first of three consecutive award
ceremonies (today, Friday and Saturday) and we have some EXCELLENT NEWS!
….
Today they announced that we took 2nd
PLACE in the Affordability Contest, and 4th PLACE in the
Market Appeal contest!!
With those results, we have moved
from 9th place overall to 3rd PLACE OVERALL!…
http://www.solardecathlon.gov/scores.html
Our team is thrilled with
those results! The next two contest announcements will be Architecture
and Communications, announced Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m.
EST) You can watch a live stream of the announcements here… http://www.solardecathlon.gov/videos-livestreams.html
The final awards ceremony will
be this Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. EST) where they will announce
the winners of the Engineering contests and the overall winners.
Also… perhaps equally important (??),
this morning we had a friendly (?) street hockey game against Team Alberta,
on Main Street in the Solar Decathlon village, and we are proud to report that
Team Ontario won!! As a result, the lead student manager from Team
Alberta has to spend the day wearing a Team Ontario shirt!”
Don’t forget to place your vote for the ECHO house as the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon People’s Choice award – Follow this link to register your vote!
OCTOBER 7, 2013 UPDATE – This new update comes from Rick Briginshaw, Coordinator of the Green Architecture program who is on-site at the competition…..
“Hello Everyone!
There has been lots of activity here at the Solar Decathlon over the last few days!
October 2nd – with construction and preparations complete, the students and faculty attended a formal dinner for all the teams, hosted by Bosch, followed by an open house at all the Solar Decathlon houses. The teams got to know each other, and explore each other’s houses, a great learning opportunity for them. In spite of the fact that we are competitors, there is an overriding feeling of camaraderie among all the teams.
October 3rd – Opening Day! Students and faculty attended the opening ceremonies and ribbon cutting in the morning. The ECHO team waved the Canadian flag proudly, and were excited to start showing off their creation! The houses were then opened to the public, and the individual contests began. Students and faculty were honoured to attend a dinner hosted by President Kent MacDonald, and representatives of Orange Coast College.
October 4th – Public visits and contests continued. The site was shut down for a couple of hours due to high winds, but reopened in the afternoon. The team was excited to have a visit from President Kent MacDonald, who toured the ECHO house, along with several of the other houses at the competition site.
October 5th – The ECHO team hosted a formal dinner (one of the standard individual contests) at the house, for some of our sponsors and members of other teams. By all accounts it was a great success.
October 6th – Public visits and competitions continued.
SCORES AND STANDINGS – you can follow along the scores and standings here… http://www.solardecathlon.gov/scores.html
We are currently in 10th place out of 19 teams, but the scores change daily, and as you can see, there is very little separating the top 12 teams.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD – we need your help with this! Please vote for TEAM ONTARIO at the Solar Decathlon home page! http://www.solardecathlon.gov/ And please help us by spreading the word around Algonquin College and beyond. If anyone has other contacts that could help us get more votes, please feel free to use them!
Our students are totally engaged in showing the ECHO house, and continue to demonstrate that they are first class all the way.”
Visit our Flikr gallery to see more photos of the ECHO house and it’s current home in Irvine, California.
UPDATE – Team Ontario in the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon has reassembled Project ECHO and continues to work on a few things to get the house ready for next week’s competition.
They are working on installing the solar thermal collectors and heat dump in the next day so they can pressure test those before they get water on Sunday. Good luck team! The competition starts Thursday, Oct 3.
Original Story –
What began as a dream for several students and faculty at Ottawa’s Algonquin College and Carleton University, and Kingston’s Queen’s University, has culminated in a million dollar project to construct a net zero home that will compete on a global stage this fall.
ECHO, short for ECological HOme, was showcased today as part of an Open House and mock competition to ready the team for the 2013 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.
“Our mission was to create an ecological home that sets the standard for sustainable living and creates waves of change in the housing market,” says Karl Kadwell, Project Manager for Team Ontario. “We are proud to have built this net zero home as a standard for future generations, and we are eager to showcase it in the competition this fall.”
ECHO is a 940 square foot, $300,000 home with a master bedroom, one bathroom, a multipurpose room that can be used as an office or second bedroom, and a combined kitchen/living room/dining room. Designed to be ‘net zero’, the home will utilize various solar and energy efficient technologies to produce at least as much energy in a year as it will consume. Students began designing the building in the summer of 2011: brainstorming its architectural appearance, running simulations and performing structural analysis. Construction began in September 2012 at Algonquin College’s campus in Perth, Ontario, where the students were able to complete most of the main structure and conduct a test move. In May of 2013, it was relocated to Algonquin College’s Ottawa campus for completion.
“This home is the result of a multi-disciplinary effort that brought together the theoretical knowledge taught by universities with the applied, hands-on learning offered by colleges to create a home that is both environmentally and financially sustainable,” says Professor Richard Briginshaw, Algonquin College Green Architecture Coordinator and member of Team Ontario. “These students have put a tremendous amount of effort into this project and I know they will make their schools and their country very proud of them.”
Dr. Kent MacDonald, President and CEO of Algonquin College; Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and Vice Chancellor of Carleton University; and Laeeque Daneshmend, Deputy Provost of Queen’s University were all in attendance for the Open House, and offered the students words of encouragement. Ontario’s Minister of Energy, the Honorable Bob Chiarelli, was also in attendance to offer his support and announce that the team will receive $80,000 in provincial support from the Smart Grid Fund.
“I want to congratulate Team Ontario for their hard work and wish them the best of luck at the Solar Decathlon. The ECHO home and the students behind it are a prime example of why Ontario is considered a global leader in renewable energy, conservation and smart grid technology,” says Ontario Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli. “I am proud the Ontario government is a supporter of Team Ontario.”
The next steps for the students involve preparing the house for shipping. The home is designed in two separate modules to make it easy for shipping, and those will be loaded onto flatbed trucks that will likely depart on Saturday, August 24. This year’s US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is set to begin Thursday, October 3rd, in Irvine, California, with the competition wrapping up on October the 13th.
September 18th, 2013 marked the official launch of the Bachelor of Building Science program at Algonquin College’s Woodroffe Campus. Students from the new program as well as Chris Janzen, Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Trades and Maria Parra, the Coordinator for the four-year Bachelor of Building Science program attended the launch of the program. The launch event was held in conjunction with an industry event put on by the Building Envelope Council Ottawa Carleton (BECOR). BECOR is a non profit organization committed to promoting advanced technologies and techniques in the design, construction and performance of the building envelope and ties in perfectly with the core of the new Bachelor of Building Science program. Please see the following link for coverage of the event by the Ottawa Citizen.
The Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence will be one of the 10 sites featured in the Ottawa Sustainability Tour to be launched on Saturday, September 14, 2013. Each venue on the tour illustrates a different theme of sustainability. People are invited to travel by car, bicycle, or bus to visit the remarkable places highlighted as part of this self-guided tour. A tour book will guide
visitors to the sites and explain the following themes of sustainability: transportation, energy, design, habitat, food, natural capital, waste, health, recreation, and a sense of place.
Join us on the launch
day!
The opening launch begins at 8:30 AM
Saturday 14 September with free pancakes at North America’s only urban maple sugar shack in Richelieu Park, Vanier. After the 9:00 AM opening ceremony with Mayor Jim Watson and Councillor Mathieu Fleury, groups of cyclists, cars and perhaps a bus will depart on their adventure. Five other sites along the route will also hold events that day:
– Corktown Footbridge: a choir and information on sustainable transportation (AM)
– University of Ottawa: Première Moisson coupons for early arrivals, site explanations (AM)
– Fletcher Wildlife Garden: Volunteer experts to answer your questions about habitats (PM)
– Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence: Interpretation of building features (PM)
– terra20 – meeting with product experts, short waste reduction talks, light refreshments
(PM)
The tour launch will also be the launch
of two other Ottawa initiatives:
– Gemagram: a cloud-based app that will carry the tour book (bring your smart phone)
– Ottawa Learnery: talks that are rich in ideas, delivered with passion
A booklet of the tour is available on Ottawa Biosphere Eco-City’s website http://obec-evbo.ca/ which allows you to choose which sites you are interested in seeing at a time that is convenient
for you! Booklet is available in French and English.”
Read the accompanying newsletter to find more information on this exciting activity and the other areas being featured on the Sustainability Tour of Ottawa.
Click here to view the Newsletter.
Algonquin College’s Team Ontario prepares to send its “ECological HOme” to Irvine, California
What began as a dream for several students and faculty at Ottawa’s Algonquin College and Carleton University, and Kingston’s Queen’s University, has culminated in a million dollar project to construct a net zero home that will compete on a global stage this fall.
ECHO, short for ECological HOme, was showcased today as part of an Open House and mock competition to ready the team for the 2013 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.
“Our mission was to create an ecological home that sets the standard for sustainable living and creates waves of change in the housing market,” says Karl Kadwell, Project Manager for Team Ontario. “We are proud to have built this net zero home as a standard for future generations, and we are eager to showcase it in the competition this fall.”
ECHO is a 940 square foot, $300,000 home with a master bedroom, one bathroom, a multipurpose room that can be used as an office or second bedroom, and a combined kitchen/living room/dining room. Designed to be ‘net zero’, the home will utilize various solar and energy efficient technologies to produce at least as much energy in a year as it will consume.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Visit here to register for this event.
Saturday, January 14, 2014
March 10-14, 2013
Saturday, April 5, 2014