Successful Engineers require many communication skills that are not generally taught in engineering school or on the job. This seminar focuses on the value and importance of good writing skills for Engineers, the need for Engineers to communicate technical ideas clearly to non-technical people, the judgement to select and present large amounts of data to clients, how to achieve improved communication as a YEA and beyond.

Successful Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Management relies on engineers to practice effective two-way communication with clients, building operators, as well as other stakeholders.  Learn why listening is essential for effective communication in O&M.  Asking the right questions can help you gather better information and helps others learn too.  Writing is also important in O&M management: procedures, protocols and user guides.  Effective communication can help facilities staff transition from reactive to proactive maintenance.

The Women in ASHRAE affinity group is a small but vocal group and they are starting a movement to encourage the retention of women in the built environment. This presentation will analyze ASHRAE membership data and examine the percentage of women involved in standing committees, technical committees, and ASHRAE as a whole with feedback from a survey of ASHRAE’s female members. Then presentation will take the analysis a step further and compare ASHRAE’s female membership to the female membership in other partner organizations. Conclusions will be drawn about how to increase female participation numbers and benefits of encouraging this movement.

Personal stories are always the most touching because they are “personal”. This presentation will be highlighting some real life stories, good and bad, and then some initiative that can be implemented in your workplace and in your ASHRAE home chapter.

This seminar discusses personal experiences and recommendations in becoming licensed as a Professional Engineer in the U.S.

Engineering, as a practice, is based on developing and applying tangible solutions to practical problems through a creative but calculated process. Engineering education at the university level is focused on difficult mathematical equation solving and test-score-based performance metrics. Professional certifications, field experience, and continuing education opportunities further promote technical competence and understanding of systems, equipment, codes and standards. While these forms of education and professional development can be in-depth, demanding and celebrate technical excellence, they overlook a crucial facet of the industry: engineering is a relationship-based business. Strong and diverse relationships with a spectrum of project partners, clients and owners are the backbone of an engineering firm’s health and growth. The ability to develop, nurture and maintain relationships relies on an ability to relate to other people and participate in the fluid process of Business Development. This is a vital component of a successful career in the engineering industry, but developing this skillset is often forgotten or glossed over. Engineers can learn and hone business development skills through outside training sessions and conferences, though concepts learned in the contrived setting of didactic presentation and roleplay can be difficult to adopt “in the wild.” Mentorship from seasoned and successful leaders is an ideal option, but this assumes a firm has such current leaders, and that they have the time and teaching skills to take the next generation of leaders under their wing. An innovative and remarkably effective option is to develop a custom business development training program, tailored to the firm’s values and strategic visions, and delivered by a dedicated BD leader who thoroughly understands these values and visions.  In this “learning by doing” environment, engineers are given the authority and confidence to go out and practice their new skills, knowing that they are contributing to the firm’s business development plan. This paper will present the perspectives of a Business Development Director who developed and is successfully implementing an 18-month, in-house BD training program at her firm, and a next-generation engineering leader who is further refining his business development skills by participating in the program and mentoring other engineers beginning to build up their skills.

New strong demands for a more sustainable built environment led to a more complex building design process. The most important decisions in building design are made in the very early conceptual phase. This happens often when there are no engineers involved yet and so the architect has to make all the decisions on his own. Especially in the conceptual design phase the different expertise of engineers could be used more effectively by architects to reach for new more sustainable solutions. To support diverse multidisciplinary building design teams a supportive design method was developed in cooperation with the Dutch professional organizations of architects and consulting engineers.  It helps architects and engineers with their new role in the conceptual design phase as it enables to structure each perspective on the design task as well as to structure the available domain knowledge by using morphological charts and morphological overviews. After testing the method in workshops as part of a training program in industry, the design method was transferred and applied at the department of architecture for master students for their multidisciplinary Master project Integral Design.  In the last 10 years Master Projects Integral design were held and there was a continuous development to optimize the cooperation between architects and engineers. The research showed that it is possible to engage engineers and let other disciplines learn from them within the conceptual building design phase, which makes it easier to achieve energy efficient and environmental friendly buildings such as nearly Zero Energy Buildings.  Also the approach can be used to analyse the design process and to focus on the communication within the design team as well as use it to represent a kind of mental map of the design team. This helps engineers to interfere with the conceptual design process and add additional knowledge and experience. In this way competences beyond engineering can be added to improve the outcome of the design process.

The refrigeration industry plays a major and increasing role in today’s global economy, with significant contributions made in food, health, energy and environmental domains which policy makers need to better understand and take into account. The need for engineering and technical staff is currently increasing due to the growing demand for refrigerating capacities, along with the unique skills required of refrigeration-related professions in the field of energy and environment. Women are still significantly and visibly under-represented in the refrigeration industry. The purpose of this paper demonstrates the current preliminary state-of-the-art of women in the refrigeration field collected from the national refrigeration institutions and associations. Incentive actions proposed are proposed are the outcomes of the first meeting of the IIR Women in Refrigeration workshop.

Have you ever wondered why a new technology is readily accepted by some, but resisted by others?  In this workshop, you’ll discover the 5 characteristics of any technology or strategy that will determine its chances of being adopted successfully on your projects.  Based on technology adoption research from Everett Roger’s "Diffusion of Innovations", you can learn to be more strategic when selecting design options for your projects.  The goal of this simple technique is to choose the best options for your clients – ones that will be embraced and maintained for the life of the building.

Mitchell Swann will assist in this workshop as a facilitator.

Social media is always changing and evolving, with new sites and tools being added constantly. With so many options, how does one determine which tool or site will work best for their group or business? This presentation covers best practices of some of the most common social media forums (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube) with emphasis on social media tools for ASHRAE chapters. Learn some do’s and don’ts for using social media to market your group and increase your online presence.

Social media is always changing and evolving, with new sites and tools being added constantly. With so many options, how does one determine which tool or site will work best for their group or business? This presentation covers best practices of some of the most common social media forums (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube) with emphasis on social media tools for ASHRAE chapters. Learn some do’s and don’ts for using social media to market your group and increase your online presence.

The architect within a construction project works within a philosophy and ethics of their own company,  the AIA and the specific contract  for the project. The architect also has a philosophy and ethic based on the culture of the architectural profession.

The Design Engineer within a construction project works within a philosophy and ethics of their own company,  the NSPE where appropriate and the specific contract  for the project. The Designer also has a philosophy and ethic based on the culture of the contracting profession.

The contractor within a construction project works within a philosophy and ethics of their own company,  the NSPE where appropriate and the specific contract  for the project. The contractor also has a philosophy and ethic based on the culture of the contracting profession.

The manufacturer within a construction project works within a philosophy and ethics of their own company,  the NSPE where appropriate and the specific contract  for the project. The manufacturer also has a philosophy and ethic based on the culture of the manufacturing profession.

As engineers, we are stereotyped as not good at communication. So, what is the motivation to go beyond our comfort zone and talk to kids? The simple truth that today's kids are our future employees, coworkers, and bosses drives the desire for us to help them understand engineering, and the need to study mathematics and sciences. Student audiences require different approaches to STEM topics for different ages, and we'll learn why certain ideas are appropriate for which ages. We also explore strategies for getting involved with students at various stages in our careers, from YEA to HVAC&R industry veteran.

ASHRAE Society along with the Student Activities Committee has developed many tools to assist with presenting STEM topics to Students.  These tools include recommended STEM classroom activities, posters and handouts, student competitions, videos and "STEM Classroom Kits".  A summary of these items is presented along with strategies to apply these tools to different age groups as well as tips to be sure you're prepared for a classroom visit.

It can be very intimidating to enter a classroom and present a STEM topic and perform an interactive STEM activity.  In this session we perform a simulated classroom visit where we will walk through a STEM activity.  This is an interactive session where the audience will actually perform the STEM activity being presented.