Six students on the Green Build Team joined their faculty advisor, Dr. James Sullivan of the Rinker School of Building Construction, in Reno, NV last month and their Building Information Modeling team won second place recognition in their division and a special award for Best Presentation at the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) LEED Competition.
The competition, held February 12 and 13, challenged teams to provide solutions for a problem statement from a hypothetical retail construction in California. Six rounds of questions highlighted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and rating systems.
The student team was challenged to explore sustainable options for the proposed construction including a new form of structure temperature flow known as “Night Sky Cooling,” which allows for downsizing conventional air cooling units by cooling water through radiative and evaporative means.
The students were given building plans and had just 14 hours to research and propose a 20-page response. The following day, the report was submitted as a 25-minute presentation including an expert panel testing the students in a question-and-answer symposium.
The UF team labored diligently in their efforts and showed great teamwork in their proposal. Their efforts paid off with recognition for Best Presentation. UF’s Green Build Team was one of 17 schools participating, and one of only two schools competing from east of the Mississippi.
One of the winning students, Kristin Gray, said, “We had been quite busy as students leading up to the competition and then had lots of make-up work to complete upon our return, but we feel great about our contributions to the competition.”
