TY - GEN
T1 - Providing systems engineering perspective in a capstone project setting to monitor performance of HVAC systems
AU - Knox, K.
AU - Sanchez, A.
AU - Liu, X.
AU - Ergan, S.
AU - Akinci, B.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Today's engineering problems require complex solutions from multiple disciplines. Hence, engineering classes should teach students to learn about how to solve multidisciplinary problems. This paper describes a project-based course that allows a group of students to learn and utilize knowledge and approaches from multiple disciplines and to gain systems engineering perspective to solve a real-world problem. The objective of the project is to develop a system that can facilitate the monitoring and analysis of the performance of HVAC systems, which account for about 40% of total energy consumption in buildings. Students with various backgrounds worked together to develop a prototype system that automatically collects dynamic data from HVAC systems and visualizes the real-time and historical data with floor plans using a web-browser-based interface. This prototype system also embeds fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) algorithms that frequently analyze the performance of HVAC systems. In developing such a system, the students had to learn and utilize knowledge in the domains of civil, mechanical, electrical engineering, computer science, and project management, and approach the problem from a systems engineering perspective. This paper discusses the processes that the students went through to learn, implement and test the system in a real-world testbed.
AB - Today's engineering problems require complex solutions from multiple disciplines. Hence, engineering classes should teach students to learn about how to solve multidisciplinary problems. This paper describes a project-based course that allows a group of students to learn and utilize knowledge and approaches from multiple disciplines and to gain systems engineering perspective to solve a real-world problem. The objective of the project is to develop a system that can facilitate the monitoring and analysis of the performance of HVAC systems, which account for about 40% of total energy consumption in buildings. Students with various backgrounds worked together to develop a prototype system that automatically collects dynamic data from HVAC systems and visualizes the real-time and historical data with floor plans using a web-browser-based interface. This prototype system also embeds fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) algorithms that frequently analyze the performance of HVAC systems. In developing such a system, the students had to learn and utilize knowledge in the domains of civil, mechanical, electrical engineering, computer science, and project management, and approach the problem from a systems engineering perspective. This paper discusses the processes that the students went through to learn, implement and test the system in a real-world testbed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84887381681&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1061/9780784413029.025
DO - 10.1061/9780784413029.025
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84887381681
SN - 9780784477908
T3 - Computing in Civil Engineering - Proceedings of the 2013 ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering
SP - 194
EP - 201
BT - Computing in Civil Engineering - Proceedings of the 2013 ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering
PB - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
T2 - 2013 ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering, IWCCE 2013
Y2 - 23 June 2013 through 25 June 2013
ER -