Weil to speak on “Energy Storage: Beyond Batteries”

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
In this month's iteration of Western Mass Green Consortium's Green Night, BCT's Ben Weil, Extension Associate Professor in building energy, will speak about "Energy Storage: Beyond Batteries." Details: Wednesday, April 12 at 5 PM - 8 PM Platform Sports Bar 125A Pleasant St, Northampton, Massachusetts 01060 More Information: https://www.facebook.com/events/500244066848163/ ...
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Can College Kids Help Mass. Towns Go Green?

Can College Kids Help Mass. Towns Go Green?

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
BCT's extension faculty member Ben Weil and his "Clean Energy Corps" students (from the BCT 597R course) were recently in the news with their efforts to make buildings more sustainable for Massachusetts' municipalities: Let Us Introduce the UMass Clean Energy Corps Ask town officials what they think in Ware. Ask them in Natick, and in Greenfield. Palmer too. These are some of the towns where the new UMass Clean Energy Corps has touched down in the few months since its founding. The Corps is a student-centered initiative focused on helping communities across the Commonwealth develop and meet their clean energy goals. It was created by UMass Clean Energy Extension, a research and outreach program that in its first two years of life has been helping transform communities and businesses into cleaner, more efficient places to live, work, and grow into the future. UMass Clean Energy Extension is a program of UMass Extension (or as it was once known, Cooperative Extension), which, for over a hundred...
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Leander Bathon to speak on world’s first wooden wind turbine

Leander Bathon to speak on world’s first wooden wind turbine

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
BCT and the UMass IGERT Wind Energy Program are hosting a visit by world-acclaimed timber engineer and innovator, Professor Leander Bathon, from the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, Germany. He holds patents on several timber connectors including the systems used for the World’s first wooden wind turbine, the free floating wood stair at UBC, and our very own UMass Design Building floors and shear walls. Please join us for his talk on Thursday March 10 at 4pm in Holdsworth Room 211. See link below for more information: http://tinyurl.com/zm968wm...
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Hoque receives NSF CAREER grant to study urban development impacts

Hoque receives NSF CAREER grant to study urban development impacts

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
Cities today contribute almost two-thirds of the world’s primary energy demand. By 2030, this fraction is projected to increase to three-quarters, matching the urban sector’s expected share of global energy-related CO2 emissions. The current urban outlook demands a comprehensive understanding of urban sustainability policies to address climate change and energy security. Dr. Simi Hoque, assistant professor in Building and Construction Technology, has been awarded an NSF CAREER grant, valued at over $550.000 to develop an Integrated Urban Metabolism Analytical Tool (IUMAT) to measure, evaluate, and predict the impacts of energy and water use, land use, and transportation systems at an urban scale. This interdisciplinary project will involve a collaborative research coalition comprised of Amherst Town Conservation Department, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland, and faculty from Civil Engineering and Urban Planning at UMass-Amherst. Broadly, IUMAT will be applied to evaluate city sustainability planning scenarios and support outreach STEM activities among middle...
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