This year we focused on three key areas:
1) We wanted to continue to push for an awareness of ASHRAE on campus with students, faculty and staff. Because of our long term plans for the initiative, this has always been one of the key objectives. To ensure that ASHRAE continues to have an impact on the students that graduate into our local market, we have to continue to maintain strong presence on campus as well as supporting the students. This year, we partnered with Student Activities to provide some guest lecturers for some of the student chapter meetings. We also had great attendance by some of the faculty and staff at many of our meetings and our Shrimp Boil was a huge hit.
2) To support the curriculum changes that have been made. Last year, we were able to help the ME Department add a second class for HVAC (HVAC II). We worked with the professor to develop the curriculum and the lesson plans for class and provided some guest lecturers for the class. The interest in the class continued into this year with about 12 students and we look forward to the opportunity to add classes to the curriculum in hopes of developing an HVAC track at UCF.
3) Utilize an outreach event, with the University, that would elevate ASHRAE in the community. This last year, we were able to help in two key areas (I wish I had more space to tell you all about them). As many of you know, last year, we changed the ASHRAE Scholarship so that four scholarships are awarded every year. This year, Jason Alphonso and I had the honor of attending the awards ceremony and handing out the scholarships to the four recipients. It was a great honor to represent the chapter. We also continued our presence on the Industrial Advisory Committee (2 positions…thank you Wade Conlan and Jason Alphonso) which is key to MMAE’s accreditation.
It was certainly a busy year and we are already looking forward to next year. We will continue our work in the areas where we have been successful and we are going to concentrate on helping UCF submit for ASHRAE research money and Grant-In-Aid dollars.
Thank you all for your support and we will see you next year.
