Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Building Efficiency Technologies by Tomorrow’s Engineers and Researchers (BETTER) Capstone. Final Technical Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1394809· OSTI ID:1394809
 [1]
  1. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Georgia Institute of Technology

BETTER Capstone supported 29 student project teams consisting of 155 students over two years in developing transformative building energy efficiency technologies through a capstone design experience. Capstone is the culmination of an undergraduate student’s engineering education. Interdisciplinary teams of students spent a semester designing and prototyping a technological solution for a variety building energy efficiency problems. During this experience students utilized the full design process, including the manufacturing and testing of a prototype solution, as well as publically demonstrating the solution at the Capstone Design Expo. As part of this project, students explored modern manufacturing techniques and gained hands-on experience with these techniques to produce their prototype technologies. This research added to the understanding of the challenges within building technology education and engagement with industry. One goal of the project was to help break the chicken-and-egg problem with getting students to engage more deeply with the building technology industry. It was learned however that this industry is less interested in trying innovative new concept but rather interested in hiring graduates for existing conventional building efforts. While none of the projects yielded commercial success, much individual student growth and learning was accomplished, which is a long-term benefit to the public at large.

Research Organization:
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (EE-5B)
DOE Contract Number:
EE0007133
OSTI ID:
1394809
Report Number(s):
DOE-GIT-07133
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Safeguards by Design Projects (FY2020 Final Report)
Technical Report · Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · OSTI ID:1660576

HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELL EDUCATION AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES
Technical Report · Fri Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · OSTI ID:1025719

Safeguards by Design Projects (Final Report-FY-22)
Technical Report · Tue Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · OSTI ID:1887117