It always brings me pleasure to highlight the accomplishments of my undergraduate alma mater, UC Irvine. The UCI Anteaters recently completed their newest building, the $40.2 million Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. As reported in “Legal Eagles Save Energy” in the September 2007 edition of Energy & Power Management Magazine (now Sustainable Facility Magazine), this facility exceeds the energy saving specifications of California’s strict Title 24 by 20 percent.
UCI mandated aggressive efficiency requirements as part of the initial bidding process. However, exceeding Title 24 is particularly impressive because the six-story 160,000 square-foot building originally began its life as two buildings, but it had to be scaled down to meet UCI’s budget. The down-sized building was left with electrical rooms smaller than 114 square feet. Tiny electrical rooms demanded development of a custom-built miniature transformer because a traditional transformer and Integrated Facility System could not fit inside the available space. The building contractor, Andersen & Howard, selected Eaton to perform the transformer design and installation.
This Anteater is pleased to see that the dedication to energy technology and the environment UC Irvine has pioneered in its research is carried through to practice in the specification of UCI’s new buildings.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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