ASHRAE

The Setty Family Applied Engineering Challenge

This year’s ASHRAE Applied Engineering Challenge is to design an indoor farm for a residential building that can sustain the inhabitants of the building.
With the continual rise of urban expansion and the ever-increasing need to produce food, indoor grow facilities are becoming one of the solutions used to increase the area of food production in the United States. Indoor grow facilities can be appealing because the buildings allow for the production of fresh produce year-round, increase the variety of plants that can be grown in a specific area, and provide a more sustainable growth option over traditional farming.

R744 Transcritical Educational Demonstration Unit

The R744 Transcritical Educational Unit uses thermodynamics principles to extract water from humid air using a CO2 vapor-compression cycle. This project will become a regular part of Cal Poly’s student experience, and our goal is to get freshmen ME students excited about creative ways we can use the ideas we learn in the classroom to come up with cool climate solutions (pun intended).