Building Efficiency for a sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center

商业建筑是美国城市的主要特征。这些建筑物构成了许多经济部门工作人员的物质基础设施。操作这些建筑物的技术人员基本上是看不见的，建筑物的住户偶尔会看到他们对室温或维修设备的投诉作出反应。气候变化、COVID-19疫情及新数码技术为建筑技术人员的工作带来新的动力，提升其角色的重要性，扩大其所需的知识及技能，并提高对其工作质量的期望。今天的建筑技术人员必须准备好管理未来高性能“可持续”建筑的复杂楼宇自动化、数据分析和能源管理系统。该项目将支持BEST中心过渡到资源中心，继续为社区服务，收集，传播和采用建筑系统技术人员先进技术教育的计划，课程，实验室应用和创新教学方法。BEST资源中心将支持全国社区和技术学院的建筑技术人员教育计划的发展，让行业支持这一努力，并加强国家STEM管道。该中心将有3个目标：1）转变社区学院在建筑技术教育领域的教学能力，重点是高性能建筑运营技术专业（HPBOT-P）和楼宇自动化专家（BAS）课程调整和认证; 2）让行业利益相关者和研究合作伙伴参与与社区学院的全国合作，以支持高水平的高质量的建筑科学教学计划;以及3）通过向高中生，妇女和传统上在建筑科学中代表性不足的人群进行宣传，加强国家STEM管道的建筑技术人员。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于推动国家经济的先进技术领域的技术人员的教育。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Commercial buildings are a predominant feature of U.S. cities. Such buildings form the physical infra-structure for people working in many economic sectors. The technicians who operate these buildings are largely invisible to building occupants, occasionally seen responding to a complaint about room temperature or repairing equipment. Climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and new digital technologies are creating a new dynamic for the work of building technicians, increasing the importance of their role, expanding the knowledge and skills required of them, and raising expectations about the quality of their work. Today’s building technicians must be prepared to manage the complex building automation, data analytics, and energy management systems of the high-performance “sustainable” buildings of the future. This project will support the BEST Center transitioning to a Resource Center to continue to serve the community for the collection, dissemination, and adoption of programs, courses, lab applications, and innovative instructional methods for the advanced technological education of building systems technicians. The BEST Resource Center will support the development of building technician education programs at community and technical colleges nationwide, engage industry to support this effort, and strengthen the national STEM pipeline. The Center will have 3 goals: 1) Transform the instructional capacity of community colleges in the field of building technician education, with an emphasis on High Performance Building Operations Technical-Professional (HPBOT-P) and Building Automation Specialist (BAS) curriculum alignment and certification; 2) Engage industry stakeholders and research partners in a national collaboration with community colleges to support high-quality building science instructional programs; and 3) Strengthen the national STEM pipeline for building technicians through outreach to high school students, women, and populations traditionally underrepresented in building science. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.