Building Efficiency for a sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center

商业建筑是美国城市的一个主要特征。这些建筑构成了在许多经济部门工作的人们的有形基础设施。操作这些建筑的技术人员在很大程度上对建筑物的居住者来说是看不见的，偶尔会看到他们在回应关于室温或维修设备的投诉。气候变化、新冠肺炎疫情和新的数字技术正在为建筑技术人员的工作创造新的动力，提高他们作用的重要性，扩大他们所需的知识和技能，并提高人们对他们工作质量的期望。今天的建筑技术人员必须做好准备，管理复杂的建筑自动化、数据分析和能源管理系统，这些都是未来高性能的“可持续”建筑。该项目将支持BEST中心转变为资源中心，继续为社区收集、传播和采用针对建筑系统技术人员的高级技术教育的计划、课程、实验室应用和创新教学方法提供服务。最佳资源中心将支持全国社区和技术学院建设技术人员教育项目的发展，动员行业支持这一努力，并加强国家STEM渠道。该中心将有3个目标：1)转变社区学院在建筑技术员教育领域的教学能力，重点是高性能建筑操作技术专业(HPBOT-P)和建筑自动化专家(BAS)课程调整和认证；2)动员行业利益攸关方和研究合作伙伴与社区学院合作，支持高质量的建筑科学教学计划；以及3)通过接触高中生、女性和传统上建筑科学代表性较低的人群，加强国家STEM培养建筑技术员的渠道。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.