Granite State ASHRAE sponsored another Young Inventors Club event at UNH on Saturday March 14th. The Young Inventors’ Program, an affiliate program of Invention Convention Worldwide, held its annual Northern New England Invention Convention on March 18, 2023, at the University of New Hampshire. Over 175 students from about 30 schools across New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Vermont participated in the regional competition. Students presented their original inventions to judges and showcased their ingenious ideas to the YIP community. “Northern New England is full of talented and bright young learners and this celebration of invention gives students the opportunity to share the tangible solutions they have created to face real-world problems head-on," said Tina White, Director for the Young Inventors’ Program. "This competition gets students involved in authentic, project-based learning while demonstrating creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking — all important 21st Century Skills.”

5^th grader, Kelly O'Neill was concerned about ocean pollution which inspired her to invent the New England Trash Trap, a device used to clean up ocean pollution on the New England coast. Focused on using recycled and reusable materials, Kelly incorporated lobster trap wire and nylon netting, along with a PVC filter trap to capture trash floating in the water. Her innovative thinking and strong desire to clean our oceans earned her the ASHRAE Sustainability Award for her consideration of the impact on our natural environment and the idea that sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony.

On March 8th Granite State ASHRAE hosted a student recruiting event in Kingsbury Hall as part of a program to enlist more graduating students into the building science based careers. We had a table top and handed out 6 boxes of pizza to students as they dropped by to discuss the ASHRAE organization and potential employment opportunities in the Built Environment.

I would like to thank Stephanie Whitney from the College of Engineering Sciences for he help setting up this event. I would also like to thank Matt L'Heureux and Jubin Mathai for there help manning the table and handing out pizza slices. We will be holding another of these events on Wednesday April 12th from 12-2 PM. If you are interested in recruiting graduating seniors in the fields of Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Civil, or Computer Science, please come join us to meet and inspire some young engineers. You can reach out to me or Matt L'Heureux for details on how you or your company can become involved in this event.

On April 19th at 9 AM I will be joined by Rachel Roy for a discussion and review of recent advances and application of heat pumps to replace fossil fuel based systems in our New England area. Rachel is the Commercial Area Manager for Mitsubishi/Trane and has extensive first hand experience with the application and performance of these machines in our cold northern climate. This will be a web based event and a separate invite will be provided to the event in the coming days.

We are fortunate again this year to be hosted by the Laars Corporation in Rochester NH on Thursday April 20th for our only in person event of the year. Our speaker will once again be Dr. Joe Lstiburek from Building Sciences Corporation who will continue to try and impress upon us the importance of proper water management in low energy construction. Joe is both an expert and a fairly entertaining speaker, so it should be a fun night. Dinner will be served by our gracious hosts at 6 PM and Joe will begin his lecture at about 7 PM. Space for this event is limited to 35 people, so please register early. I will be providing and invite to that event will be provided in a separate correspondence.

On Tuesday April 18th the ASHRAE Twin Tiers Chapter will be hosting a Spring Symposium providing an opportunity to bring together practicing professionals,

engineers, academics, contractors, owners, and others to discuss issues and challenges that our industry faces. This year’s symposium offers attendees opportunities to review some of the industry’s latest technologies as well as

techniques, methods, and systems that employ them. For more information, please see this LINK, or visit their webpage at this LINK.

Annual Granite State Golf Event

We are planning to have another of our popular golf events again this year at our usual spot Candia Links. We are in the initial stages of planning this event for sometime in August. If you would like to help us with the planning for this event, please reach out to Josh Benoist. He has agreed to once against host the event

We would like to thank those of you who are Granite State ASHRAE members, and for those readers that may not already be a member, please join us by becoming a member at this link: Join ASHRAE We are continually trying to improve our mission to help educate our community of issues of energy and our environment and your participation can help us make a difference in your community

And please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any topics or subjects you would like is to cover for you or your company.

Paul Bemis

President Granite State ASHRAE

603-369-6085