We have an exciting opportunity for you! We’re taking applications for the “Vice President of Communications & Marketing” position on the Drexel Smart House Executive Board. As a fundamental member of DSH’s promotion, communications, and events teams, the VP of Communications & Marketing will gain valuable leadership, creative, and technical experience while bolstering his or her professional network and resume. This person will be immersed in issues involving sustainability, design, and technology, as well as finance, operations, and management. The VP will have the opportunity (and responsibility) to orchestrate activities related to publicity, branding, marketing, communications, and events coordination. This person will also work with other student organizations such as Drexel Marketing Association to provide opportunities to students to contribute to this interdisciplinary team.

As this is the first time we’ve publicly announced an open board position since we were founded, this is an extraordinary leadership opportunity that you do not want to let slip through your fingers, especially as many of you are looking to bolster your resumes and gain valuable experiences for co-op.

To learn more about this position, please review the job description and be sure to come to an upcoming DSH open meeting where you can talk with our current board members.

WHO CAN APPLY:
All current Drexel students, freshman to junior will be considered.

HOW TO APPLY:
Email your resume to apply@drexelsmarthouse.com. As applications are considered on a first-come basis, it’s to your advantage to get your application in as soon as possible! To those of you who feel that your resume does not reflect your true skills and interest in the position, you may write an optional cover letter for review with your resume. REMEMBER, a cover letter is NOT required. If you are selected for an interview, you will be notified within two weeks of your application submission and the process will proceed from there.

If you have any questions, you may contact me at (215) 501-7891 or cody@drexelsmarthouse.com.

Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon!

Cody A. Ray, President DSH

PS – In case you missed it, here’s the Vice President of Communications & Marketing’s job description.

While this is our first national press, we have previously been featured in state and local publications such as Keystone Builder, magazine of the Pennsylvania Builders Association, the Philadelphia Weekly, The Triangle, Drexel’s student newspaper, and the newsletter of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, as well as national academic publications such as the Proceedings of the 2009 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference.

We’ve come a long way!

We are absolutely THRILLED about our new sign!

They even made it with earth friendly, recyclable materials.

Some of our students got together and built the Drexel Smart House logo out of LED Christmas lights and chicken wire. Its hanging on the roof of our property (along with facade lights) just in time for the Design Unveiling on Wednesday evening. Awesome!

1. Solar water heaters

2. Drain water heat recovery

3. Energy recovery ventilation systems

4. the “Green Machine”

Let’s start with a summary of some big ticket happenings of 2009:

January, 2009 – Our executive council transitioned to the second generation of Drexel Smart House leadership. We hosted the first Pi Lambda Phi reunion since they left campus almost a decade ago. This fraternity used to occupy our residence at 3425 Race St.

February 5, 2009 – We co-hosted a public conference on climate change with Drexel Green. We developed an order of magnitude cost estimate for our renovation to the 3425 Race Street residence with International Consultants, Inc. in central Philadelphia.

February, 2009 – We were highlighted in the 2008 Strategic Report published by the LeBow College of Business as a large contributor to the Experience-Based Education which is a foundation of LeBow College and Drexel University.

March 2, 2009 – Members of our executive council, 3425 Race Street design team, and advisors presented the initial cost estimate to Drexel’s upper administration.

March, 2009 – We received our second provisional patent. Drexel Metals (no relation to DU) agreed to donate a thin film photovoltaic system for the roof of our 3425 Race Street residence.

April 3-5, 2009 – The Smart Living Association, a spinoff organization established by a partnership between ourselves and Duke, held its inaugural conference. We sent nine of our members to engage the representatives of nearly a dozen other member programs dedicated to the concept of smarter living.

April 20, 2009 – Our cool roof coating project team was awarded the People, Planet, and Prosperity (P3) grant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will sustain the project for the next two years and is valued at $75,000.

April, 2009 – We planted trees for Earth Day with the Community Alumni Network at Drexel University (CAN DU) and UC Green. We applied for a Clinton Global Initiative U Award to expand our outreach program with Science Leadership Academy, a local charter high school. Haglid Engineering & Associates agreed to donate four energy recovery units for our 3425 Race Street residence.

May 13, 2009 – Members of our executive council presented to the Board of Advisors for the Lebow College of Business.

May 18, 2009 – Drexel Smart House members involved in the growing Drexel Green movement played a large part in the preparation, report and public presentation of key sustainability recommendations to upper administration at the University.

May 27, 2009 – We secured our first office and clean lab space just off of Woodring labs in the Main building. Members of our executive council met with the Provost and several Vice Provosts to discuss fundraising and the integration of sustainability and innovation into the curriculum.

May, 2009 – An article about Drexel Smart House, written by Tess Wittler, was published in the May/June edition of Keystone Builder, the magazine of the Pennsylvania Building Association. A promotional video for the renovation of 3425 Race Street was developed and shown in the College of Engineering Film Festival. We sent six students to the University Gala.

June 14-17, 2009 – Drexel Smart House and Drexel University’s Library presented a collaborative proposal for information-literacy development to the American Society of Engineering Education in Austin, TX.

June 26-27, 2009 – Two members of our executive council were certified as LEED Accredited Professionals (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), as well as two additional members of the runner-up design for the 3425 Race St design competition.

June, 2009 – The Philip B. Lindy Program for Inner-City Students, in which we partnered with several other programs to provide occasional “green” educational activities for a couple dozen middle school students over a two month period, just finished. We started a company / group on LinkedIn to unite current members and DSH alumni. The Freshmen Design program in the College of Engineering culminated, in which we mentored over a dozen teams. Several of these technologies look promising for commercial viability, including a project which produces energy from organic waste (biomass digestion).

This is a high-level summary of what has been accomplished since the start of the calendar year. Since there is a lot that is still ongoing which hasn’t yet been declared “complete”, some of these current activities are discussed below.

• Our cool roof coatings project is moving closer to commercialization through licensing agreements. We hope it will soon join the ranks of Drexel Smart House startups, alongside our first spinoff company, Summalux, LLC.
• We are negotiating our first consultant contract for geotechnical surveys at 3425 Race Street, courtesy of Poulson and Associates. We’re planning an event to unveil the design, and have already started the process to put up signage with renderings at 3425 Race Street to show what the Drexel Smart House will look like after renovation.
• Our main focus for renovating the 3425 Race Street residence is organizing our fundraising campaign with Drexel’s Office of Institutional Advancement. This includes identifying faculty PIs to work with Drexel Smart House members and take the lead on grant opportunities. We are also in the process of setting up a cost center to further progress can be made with the University’s Planning, Design, and Construction (PDC) to develop construction documents. This will get things moving with identifying subsystem donors and writing RFPs for the services we need.
• Finally, in two weeks, we’re scheduled to present to the full Academic Council. We’re seeking support across the colleges and schools for integration of sustainability, innovation, and commercially viable multidisciplinary hands-on projects into the curriculum.

As you can see, we’ve been quite busy since taking office at the start of this year. Our activities can largely be grouped as “technology and design incubation”, “education” (curriculum integration, outreach, activities), and “support” (administration, fundraising, management, communications, marketing, informatics, etc).

We hope that all the cool stuff we’re doing makes up for not talking about it enough. Too busy to brag; is that a bad thing?

If anything we’re doing interests you and you’d like to help, feel free to contact us at info@drexelsmarthouse.com.

- Cody

–
Cody A. Ray, LEED AP
President, Drexel Smart House
cody@drexelsmarthouse.com
215.906.9835

Eric and his team used several Library resources over a period of time.  These include:

• ASCE Civil Engineering Database
• ASCE Conference Proceedings Online
• BuildingGreen – (BuildingGreen Suite integrates online versions of GreenSpec, Environmental Building News, and a database of more than 160 high-performance building case studies.)
• DoE Energy Codes
• Ei Compendex and INSPEC
• Environmental Engineering Abstracts
• Google Scholar
• Home Depot Smart Home
• Knovel: Engineering and Scientific Online References
• MAD CAD – (NOTE: access to cross-referenced collections of building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, and maintenance codes from BOCA, SBCCI, ICBO, ICC, and NFPA.)
• ScienceDirect
• Statistical Resources
• Statistical Resources on the Web-Energy
• Web of Knowledge

Eric also needed some ASTM standards for the Solar Coating project. Using How Do I access ASTM, SAE, ASHRAE, ISO or ANSI standards? Any other standards? Eric was able to obtain ASTM standards that he needed for the project. Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and Materials Engineering Site include a few resources that may also help in future for other projects. See also Cool Roofs and Cool Roofing Materials Database available from Heat Island Group Resources.

Eric also contributed in creating  Drexel’s web site for Sustainability and Drexel Green.

Congratulations to the Senior Design Team!

Continue reading at:  Home Depot Smart Home

See also:  The Whole Building Design Techniques and Technologies

Monday, November 10, 2008
12:00-1:00 PM
University City Main Campus
Creese Student Center (32nd and Chestnut Streets)
GSDC Conference Room D

Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, please contact Lisa Leone at lml45@drexel.edu.

This is a video of Jameson’s presentation of Drexel Smart House at IgnitePhilly this past Tuesday at Johhny Brenda’s.

“Ignite is a series of speakers talking about inspiring projects for 5 minutes. The presentations can be serious, funny, or somewhere in between.” Also, the presentations must be exactly 20 slides, and they rotate automatically every 15 seconds. Make sure to check out some of the other presentations. There were a lot of great presenters.

This next academic year promises a very exciting one. We have just chosen the final design for the renovation of the house and expect to make a formal announcement in the coming months. It is a really great, exciting, and innovative design that will make a great home for everyone’s ideas.

We’ve also got a lot of exciting research going on ranging from multitouch to modular walls and floors to a new product from a collaboration with CeeLite. We’ve received funding for several projects we’re working on this year (more details to come), and we have a lot of great ideas for students for engineering freshman and senior design. (We will have details up soon, but feel free to contact us at info@drexelsmarthouse.com if you are interested.)

Lastly, we are working on updating our website to include more information about our current work, opportunities to get involved, etc. You can also expect many more updates on this blog as things are really picking up steam here. We also hope to produce some video content every month or so. (Contact us if you would like to help with that!)

Anyway, we’re excited about this next year, and we hope you’ll come along with us for the ride.

Jameson Detweiler
Drexel Smart House President