BCT Alumnus Profile: Zac Bloom

BCT Alumnus Profile: Zac Bloom

by L. Carl Fiocchi Comment Closed
We recently met up with Zac Bloom who pursued our Professional Master’s program in Building Systems and is now Director of Sustainability & Renewables at Competitive Energy Services. Thinking back on his time at UMass, he provided the following summary and advice for other students: "Building and Construction Technology at UMass Amherst was instrumental in preparing me for my career in the energy industry. I came to BCT from the financial services industry. As a result, I was already familiar with the capital and commodities markets when I arrived at UMass. The BCT program rounded out my education by providing me the tools to understand building construction, energy usage and the demand or consumer side of the energy equation. Learning about energy modeling, building materials and mechanical systems allowed me to connect both sides of the energy system and to provide more value to my clients in my current position as Director of Sustainability & Renewables at Competitive Energy Services ("CES"). I came to CES...
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BCT Alumnus Profile: Chris Therrien (MS ’17 and BS ’16)

BCT Alumnus Profile: Chris Therrien (MS ’17 and BS ’16)

by L. Carl Fiocchi Comment Closed
After graduating from the BCT undergraduate major, Chris Therrien pursued our Professional Master's program in Building Systems and is now a Project Engineer with Suffolk Construction. He recently sent us some pictures from his job sites and provided insights about his work. Read below what Chris had to say about his experience at UMass: "My name is Chris Therrien, and I am a structural assistant project manager for Suffolk Construction at the One Dalton tower in Boston. This project is a 62 story high-rise that will house a Four Seasons hotel, and the most expensive residential real estate in Boston. Working on such a fast-paced and intricate project, with a world class design team and general contractor is challenging and demanding. The BCT Professional Master’s program helped elevate my education to a level that enables me to work in this type of scenario. Continuing into this program after my undergraduate BCT degree provided me with a more in-depth understanding of how a building...
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BCT’s ‘False Color’ Exhibit is Open!

BCT’s ‘False Color’ Exhibit is Open!

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
From now to October 28th, 2017, UMass students, faculty, and the general public are invited to visit the UMass Design Building Gallery during opening hours (9am - 4pm on weekdays) to view BCT's latest exhibition on all things related to "False Color" visualizations. Showcasing work by our faculty and graduate students, this exhibition visually (and interactively) explores the various technologies of our research: stress analysis, energy analysis, thermography, laser scanning, and more... BCT would like to especially thank Trimble Inc. for their support through our Trimble Technology Lab. We are also tremendously grateful to Peter Chrzanowski, Sharon Mehrman, and Alexander Okscin for their invaluable hands-on help in putting this exhibition together. The following synopsis explains our thoughts on this exhibition: As engineers, scientists and designers we are often faced with data that is not immediately comprehensible in its raw form, consisting solely of numeric values and ranges. Either the volume of such data is too large to lend itself to easy evaluation or it is too limited...
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Simi Hoque and Brian Kane talk about their Eureka! experience this summer in new video

Simi Hoque and Brian Kane talk about their Eureka! experience this summer in new video

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
The following video, published by UMass Media Relations, summarizes another successful summer at UMass for the Eureka! Girls Inc. group of Holyoke. BCT's Simi Hoque, who coordinated their visit to UMass, introduces the many workshops in the video. One of the workshops - on building macaroni bridges - was run by BCT graduate students Carl Fiocchi, Nariman Mostafavi, and Soroush Farzinmoghadam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nly3IN6NRe0...
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Engineered wood in wind turbine blades: Focus of Clouston’s NSF-funded summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Engineered wood in wind turbine blades: Focus of Clouston’s NSF-funded summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
The UMass Offshore Wind Energy Program hosted an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) this summer. BCT Professor, Peggi Clouston, along with her PhD student, Rachel Koh from Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, mentored and supervised two of these students in research projects that explored the use of engineered wood laminates in offshore wind turbine blades. The students, Malia Charter from Smith College and Yashira Valentin Feliciano from University of Puerto Rico/Mayaguez, participated in hands-on research in Clouston’s lab, a three day field trip to Cape Cod and Boston, weekly seminars on professional development and on the state of the art in wind energy research. Malia’s research involved computer modeling turbine blades using the Numerical Manufacturing and Design tool produced by Sandia National Laboratory (SNL). Three major blade components: spar cap, skin, and shear web were volumetrically replaced with laminated veneer lumber composites. These four blades along with an entirely wooden blade were subjected to static and inertial loads through finite element...
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