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A team from Heriot-Watt's Dubai Campus is in line for one of three top prizes in a competition to reduce energy use in public buildings.
For such a complex challenge and with a high calibre of competition, our selection in the top three demonstrates the impact our entrants have made.
The team, three Masters of Science Energy students, Anto John, Raymond Antony and Kassey Karuna, and their lecturer, Dr. Mutasim Nour, the Director of MSc Energy and RE Programmes at the Dubai Campus, has been selected as one of top three nominees in the Young Leaders' Innovation Challenge (YLIC). Organized by Intersolar Middle East, YLIC encourages students to display their assessments and understandings on sustainability and improving existing technology. It involves projects displaying innovative and modernized renewable solutions to minimize the consumption of energy by a minimum of 25 per cent on specified university or government buildings constructed before the year 2000.
The selected building for this project is a public library in Dubai which is about 20 years old. The Heriot-Watt team conducted two phases of energy audits and devised a design proposal to minimise energy consumption and integrate solar energy (both PV and thermal) to the building. They also performed economic analysis of the proposed systems.
Dr Mutasim Nour said, “For such a complex challenge and with a high calibre of competition, our selection in the top three demonstrates the impact our entrants have made on the judging panel. The selection means, we will win one of the three top prizes and it is our aim to be the winners of the gold award,”
The final prizes will be announced during the Award Ceremony later in September at the Dubai World Trade Center.