Universty of Colorado : Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering

  Building Systems Engineering

Find out more about the Building Systems Engineering
Program at CU Boulder

The Building Systems Program (BSP) focuses on the design and operation of buildings to provide a comfortable, healthy, and productive indoor environment with minimal energy and environmental impact. The program is open to students in all engineering disciplines, as well as exceptional students in architecture, science, and mathematics.

• Sustainable building design
• Building thermal performance and energy efficiency
• Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
• Smart building systems for control and operations
• Indoor contaminant transport, control, and mitigation
• Daylighting
• Human Factors in Lighting
• Building Illumination
• Renewable energy technologies
• Interaction of commercial buildings with the utility grid
• Low-exergy building systems

Faculty

Michael J. Brandemuehl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, University of Wisconsin. Building energy controls, HVAC systems, building system simulation, renewable energy. (303-492-8594, michael.brandemuehl@colorado.edu)

Gregor P. Henze, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, University of Colorado. Building energy controls, utility grid interactions, low-exergy and mixed-mode building design, building system simulation, renewable energy. (303-492-1094, gregor.henze@colorado.edu)

Moncef Krarti, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, University of Colorado. Building systems modeling, energy conservation, HVAC systems, building energy analysis. (303-492-3389, moncef.krarti@colorado.edu)

Brent Protzman, Ph.D., EIT, Intern LC, Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska. Human factors in lighting, daylighting, light source optimization. (303-492-7603, brent.protzman@colorado.edu)

Sandra Vásconez, M.S., LC, Senior Instructor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Lighting Research Center). (303-492-7614, sandra.vasconez@colorado.edu)

John Z. Zhai, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University and MIT. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), indoor environmental quality, sustainable design. (303-492-4699, john.zhai@colorado.edu)

Facilities

In addition to the common departmental facilities and resources, the Building Systems Program has two unique laboratories. The Illumination Laboratory provides a facility to test and evaluate architectural lighting systems as well as daylighting and lighting control systems. The Larson Building Systems Laboratory is a unique facility in the HVAC industry. It is used for educational and research purposes and is designed for dynamic testing of complete and full-scale commercial HVAC and building systems. The facility consists of a full-size commercial HVAC system, four representative commercial building zones, a system for producing repeatable and controllable loads on the HVAC system, and sophisticated data acquisition and control systems. Activities at the Laboratory include evaluation and testing of control algorithms and hardware for HVAC components and systems, interactions between multiple control functions of HVAC systems, the dynamic interactions between building thermal response and HVAC system controls, ventilation control for indoor air quality, and HVAC system diagnostics.

Courses

Graduate Courses in Building Systems Program

• CVEN 5010 HVAC System Controls
• CVEN 5020 Building Energy Audits
• CVEN 5025 Architectural Lighting Equipment Design
• CVEN 5035 Lighting Systems Engineering
• CVEN 5050 Advanced Solar Design
• CVEN 5070 Thermal Analysis of Buildings
• CVEN 5080 Computer Simulation of HVAC Systems
• CVEN 5110 HVAC System Design
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Sustainable Building Design
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Renewable Energy Resource Assessment
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Distributed Electrical Generation
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Color Theory/Light Sources
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Illumination II
• CVEN 5830 Special Topics: Daylighting
• CVEN 5280 Special Topics: Energy and Environmental Policy

Undergraduate Courses in Architectural Engineering

• AREN 3010 Mechanical Systems for Buildings
• AREN 3130 Building Energy/Lighting Laboratory
• AREN 3540 Illumination I
• AREN 4110 HVAC System Design
• AREN 4550 Illumination II
• AREN 4560 Luminous Radiative Transfer
• AREN 4570 Building Electrical Systems Design
• AREN 4580 Daylighting
• AREN 4830 Advanced Lighting Design
• AREN 4830 Lighting Workshop

Courses in construction engineering, architectural engineering, environmental engineering, structural engineering, and geotechnical engineering are offered within the department. The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers courses in thermodynamics, heat transfer, indoor air quality, and engineering analysis. The Departments of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Chemical Engineering offer courses in control system analysis, operations research, and optimization. The Department of Computer Science offers many courses in computer methods and artificial intelligence, including neural network methods.

Prerequisites
The coursework in the Building Systems Program requires the following background: calculus through differential equations, two semesters of calculus-based physics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer.

Student Support

Support for qualified graduate students is available in the form of University Fellowships, departmental Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistantships. Awardees may be exempt from paying tuition. In addition to University support, cooperative employment during the academic year and the summer is also possible through local employers, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, several major mechanical, electrical, and design-build engineering firms, and many small local companies specializing in energy analysis.