ASHRAE announced the winners of its 2026 Student Design Competition, Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge and Building Energy Quotient Competition. The competitions recognize the outstanding abilities and innovative problem-solving skills of students in HVAC&R, building sciences and engineering.

The projects will be recognized during the 2027 ASHRAE Winter Conference, Jan. 23-27, in Chicago, Illinois. The Winter Conference is held in conjunction with the ASHRAE co-sponsored AHR Expo, which will be Jan. 25-27, at McCormick Place Convention Center.

The 2026 student competition focused on a new building being added to a university campus in Denver, Colorado. Teams competed in one of four categories:

HVAC Design Calculations
HVAC System Selection
Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design
Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge

HVAC Design Calculations category, first place
Sanika Rajendra Gavhane, Nikita Vaijinath Suryawanshi, Neha Vaijinath Suryawanshi, Pradnya Ashok Mane, Sakshi Sanjay Chaugule and Sakshi Santosh Bhosale of SVERI’s College of Engineering Pandharpur. The team advisors is Dr. Digvijay D. Ronge.

HVAC System Selection category, first place
Tong Chi Ho, Hadi Muhammad Raahim, Chow Ching Mei and Chan Wing Ho of The University of Hong Kong HKU. The team advisor is Dr. Benjamin P. L. Ho.

2026 Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design category, first place
Syahlaisa Afra Amanio, Vine Novia Pakpahan, Laura Mellisa, Fawzaan Dwi Sulistiyanto, Muhammad Djackwan Firdaus and Nadhif Khairu Athallah of Universitas Indonesia. The team advisors are Dr. Miktha Farid Alkadri and Dr. Eng. Arnas Lubis.

2026 Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge, first place
First place is awarded to Muhammad Mirza Adhiyarahman, Ahnaf Irbah Hidayat, Rimba Harits Hartanto, Gravin Hotasi Zakharia, Juan Aaron Norata and Muhammad Khairul Anam of the Bandung Institute of Technology. Team advisor is Dr.Eng. Ir. Gea Fardias Mu’min, S.T., M.T.

Students were asked to design an innovative system for residential applications that rejects heat into domestic hot water and absorbs heat from domestic cold-water systems for space heating and cooling.

The project explored HYDEX, which is a modular residential GSHP retrofit that acts as a thermal battery, capturing waste heat from greywater and the heat-pump system, storing it in stratified buffer tanks and intelligently redirecting it to improve HVAC efficiency and preheat domestic water while reducing energy consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions.

Building Energy Quotient Competition, first place
First place was awarded to Ivy Exum, Alexander Charbonneau, Tyler Milstead, Ethan Schriner, Hoang Dinh, Tanner Rapp, Keegan Snoozy, Chris Fisher and Nickolas Bozonelos of University of Washington ASHRAE at UW. The team advisor is Robert S Rushing.

The Building Energy Quotient Competition takes theory into practice by giving students building energy assessment experience in an operational setting, while working collaboratively with building owners. Students had the opportunity to evaluate and audit building energy consumption for buildings in operation to give the building a Building EQ score using the ASHRAE Building EQ online tools.

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