Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering (SOE) students received global recognition at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 2022 Design Competition. The group received the Rising Star Award in the applied engineering challenge, ranking fourth internationally.

Students Genevieve Bourgeois, Daeja Daniels, Megan Danielson, Macy Deck, Muna Okeke and Evan Yates represented SIUE’s ASHRAE Student Club at the competition.

“Placing in an international competition makes me really proud of our team,” said Bourgeois, president of the SIUE ASHRAE team. “This was a difficult project to take on and took a lot of effort and guidance from mentors. Having done well in the competition shows that the extra work we put in was worth it and noticed.”

“This is a great accomplishment in the global ASHRAE arena where engineering students from all around the world are competing,” said Serdar Celik, PhD, professor and graduate program director of the SOE Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and the founder and faculty advisor of the ASHRAE SIUE Student Chapter. “This recognition underscores the dedication and hard work of these students.”

Inspired by the need of vaccine refrigeration amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the SIUE team was tasked to design an ultra-low temperature refrigeration system that could transport vaccines globally, even to the most remote places.

As a result, the students designed a well-insulated cooler that could hold over 9,000 vaccine doses and a cascade refrigeration cycle that could achieve 70 degrees Celsius to properly store the vaccine doses.

Celik, along with Michael Denn, PhD, instructor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, and Danny Halel, president of NTHALP Engineering, served as mentors guiding the students to success.

The SIUE ASHRAE team was recognized at the 2023 ASHRAE Winter Conference on Saturday, February 4^th at the Omni Hotel CNN Center.