Competition focuses on planning and estimating using real-world scenarios
This year, a team of Dunwoody students will compete against student NECA (National Electrical Contractors Association) Chapters from around the country in an Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge (ECIC) that will put their problem-solving skills to the test.
The ECIC is hosted annually by ELECTRI International, an organization dedicated to research and education for the electrical construction industry. Now in its seventeenth year, this year’s competition will challenge students with the design-build of an ERMCO Building in Indiana.
Through the guidance of Local NECA chapters, peers, and industry leaders, students will serve as an Electrical Contractor and deliver a complete, innovative design-build proposal to the General Contractor, while ensuring a net-zero approach.
Each team received a narrative, a basic set of architectural and structural drawings, and a Revit model with just architectural and structural links included from ELECTRI staff. These materials provide the foundation for the teams to design and virtually construct the most innovative electrical system to meet their customers’ needs.
This year’s Dunwoody team is represented by nine students currently in their fourth semester of the Electrical Construction Design & Management program and two students from the Power & Construction Engineering Technology program. Team members include: Tarek Azzazi, Zakary Bryant, Carter Dixon, Lucas Dougherty, Peter Gronvall, Daniel Humbert, Jack Narcum, Noah Otis, Devin Peek, Gordon Rollman, and Edwin Solorio. During the competition, students will showcase the skills and knowledge they have gained in their programs.
Associate Professor Polly Friendshuh is advising the team, and the entire project is being shared with underclassmen to help them prepare for their own future ECIC Challenge.
The team is using industry standards and methods to bring forward the delivery of the project and the design, procurement, and construction phases of the project are all carefully planned and coordinated with the construction team. Team members utilize REVIT, an industry-standard program, to model all of the electrical systems and provide construction drawings. The Dunwoody team will be emphasizing the use of PoE (Power Over Ethernet) for the lighting package, which will provide an innovative design to promote green energy. Throughout the course of this project, team members will meet with various companies and NECA members to help gather insights, which will be incorporated into the project.
“My experience with the ECIC Challenge has been very positive,” said Peter Gronvall, Electrical Construction Design & Management. “I have learned more about industry than I had going into it. Acting in a project manager type role for the project has been a good learning curve. There has been a lot of momentum between our small teams and seeing the project fall together has been great! It’s not been all sunshine and roses; our team has experienced a few hurdles that we are working through to prepare a proposal that I feel will be worth being proud of.”
A big part of the challenge is the net-zero aspect, which requires an innovate design solution.
“I’ve been contributing to the design team portion of the ECIC challenge,” said Tarek Azzazi, Electrical Construction Design & Management. “I’ve assisted in the creation of office space power plans and lighting layouts in REVIT. Through collaborating with my peers in Revit and Bluebeam as a group, we have been able to make smart design decisions — aiming to create a building that aims to be net zero energy. One unique part of my experience this far has been the tours to companies like Volt-Server. Seeing how professionals are using new technologies like PoE (Power Over Ethernet) systems in their current design practices has inspired me to think about building power sources differently. One challenge our team faced has been coming to a common consensus as a group deciding what products and systems we want to use in our project. By setting deadlines and weighing pros and cons we have been able to move forward with a solid plan.”
This year’s project is split into various groups that are all working to bring together a cohesive design and proposal. The groups include: Engineering/Design, Project Managers, Estimators, and Schedulers. By splitting the work, each student is able to focus and give a more sophisticated output to each task.
The Engineering/Design group is managed by Gordon Rollman and Lucas Dougherty. Noah Otis is the Project Executive and Peter Gronvall is the Project Manager. Estimating is led by Zakary Bryant, and Scheduling is led by Edwin Solorio. The Proposal is being written by Jack Narcum and assisted by Noah Otis.
The team will be posting updates on the project on both LinkedIn and Instagram to share their progress.
“Using social media to share the journey of our project has been a great tool, as students who are ready to enter the construction industry, it is essential to build connections,” said Edwin Solorio, Electrical Construction Design & Management. “Platforms such as LinkedIn allow us to create these lasting connections and help build our future success in the construction industry as a whole.”
The team has until May 7 to complete the project and will give a final presentation to industry on May 20 to gather additional feedback.