Done:

• Fixed: embedded maps now open links in new tab (previously links tried to open in the iframe, which was both unhelpful and also our site denies all pages except map embeds from opening in iframes)
• Fixed: project pages display well on mobile devices again
• Fixed: Metrics pages display well on mobile devices again
• Fixed: Objectives page displays well on mobile devices again

Discussion:

• Christina shared some mockups for improving the All Metrics page.
  • Group agreed they liked Idea #2 with Grid View the best
  • Morgan doesn't want to lose power user functionality. Discussed options for also showing the metrics in a listing (like the table of All metrics) - perhaps add an option to switch back and forth between list/grid views, or perhaps simply a link on the page to view the table listing.
  • Morgan asked Christina to look at Header Project Layout (e.g. LEED Certification project) and make recommendations for improving the layout and presentation of information. In particular, Morgan finds the paginated card-based Sub-projects listing with 6 projects per "page" makes it difficult to look through sub-projects and find individual projects.
• Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image? Or an image gallery?
• Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
  • Replace map link in Highlights?
  • Need to finish Take Action page content
• Continue discussion of Fancy Page Layout (see the 4 mockups in the October 21, 2022 meeting notes)
• Continue discussion of improving site's aesthetics
• Archiving projects
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Suggestions page - extra padding on right in mobile view
• Main map:
  • See CSU's campus map (Sustainability section) for inspiration
  • Campus boundary, like ArcGIS Bicycle Map
  • Improve mobile filter?
  • Use heatmap when zoomed out, switch to markers when zoomed in?
• SSC project embedding: add category filtering options
• (long term goal) look into importing information from another source, e.g. SSC students without iCAP Portal access can put together info in a structured format for automatic import into iCAP Portal
• Look into Collection embedding again, à la Drawdown Solutions Library Sammy had found ("Filter by sector or area of action" section)
• Metric search/display:
  • Theme (via connected Project, i.e. Theme -> Project -> Metric)
  • Most recent updates as of: (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
  • (Internal only) Last updated before (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
• (Low Priority) Make column headers click-sortable on Projects by Project Status page
• Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
• Discuss metrics
  • Metrics with lots of data
  • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
  • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
  • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

Ideations:

• Map brainstorming:
  • What if we had a separate Campus Sustainability Tour expandable section, alongside Collections and Themes? Perhaps with a specific order to the locations and information about each location in the infowindow popup? We might have to hand-craft it rather than using Collections, but it might be worth it if we want an interface more like the CSU sustainability map. This could also work for any other bespoke sections we might want to include in the future.
  • Are there other things we'd like to highlight on the map beyond Themes and Collections? If we can think of them, Michael can try to figure out how to make it happen.
  • Michael is working on trying to make the map queries work asynchronously so each filter doesn't require a new pageload. This would make interactions with the map much snappier.
  • Would we like to provide the ability to view individual projects for each section in the sidebar, à la CSU's map?
  • Are there other categories we would like to include, either in addition to or instead of Collections and Themes? Is that information already in the iCAP Portal? If so, perhaps there's a way we can use it... If not, perhaps a new tagging system specifically for the map might help us achieve it?
  • Sarthak: would like to create a Biking Tour
  • Reed: highlight things students can see/experience
• SSC projects
  • May want to use this Archive of Funded Projects on old SSC site (2019) as a reference for showing SSC project info
  • Discussed using iCAP Portal projects for SSC projects page vs. maintaining own project pages directly on SSC website.
  • One possible challenge - SSC sometimes funds part of a project or provides funding for a period of time (e.g. 1 year) for a longer-term project, so only the project updates for that period of time are relevant, not all updates in perpetuity. How do we handle that?
  • Decided to start with map embed from Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects collection, then look at adding card-based project embed as well.

Done:

• Fixed: homepage has extra padding on right side on mobile
• Main map:
  • Starts with only Campus Sustainability Tour locations shown (for now, start with Reporting Progress theme)
  • Smaller markers working for both Themes and Collections
  • Added "clear filters" option to show initial collection of projects (Campus Sustainability Tour)
  • Full Screen option available
  • Shows only publicly visible Collections

Discussion:

• Map brainstorming:
  • What if we had a separate Campus Sustainability Tour expandable section, alongside Collections and Themes? Perhaps with a specific order to the locations and information about each location in the infowindow popup? We might have to hand-craft it rather than using Collections, but it might be worth it if we want an interface more like the CSU sustainability map. This could also work for any other bespoke sections we might want to include in the future.
  • Are there other things we'd like to highlight on the map beyond Themes and Collections? If we can think of them, Michael can try to figure out how to make it happen.
  • Michael is working on trying to make the map queries work asynchronously so each filter doesn't require a new pageload. This would make interactions with the map much snappier.
  • Would we like to provide the ability to view individual projects for each section in the sidebar, à la CSU's map?
  • Are there other categories we would like to include, either in addition to or instead of Collections and Themes? Is that information already in the iCAP Portal? If so, perhaps there's a way we can use it... If not, perhaps a new tagging system specifically for the map might help us achieve it?
  • Sarthak: would like to create a Biking Tour
  • Reed: highlight things students can see/experience
• Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image? Or an image gallery?
• Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
  • Replace map link in Highlights?
  • Need to finish Take Action page content
• SSC projects
  • May want to use this Archive of Funded Projects on old SSC site (2019) as a reference for showing SSC project info
  • Discussed using iCAP Portal projects for SSC projects page vs. maintaining own project pages directly on SSC website.
  • One possible challenge - SSC sometimes funds part of a project or provides funding for a period of time (e.g. 1 year) for a longer-term project, so only the project updates for that period of time are relevant, not all updates in perpetuity. How do we handle that?
  • Decided to start with map embed from Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects collection, then look at adding card-based project embed as well.
• Continue discussion of Fancy Page Layout (see the 4 mockups in the October 21, 2022 meeting notes)
• Continue discussion of improving site's aesthetics
• Archiving projects
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Responsiveness on some pages is wonky:
  • Project pages - columns not linearizing
  • Metrics pages - extra padding on right
  • Suggestions page - extra padding on right
• Map embed - clicking on Places and Projects gives an X-Frame-Options error, since only the map is permitted to be embedded from our site. Possible solution: make every link on embedded pages open in a new tab?
• Main map:
  • See CSU's campus map (Sustainability section) for inspiration
  • Campus boundary, like ArcGIS Bicycle Map
  • Improve mobile filter?
  • Use heatmap when zoomed out, switch to markers when zoomed in?
• SSC project embedding: add category filtering options
• (long term goal) look into importing information from another source, e.g. SSC students without iCAP Portal access can put together info in a structured format for automatic import into iCAP Portal
• Look into Collection embedding again, à la Drawdown Solutions Library Sammy had found ("Filter by sector or area of action" section)
• Metric search/display:
  • Theme (via connected Project, i.e. Theme -> Project -> Metric)
  • Most recent updates as of: (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
  • (Internal only) Last updated before (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
• (Low Priority) Make column headers click-sortable on Projects by Project Status page
• Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
• Discuss metrics
  • Metrics with lots of data
  • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
  • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
  • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

Dear Morgan

I hope that you are doing well!

I also hope that my request below are not presumptuous, but … 😊

1. From August I will be directing the College of Engineering Master’s program in Energy Systems. A you know, this is an interdepartmental program attracting students from across the board (electrical, civil, chemical, nuclear, mechanical, agricultural, computer, …). Part of the program expects students to work on real industry problems, either via an internship or by solving a client’s energy-related problems and communicating designs/solutions with clients. In Fall we have around 25 master’s students but that number will soon double.
   It will be a privilege if our students could perhaps work on F&S energy-related projects. I know that Rizwan Uddin and John Abelson previously had some students work on project for F&S, and for which our students managed to secure some SSC funds. I was hoping that would again be possible. Please can you indicate if you might have any immediate needs for our master’s students to assist F&S with any energy-related design/redesign work? It would be a privilege if they could benefit from such a “real-world” experience.
2. Andre Nel will again visit UIUC and he would love to again meet with you, please! He arrives here around noon on August 16 and leaves around 4 p.m. of the 17th. Is there perhaps any chance that he could again exchange ideas with you? Andre has brought about some interesting changes at the University of Johannesburg, including a 2-MW PV canopy located on parking areas. South Africa has immense electricity supply problems and you can imagine that running a campus with up to 11 hours of blackouts every day is exceedingly challenging. He has also purchased who-knows-how-many massive diesel generators to cope with blackouts. Totally unsustainable but it does the job for the time being.
   Please can you indicate if you might perhaps be able to meet for lunch at Houlihan’s on August 16th (around 1 p.m.)? Or, if you prefer, Andre could meet you at F&S or at iSEE. (I have also written to Madhu as Andre would like to also meet her.)   

Thank you in advance for your attention to my requests.
I look forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards
Leon

--------------------------

Hi Leon,

Thanks for reaching out and congrats on becoming the point person for the Masters of Energy Systems!

I'm adding Rob Roman here, so he can help connect your students with energy focused projects in Utilities and Energy Services (UES). Rob is the director of UES, and he is highly engaged with and supportive of the iCAP efforts.  Can you extend the lunch invite to him as well?

I will also pull together a few project ideas for your students. Can you remind me what the timeframe is for their projects?

For lunch, I'll need to reschedule something to be able to join you, so let me confirm next week.  It would be great to hear of the changes Andres has implemented and share some of our new projects as well. 

Thanks!

Morgan 

---------------------

Good afternoon Morgan, Rob

Thank you for your lightning-quick and positive response, and for introducing me to Rob! Rob, I look forward to collaborating with you.

• The “professional development” part of the M.Eng. (Energy Systems) degree comprises a 4-credit-hour project that can be taken in the Fall or Spring semester. (I believe that some students have also done this in summer, although UIUC faculty have to be available to act as advisors if that were to happen.) Students usually work alone on topics but they could also be given teamwork if the task demands that.

Where required, our students will also apply for SSC funding for your projects. But, as you know, our students are only here for a year (or perhaps 18 months) so there is only a slight chance that they might be able to participate in the projects for which they will be seeking SSC funding.

• I appreciate your positive response regarding potentially meeting with Andre! Apologies for the schlep regarding rescheduling your other appointment. Many thanks though for all your efforts. If you cannot reschedule that meeting, I think that Andre will have some time available on the 17th before his meeting with Karl Gnadt at the MTD --- Karl however must still confirm meeting times, etc. I therefore hope that you will indeed be able to accommodate Andre on the 16th, together with Madhu.

Looking forward to your further communication and wishing you the best
Leon

-----------------------

Hi Leon,

I hope you are well!  I’m looking at older emails, and I am worried I dropped the ball on this.  Are you still looking for something from me?

Thanks!

Morgan

-----------------------

Good morning Morgan

Great to hear from you 😊.

Thanks for your follow-up.
I attended one of Rob Roman’s meetings with his Assoc. Directors --- and they enthusiastically responded with some excellent project recommendations. I summarize the main suggestions below this email.

If you have any (additional) energy projects that you’d like to recommend for 2024, that would be super. Thank you in advance! I greatly appreciate your support and advice.

Best wishes,

Leon

SUMMARY OF SUGGESTION FROM ROB ROMAN’S TEAM:

1. Protection of our campus energy systems infrastructure from physical and cyber threats. Potential targets across campus include: Abbott Power Plant; electrical sub-stations, distribution center, and load centers; steam tunnels; high-pressure gas piping; domestic water piping system; chiller plants; storm sewer system; etc. We have had an increased frequency of malicious events across the country in recent times and this topic has been trending.
2. Promoting, marketing, and selling a campus approach to investing in retro-commissioning and control system modernization/optimization. The University of Illinois F&S teams in UES have saved millions of dollars over many years by dedicating staff and financial resources in these areas. This type of project could give students the opportunity to learn the value of a career path in technical sales and the types of companies that utilize these type of staff members. A focus on developing high-level communication skills and strategic sales skills in conjunction with engineering education can be a lucrative path for some students.     
3. Cost and Environmental Comparison of Fossil Fuels Cogen Plant with Renewable Energy Plant: This project would involve a comprehensive study of providing 100 MW of FIRM (24-7-365) from a plant fired by a fossil fuel fired co-gen plant as compared to a plant that is 100% renewable. I would recommend that for the cogen plant the project focus on a Gas Turbine/HRSG combination that is natural gas fired, and that for the renewable energy plant the project focus on solar/wind as the generation source with the storage required to provide the 24-7-365 reliability from 100 MW. The storage will likely need to be provided by batteries. Incentives/rebates can be considered and used to develop a “current cost” comparison, but I would recommend that a fully loaded cost be included so that there is an apples to apples comparison. Would recommend that the total carbon footprint of each project also be considered.
4. Chiller Plant Optimization: The University is in the process of developing an optimization model/system for the chilled water system. This model will monitor the system demand as well as the performance of the major pieces of equipment at each of the plants, and optimize the operation of the major pieces of equipment to increase the efficiency (lower the energy usage) of the overall system. This project would involve working with the contractor and controls engineer at UES to understand what does into developing the model, what are the keys aspects of optimizing the system/plants, and perhaps assisting with certain facets of the project. We would need to discuss this project with the company performing the optimization to insure they are agreeable to working with the students.
5. Solar Farm 2.0 Operator Project: The operator of Solar Farm 2.0 committed to partnering with the university on education as it relates to solar power. If a student were particularly interested in a solar power project, we could setup a conversation with Sol Systems to inquire if there was something in particular they would work with a master student on. They are helping with an undergraduate sustainability class, so I am assuming they would be interested in working with a masters student, but I don’t have a specific project in mind at this time.
6. Grid Reliability based on Increase Integration of Renewables into the Grid: Grid stability and reliability has been and will continue to be impacted significantly by the integration of more and more intermittent generation sources into the grid. This project would largely be research based to understand the nature of the issues that are being created, perhaps identifying the tipping point at which the % of intermittent resources will result in problems, and most importantly identify the steps that need to be taken to alleviate these issues.
7. Power Plant Projects: Mike Larson did not have anything specific in mind but would be willing to generate a suitable topic based on student interest in this area.
8. Study on Geothermal Use in Large Institutional Buildings at UIUC: We have investigated the use of geothermal on both large and smaller buildings on campus, and have not yet found compelling evidence the geothermal is a great option on our campus. This project would research the technology, it’s uses and applications, and the practicality of using it on our campus. The project could investigate large institutional projects that have included geothermal (Ball State and EPIC in Madison Wisconsin are two that come to mind), and assessing their viability on the UIUC campus.    
9. Protection of our campus energy systems infrastructure from physical and cyber threats. Potential targets across campus include: Abbott Power Plant; electrical sub-stations, distribution center, and load centers; steam tunnels; high-pressure gas piping; domestic water piping system; chiller plants; storm sewer system; etc. We have had an increased frequency of malicious events across the country in recent times and this topic has been trending.
10. Promoting, marketing, and selling a campus approach to investing in retro-commissioning and control system modernization/optimization. The University of Illinois F&S teams in UES have saved millions of dollars over many years by dedicating staff and financial resources in these areas. This type of project could give students the opportunity to learn the value of a career path in technical sales and the types of companies that utilize these type of staff members. A focus on developing high-level communication skills and strategic sales skills in conjunction with engineering education can be a lucrative path for some students.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the September 2023 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 954.6 Megawatt hours.

The September 2023 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

Hi.

Have we been looking at this as an option for storing solar energy?

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/17/1063391/super-hot-salt-battery/

https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/blog/top-molten-salt-thermal-energy-storage-companies/

https://www.maltainc.com/challenge/

Cheryl Bicknell

The Green Career Fair is in the process of development, with a scheduled date of February 27th 2024, at the Illini Union Ballroom. 

The iCAP Education team has prioritized this project for the fall semester of 2023. We are currently in the process of finalizing the event's name and determining the list of invited companies. 

The 2023-24 charge letter identified the Commuter Program as a priority area for the Transportation iCAP team.

The pilot commuter program ran in Spring 2023 and celebrated those already choosing active modes of transportation but struggled to incentivize people to relinquish their parking passes. The Transportation Team will begin to brainstorm ways to incentivize and encourage people to relinquish their parking passes. The team also wants to establish an emergency ride-home program. This program would be made available to those who do not have a parking pass and need to return home in case of an emergency. 

Hello Morgan & Jennifer.

Matt Rundquist (CCed) and I are looking at developing real-time energy dashboards for campus transparency at the request of the VCAS.

Can you share if/how that project is going at UIUC?  I googled around a bit but most of the content seems a bit outdated…

Energy Dashboard Project (Ongoing) | iCAP Portal | University of Illinois

Any thing you can share is helpful and happy to jump on a call if that’s faster.

Thanks for your help.

Andy Mitchell

--------------------------

Rob,

Colleagues at UIC are interested in UIUC’s Energy Dashboard Project. However, the information on the dashboard stops at FY14 and the links to the building-level information are broken. I see a lot of value in this project for campus. Is there any way to reinvigorate the project and update the content?

Let me know if there is something iSEE can do to help.

Thank you,

Jennifer

---------------------------

Hello Jennifer,

Thanks for reaching out to UES on this topic. I am glad to hear that people have an interest in the UIUC energy dashboards. Our team has done a great job on this initiative, and we are leading the efforts amongst our peers. In fact, UIUC and vendor staff  will be presenting this topic at the International District Energy Association Campus Energy Conference this February. We am quite proud of the success we have achieved in this area.

In reference to the UIC system, I actually had worked on developing energy dashboards at UIC when I was the Director of UES there. We had some success, but the product was a bit difficult to maintain. I believe that support for those UIC dashboards has ended.

After receiving your email, I reached out to the Engineering/Consultant firm that I worked with to develop dashboards for both UIC and UIUC. Aaron Mason from Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Shorewood, IL) informed me that the platform that they are using at UIUC is a “much better, lightweight, and responsive” then the solution that was originally used at UIC. The underlying data streams at both campuses are similar, so the development of dashboards for UIC should be relatively easy.

Regarding the link that was provided for the UIUC dashboards; that link is actually an old link that is no longer supported. Please use this link to view the new dashboards at UIUC: http://uesdash.fs.illinois.edu/ . This system does not require a login, and is easy to navigate. We currently have 70 of the first 80 building dashboards completed, which represents 92% of the University energy consumption. Many of the dashboards are visible at building video displays for all building occupants to view. We continue to vet the data streams and will add more dashboards as we continue our efforts into the future.

To help you and Andy resolve any questions, I am including the following people on the cc so that you can reach out to them directly if it helps you in your efforts.

• Cedric Everett – Assistant Director of Utilities and Energy Services at UIC (Can help you navigate the energy data at UIC, as well as contracting with Hawkeye Energy Solutions).
• Aaron Mason – Director of Operations, Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Can assist with the technical background of a dashboard solution).
• Robbie Bauer – Management Engineer Utilities Distribution UIUC (Is the lead engineer at UIUC for development and implementation of energy dashboards).

Hopefully this answers your questions. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information. We welcome the opportunity to work together.

Thanks,
Rob

--------------------------------

Hi Rob,

Thanks so much for this information and for reaching out to your colleague at Hawkeye Energy Solutions. I’m pleased to see that this project is going strong!

If it’s ok with you, I would like to update the iCAP portal with this information, especially the URL for the new dashboards.

Andy, if there is anything else we can help with, please let use know.

Jennifer

Hi Morgan and Lisa,

This fall I have submitted two SSC step-1 applications:

1. Shipping containers for bicycle storage - $85,000
2. Purchase and Installation of bike shelter - $250,000

See attached the application. Thank you,
Sarthak