Most people don’t think about pumps in their daily lives — until they stop working.
Then, whether it’s a heart pumping blood through your body or one that’s supposed to provide water for a fire hydrant or your building, the lowly pump gets quick attention.
WSU researchers in the School of Design and Construction recently received an education excellence award for the curricula they developed on hydraulic pumping from the Hydraulic Institute. This award recognizes the school’s leadership and innovation in advancing pump system education.
In designing modern buildings, pumps play a central role in energy efficiency and for sustainable design.
“It’s kind of one of those things behind the walls that most people don’t think about,” said Shelby Ruiz, research associate in the school’s Integrated Design and Construction Laboratory who helped to develop the course modules. “Knowing about pumps is not required for a graduation path, but it makes a lot of sense for students who want to go into careers in energy efficiency and in designing efficient buildings.”
The WSU team got involved in designing the course through the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and then through the Hydraulic Institute, which is the largest association of pump manufacturers in North America. Similar to the Energy Star program for rating energy efficient appliances, the Hydraulic Institute develops technical and standards codes for pumps around the US and has a rating system for efficiency.
Julia Day, associate professor in the School of Design and Construction, designed and developed a new curriculum and course module with the institute for the school’s building science course. The course has since been adopted and used by other universities. The course modules provide high-level, introductory information from industry experts for architecture and construction management students, especially focusing on the technology around smart pumps.
“It’s very technical and scientific to a degree when you’re talking about moving fluids, water, or sometimes glycol around a building,” said Ruiz. “The pump system that moves that water is actually really important in the energy efficiency dynamic.”
When architecture or construction management students get into the workforce, they’re probably not going to be deciding exactly what pump might go into a building, but the program provides good background, so that they are aware of pumps as an area of energy savings.
“The motivation from the institute is really on developing a future workforce that can enter the world of professional hydronics, pumps and mechanical engineering and to have an entry point to understanding the actual energy demand of something like a pump,” she said. “Even just simple exposure to these concepts is really valuable.”
The WSU team is working to share the course modules, which are formatted within the common Canvas learning platform, with additional engineering faculty at WSU as well as with other universities around the U.S.
