Sustainability Awards 2020

Pictured here are Jorge Luis Aguilar Santana and Mariana Velasco Carrasco are PhD students of the Department of Architecture & Built Environment supervised by Professor Saffa Riffat - Head of Buildings, Energy & Environment Research Group  

Two PhD students, Mariana Velasco Carrasco and Jorge Luis Aguilar Santana of the Department of Architecture & Built Environment supervised by Professor Saffa Riffat - Head of Buildings, Energy & Environment (BEE) Research Group won Sustainability Awards 2020.

The prize

The Sustainability Awards are designed to celebrate all aspects of sustainability, from social justice and equality to health and wellbeing to environmental sustainability - anything relating to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These awards are part of the Sustainability Week in a series of activities and events to encourage students to engage with environmental and social issues and empowering them to make a positive change.

The award ceremony was held on the 6^th of March in the Winter Garden at the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory, a building that incorporates the essence of sustainability by utilising the latest technologies to allow it to be carbon neutral over its lifetime. This year, the award for Student Achievement was given to Mariana Velasco Carrasco and the award for Research Project to Jorge Luis Aguilar Santana.

The nominees

Mariana is a third year PhD student of the BEE Research Group, her research focuses on achieving thermal comfort in residential buildings by the use of “phase change materials” in a ceiling tile prototype. This project includes the incorporation of a dehumidification and heat pump system.

Jorge is also a third year PhD student of the BEE Research Group and his PhD research is on an Innovate UK funded project aimed to harvest solar energy through developing a Novel thin-film photovoltaic vacuum glazing. This research project is a joint collaboration with his supervisor Professor Saffa Riffat, UK and international companies as well as the Hubei University of Technology in China.

Both students are active members of the World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies and have participated in international conference and presented the results of their research studies. These research studies were presented at SET 2019 – the 18th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET 2019) in Kuala Lumpur in August 2019. They are also volunteers in the project “Student Switch Off” promoting waste reduction in the university halls as well as teaching the photovoltaic and hydro renewable energy laboratories in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment.