ASHRAE has announced a call for papers for its 2017 Winter Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 28-Feb. 1, 2017.

The conference seeks papers that address the new conference tracks and other prevailing issues in the industry.

“Today’s HVAC&R profession is facing challenges unlike those from the past,” said Leon Shapiro, conference chair. “The rapidity with which technology advances the modeling, design, equipment, systems, construction and operation of the buildings we deal with, along with the speed with which climate change is significantly altering the conditions around which we design, are creating problems for today’s ASHRAE members. The conference seeks to address those problems.”

The conference seeks papers on new tracks that address the changes in technology:

• The relationship between water usage and energy systems becomes more prominent as the demands of development and over use as well as climate change continue to drain resources. The Water-Energy Nexus track highlights research in this area. It also explores technologies and designs intended to reduce the gap between energy and water efficiency.
• The Advances in Mission Critical Design and Operation track highlights developments in mission critical facilities and the challenges of meeting increasing load demands while minimizing the impact on energy and water usage.
• Climate change will have an increasing effect on the design and operation of the built environment. The Climate Change and Its Effects on HVAC&R Design and Technologies track focuses on methods to increase building resiliency and facilitate climate adaptation.
• Energy Efficient Industrial Buildings and Life Safety spotlights energy efficiency in industrial buildings and how it can be achieved without compromising life safety considerations.

In addition, the conference seeks papers on Fundamentals and Applications, HVAC&R Systems and Equipment, Commercial and Industrial IAQ and Building Operation and Performance: Meeting the Modeling Expectations.  

“The industry’s goal is to design, build and operate buildings today that are efficient and sustainable, and that are intended to remain efficient and sustainable into the future,” Shapiro said. “How do you accomplish that if tomorrow promises to be notably different than today? No sensible design decisions can be made without taking into account not only the world as it has been or is, but also the world as it will be. The 2017 ASHRAE Winter Conference attempts to bridge this design challenge through the tracks and papers and programs accepted for the program.”

 ASHRAE offers two types of paper submissions:

• Conference Papers: Abstracts due March 14. Upon acceptance, papers will be due July 6, 2016. These “final” papers undergo a single-blind review, are submitted as a PDF and have an eight single-spaced page maximum length.
• Full Technical Papers, which are due April 18. Papers submitted for review must be both technically accurate and clearly written. These papers undergo a rigorous double-blind review and can be a maximum of 30 double-spaced pages.

To submit a conference paper abstract or a technical paper and for more information about the conference, visit www.ashrae.org/lasvegas