Danfoss North America and The Pennsylvania State University at Philadelphia announced a grant from Danfoss in support of the Penn State 2017 Immersive Internship in Global Sustainability Practices. The grant marks the launch of an Engineering Tomorrow's Cities initiative which will focus on enlarging the workforce required to create, maintain, and renew sustainable, low-carbon communities; advance the deployment of innovative technologies and designs to reduce carbon emissions; and highlight the important role of engineering in creating the sustainable commercial buildings and communities of tomorrow.  

The Internship initiative will be based at Penn State's building and energy "living laboratory" research facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard under the direction of Dr. James Freihaut, professor in the Penn State Department of Architectural Engineering.

Thirty graduate and undergraduate interns from around the world are expected to participate in the research project during the summer of 2017.

"The Engineering Tomorrow's Cities initiative with Danfoss grew out of our work together for their EnVisioneering Symposium on buildings and energy in June 2016, and our subsequent collaboration to support the work of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to develop a framework for high performance building standards," Dr. Freihautsaid.  

Results from the initiative will be the subject of workshops at Penn State, a Danfoss EnVisioneering Symposium to be held at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 2018, and a culminating report issued by the participating students.