Most students may not know about the T.C. Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy Studies. But with the launch of its new website yesterday, the Center hopes to foster collaboration between researchers, professors and students on sustainability issues at Penn and elsewhere.
On the site — called the T.C. Chan Center Portal — individuals can sign up for an account and contribute their own blogs to discuss their own research, according to Manager of Client Relationships at the T.C. Chan Center Mae Axelrod.
The new site is a social network “predominately designed for the purpose of promoting energy efficiency and sustainability,” T.C. Chan Center Director Ali Malkawi said.
“Its purpose is to link all initiatives that exist on campus that are related to sustainability to allow students to be engaged and for the site to grow,” he added.
The original plan was to build a consortium of members from 25 companies that represent the building industry, Malkawi explained. The idea was for those companies to share sustainability research and provide access to the public, which would “enable the public to value [sustainability] from a different perspective,” he said.
The idea of an electronic infrastructure followed the initial idea, since it “would link all of the participants globally and minimize the need for physical infrastructure,” Malkawi said.
The T.C. Chan Center Portal is available at tcchancenter.com.
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