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Solar soldier: James Bambara 

James Bambara (Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering) used to love building dog houses as a child, but it took him a while to figure that Building Engineering was “his destiny.”

“I was a bit lost after CEGEP and actually started off in mechanical engineering,” he said. As soon as he switched into the building program though, things started to fall into place. He marks improved, his interest was piqued and he met Andreas Athienitis.

Athienitis is the Scientific Director of the NSERC Solar Building Research Network, a national collaborative effort focused on solar energy in homes and businesses. Bambara received special permission to take a graduate level class on passive solar building design with him and was then invited to work with Athienitis as NSERC Summer Intern.

This project focused on something very close to home, developing a prototype for the solar insulation to be used in the John Molson School of Business (JMSB).

“We tested the performance on the prototype, and in September continued the project where I was very involved in the roll out and commissioning of the system implementation in the building itself.”

Bambara underlines that the system being used in the JMSB building combines solar panels with heat recovery and has never been used before. As such, it is of interest to the research community. Athienitis and Bambara have already published one paper on the prototype, and are now writing another on the performance of the system itself.

This summer Bambara plans to take it easy with some travel to Europe. He is returning to Concordia in the fall to begin his masters work, which will look at improving the design of the JMSB system. And, now that he has clearly found his path, he is already thinking of next steps “A PhD — and once I have a good understanding of the solar energy market in housing, opening my own business.”