The conference seeks papers and programs for the tracks which address trends in the industry; are relevant to the design community in the area; and introduce a unique topic and include core tracks on systems and equipment and fundamentals and applications.

New tracks for the conference include:

• Industrial Facilities. Manufacturing and processes can have some different requirements for HVAC. This track explores design and practices for industrial buildings.

• Large Buildings: Mission critical facilities and applications. Facilities like data centers have some different characteristics. This track looks at what is required for these unique applications.

• Life Safety. This encompasses egress, sprinklers, alarms, emergency lighting, smoke barriers, and special hazard protection. This track will provide the tools for all the factors to consider in life safety and lessons learned.

• Design of Energy and Water Efficient Systems. The trend is to green sustainable buildings. This track will look at what works and what doesn’t to attain these efficient systems.

• Hospital Design and Codes. Healthcare design takes into account some unique aspects. This track explores design and code requirements to ensure patient comfort.

The conference, which brings together engineers, building professionals, and researchers, seeks papers on applications and research. ASHRAE offers two types of paper submissions.

Conference paper abstracts are due March 24, 2014. Upon acceptance, papers will be due July 7, 2014.  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 due April 14, 2014. 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 tracks, go to www.ashrae.org/chicago.