On March 1, 2016, Dr. MOREL RIOS JORGE RICARDO joined our laboratory as a Project Assistant Professor.

Five undergraduate seniors and six second-year master's students from our laboratory have graduated. Congratulations on your graduation!

We held a farewell party for our laboratory on March 22nd. This was the final lab event of this academic year. To all our M2 students: thank you for your hard work and dedication over the years!

The 50th Annual Academic Conference of the Hokkaido Chapter of SHASE was held on March 22nd at the Akira Suzuki Hall, Frontier Research Center for Applied Sciences, Hokkaido University. Our laboratory delivered a total of 28 presentations, including 15 oral presentations and 13 poster presentations.

On March 11th and 14th, Professor Nagano and Project Assistant Professor Sakata visited the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), respectively. They engaged in information exchange and fruitful discussions regarding the current status and challenges of promoting Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems in Japan, Finland, and Denmark.

The 4th Workshop on Ground Source Heat and Heat Pump Systems (FY2015) was held in Osaka on March 2nd and 3rd. On the first day, we visited Grand Front Osaka, guided by Nikken Sekkei Ltd., followed by a tour of Daikin Industries' Technology and Innovation Center. On the second day, we participated in the research presentation session at the Osaka City University Media Center. From our laboratory, two students, Mr. Ogura and Mr. Sato, delivered presentations on their latest research.

February 8th: Bachelor's Thesis Presentation Day
The Master's Thesis Presentations were held on February 10th.

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Fourth-year undergraduate students' bachelor's theses

Reo Sato
"Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency Analysis of Residential Buildings Using Ground-Source Heat Pumps and Desiccant Humidity Control"

Junki Hashimoto
"Development of a Three-Dimensional Subsurface Information Estimation Tool and Ground Source Heat Potential Maps"

Yu Hirouchi
"Measurement and Evaluation of Energy Consumption and Indoor Climate of a Low-Energy Building with a Ground-Source Heat Pump System in a Cold and Snowy Region"

Yoshiki Miyashita
"Study on Quantification of the Effects of Introducing Ground-Source Heat Recovery Heat Pump Systems"

Tomoaki Murakami
"Study on Transparent and Thin Vacuum Insulation Panels for High Thermal Insulation Retrofitting of Existing Buildings"

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Second-year master's student　Master's thesis

Ryo Ogura
"Investigation on energy saving performance of a residential desiccant ventilation and air conditioning unit"

Ryota Suzuki
"Study on a Static Total Heat Exchange Ventilation System Using Polymer Gel Coated Paper"

Ayaka Takigami
"Study on Ground Source Heat Pump System Using Vertical Spiral Ground Heat Exchanger"

Atsushi Morita
"Research and Development of a Low-Cost Adsorption Heat Pump Using Natural Mesoporous Materials"

Yukiko Yagi
"Investigation on a Smart Community Using Ground Source Heat Pumps, Thermal Energy Storage, and Electricity Storage"

On January 29, 2016, an international seminar on renewable energy heat pump technology was held. We invited Professor Wang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Professor Li from Harbin Institute of Technology (China), as well as Associate Professor Nam from Pusan National University (Korea), to deliver lectures on adsorption heat pumps and ground source heat pump systems.

This video showcases "Pokke," the Rusutsu Child Center, where the entire energy system was supervised by Professor Kastunori Nagano.
This facility achieves a low-energy footprint by integrating ground source heat pumps with advanced ventilation and thermal storage technologies.