On Thursday, August 23rd, Professor John Z. Zhai from the University of Colorado Boulder visited our laboratory. After a presentation on our research and a fruitful discussion, we guided him on a tour of our experimental facilities.

On Thursday, August 9th and Friday, August 10th, we went on a laboratory trip and visited the 21st Century Forest, Asahiyama Zoo, and the Hokuryu Sunflower Village.

On Friday, June 15th, Mr.Iwamura, an alumnus of our laboratory, visited us.

On Thursday, June 14th, Professor Ruzhu Wang and members of his laboratory from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China visited us. They toured our experimental facilities, learned about our research, and enjoyed a friendly get-together over lunch.

During the ACRA2018 conference from June 11th to 13th, Professor Bingxi Li from Harbin Institute of Technology (China) and Associate Professor Yujin Nam from Pusan National University (South Korea) visited us in Japan.

June 11-13: ACRA2018 (The 9th Asian Conference on Refrigeration and Air-conditioning) was held at the Sapporo Convention Center, and four members from our laboratory gave presentations.

◯Yoshitaka Sakata, Takao Katsura, Katsunori Nagano(Hokkaido University): Importance of groundwater flow on life cycle costs of a ground heat pump system in the standard residence of Japan

◯Takashi Higashitani, Takao Katsura, Katsunori Nagano (Hokkaido University), Hitoshi Akai (Fukushima University), Motoaki Oe (Inoac Housing & Construction Materials Co. Ltd): Development of Simulation Tool for the Shallow Ground Source Heat Pump System Using Vertical Spiral Ground Heat Exchangers and Its Application

◯Junya TOGAWA, Seiya OOMAE, Hiroaki KUROISHI (Nihon Netsugen System Co. Ltd.), Asami KUROKAWA, Katsunori NAGANO (Hokkaido University): Development of adsorption heat pump using natural mesoporous materials with LiCl - Part-1 Evaluation of water adsorption ability of adsorbent

◯Katsunori NAGANO, Mayu INOUE (Hokkaido University), Junya TOGAWA (Nihon Netsugen System): Development of adsorption heat pump using natural mesoporous materials with LiCl - Part-3 Optimum design and performance predictions of 10 kW AHP using 3-D numerical simulation program

Friday, May 25: Ms. Emi Nishikawa, a graduate of our laboratory, visited us for an alumna visit.

Friday, May 18: We held a welcome party for the fourth-year students who joined our laboratory in April. Daiya Suzuki, Ririko Noda, Ryusuke Hirata, Takuma Fukuoka, and Dai Yamaguchi as well as our research student, Yue Han.

Thursday, May 17: The report meeting and award ceremony of the Hokkaido Branch of the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASE) were held at Kaderu 2.7, where Dr. Zhang Yang, a postdoctoral researcher, and Mr. Yuri Shoji, a first-year master's student from our laboratory, received awards.

[Oral Presentations]
Zhang Yang, Takao Katsura, Masahiro Aihara, Masato Nakamura, and Katsunori Nagano：Window Insulation Retrofit of Existing Buildings using Slim and Translucent Frame Structure Vacuum Insulation Panels

[Poster Presentation]
Yuri Shoji, Takao Katsura, Yoshitaka Sakata, Haobing Cai, Masato Nakamura, and Katsunori Nagano：Study on Estimation Method of Groundwater Velocity Using Thermal Response Test Results

April 25-28: Professor Nagano, Associate Professor Katsura, and Assistant Professor Sakata presented their research results at the 14th International Conference on Energy Storage held in Adana, Turkey.

[Oral Presentation]
"A Design and Simulation Tool for Ground Source Heat Pump System and Borehole Thermal Storage System, Takao Katsura, Katsunori Nagano, Yoshitaka Sakata, Takashi Higashitani"

[Poster Presentations]
"Development of Heat Recovery Ground Source Heat Pump System Applying Short Term Underground Thermal Storage GSHP, Takao Katsura, Katsunori Nagano, Yoshiki Miyashita, Yutaka Shoji, Yasushi Nakamura"

"A New Simulation Model for Vertical Ground Heat Exchangers Combining Cylindrical Source Model And Capacity Resistance Model TRT, Takashi Higashitani, Takao Katsura, Katsunori Nagano, Motoaki Oe, Hitoshi Akai"