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Texas A&M architecture professors Charles Culp and Jeff Haberl will be among the university faculty honored for their work on one of 15 patents recently awarded to Texas A&M faculty. The inventors will be feted at the Patent and Innovation 2007 Awards luncheon sponsored by the Texas A&M University System Office of Technology Commercialization. The event will be held 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.
Culp’s and Haberl’s co-inventors David Coleridge and William Turner, both of College Station, will also be honored.
The invention earning Culp and Haberl this distinguished honor is United States Patent Number 6,996,508, a system and method for remote retrofit identification of energy consumption systems and components. The patent abstract is available on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site.
Culp currently serves as associate director of the Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). He earned a doctorate in solid state physics from Iowa State University in 1975, with a minor in electrical engineering. He also holds a bachelor of science in physics, earned with highest honors at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, N.M.
A licensed engineer and holder of 11 U.S. patents, Culp has over 25 years of academic and professional experience in engineering, research, teaching, and management. His work at the Energy Systems Lab (ESL) focuses on energy efficiency codes simulation, building energy efficiency measures, and the development of measurement and verification (M&V) for energy efficiency solutions.
His areas of interests include high performance buildings; heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems; measurement and verification; expert systems; system design; energy efficiency; and utility power distribution.
Jeff Haberl also serves as associate director of TEES Energy Systems Laboratory. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1986 and has been conducting research for almost 30 years in areas related to energy system efficiency, renewable energy and intelligent measurement systems.
Haberl was recently elevated to fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). That award was presented Jan. 27 at ASHRAE’s winter meeting in Dallas, Texas.
Haberl’s areas of interest are in HVAC design, energy conservation savings measurement techniques, metering and monitoring equipment, calibrated building energy simulations, building energy data visualization, on-line diagnostics for HVAC equipment, solar energy heating and cooling systems, solar energy measurements and emissions reductions calculations.
With the Energy Systems Laboratory, Haberl and Culp are currently developing analysis procedures for Texas Senate Bill 5, legislation enacted to reduce ozone pollution in metropolitan areas. The ESL has been the primary contractor for the Texas LoanSTAR program since 1990. The program has saved the taxpayers in Texas over $109.2 million in state revenue in the form of reduced energy use in state facilities.
The Office of Technology Commercialization coordinates collaborations between faculty, researchers and potential investors through the Texas A&M University System’s nine universities, seven agencies and health science center, as well as the industry partners who make the products of these efforts commercially viable.
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Charles Culp 
