Hi there! My name is Suhail Salih, a 4th year Mechanical Engineering Dean Scholar Student and a proud decathlete of mighty Desert Rose! Amongst many other commitments a typical UOW final year student would be juggling with, I was fortunate enough to find the time to work on my engineering passion and commit to being a highly engaged decathlete. Being heavily involved in the vast range of co-curricular activities UOW offers, I was quite excited when I was introduced in to an unique engineering co-curricular activity, the Solar Decathlon Competition in my very first few lectures at uni. From then till now it has been a fruitful journey for which I’m greatful for.

Being a member of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning team of Desert Rose, or as I like to call it the “Lungs of the House” and working besides experienced students in the HVAC field, I found myself working on things which in my wildest dreams wouldn’t have thought I would be working on as a uni student. Having had a taste of this type of work as a decathlete I decided to pursue my breadth of knowkedge in this field and carry out my final year thesis on the performance of the Energy Recovery Ventilator, one of the many sustainable technologies of the house which plays a vital role in Desert Rose’s HVAC performance.

After spending countless hours including many early mornings during the construction phase of the house at TAFE; ducting, drilling, glueing, cement mixing, insulating, sawing, and the list goes on, hands down most rewarding part of this whole experience thus far is seeing this house, the child of many hard working students, finally coming to life. It’s a been a sheer treat to have had the experience of working with such a diverse group of students, academically and culturally thus far, and I can’t wait to see how this house, the fortune of our fate, dominates underneath the microscopic lens of the international sustainable technology industry.