HVAC Design and Analysis

Registration Date/Time:
6/2/2026 7:30am Central Time

Event Dates/Times:

• 6/2/2026  8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
• 6/3/2026  8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
• 6/4/2026  8:00am - 4:00pm Central Time

• Instructors

  Gene Nelson

  Gene Nelson, PE, has 44 years of HVAC design experience with a mechanical contractor and two engineering firms. He has completed over 40 major projects (over 8 million square feet) located in cities coast to coast in the United States and in the Middle East. Projects included commercial, industrial, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and research and development (R&D) facilities. Gene is a Life Member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and was President of the Madison ASHRAE Chapter from 2007 to 2008. He has been awarded ASHRAE’s Energy and Technology Award twice at the regional and society levels (1981 and 1994). Gene received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Wisconsin.

  Duncan Phillips

  Senior Technical Director

  Duncan Phillips, PhD, PE, is a Senior Consultant at RWDI and firm-wide Practice Area Leader for the technical teams using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to solve building design problems. His post-graduate work involved experimental methods to assess how building HVAC systems interact with people. As such, he approaches any numerical modeling with a healthy level of suspicion but an understanding of how powerful CFD can be. He has over 20 years of experience applying CFD to building air flow problems. He will present the segment on CFD modeling and stack effect in tall buildings. The CFD segment will cover the background of what CFD is so that participants understand the capabilities and limitations. This background will be a pragmatic discussion of how CFD works, not a discussion of the equations.

  Mark Malkin

  Program Director and Teaching Faculty

  Mark P. Malkin, PE, is a program director in the Office of Interdisciplinary Professional Programs in the College of Engineering at UW-Madison. He is a registered Professional Engineer with over 25 years of experience in university facilities project management and HVAC systems design. His course offerings include HVAC, plumbing and fire protection fundamentals, building code reviews, and design and operation of science labs, data centers, museums and libraries. Mark received his bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from UW–Madison.

  Sagar Rao

  Co-founder

  Sagar Rao is a Co-Founder of NeuMod Labs in Madison Wisconsin, with a background in building physics, data engineering, and software development. As a Building Performance Consultant, he has successfully delivered over 50 high performance buildings for a clientele that includes federal agencies, state authorities, prominent healthcare systems, renowned universities, financial institutions, and national laboratories. Sagar provides leadership to several ASHRAE, International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA), and Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) committees.

  Brian Clark

  Registered Mechanical Engineer

  Brian Clark, PE, is a registered mechanical engineer at the National Laboratory of the Rockies. His experience is extensive and includes HVAC design of health care, laboratories, clean rooms, manufacturing, office space, and indoor waterpark resorts to name a few. He now focuses on building energy security and resilience research. Brian received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering.

  Dave Meinzer

  Project Manager

  David J. Meinzer, DES, is a Pre-Construction Project Manager in the Majors Division at J.F. Ahern Company, focusing on Laboratory and Healthcare project design/pre-construction. Dave is a registered Designer of Engineering Systems (in the state of Wisconsin) with over 24 years of experience in HVAC system design, including coordinating and collaborating with design concepts with clients, other disciplines, and contractors. Dave is fluent in Revit modeling, load calculations, and system designs.

  Kyle Hansen

  Design Technology BIM Manager

  Kyle Hansen leads the BIM (Building Information Management) group in Affiliated Engineers, Inc.'s (AEI) Madison headquarters. Since joining the firm in 2004, Kyle has been instrumental in expanding the technical capabilities of the BIM software suite and related design technologies. He has been the BIM Lead for many of AEI's most prominent large-scale, technically complex projects involving coordination of extended multi-firm project delivery teams, primarily in the national healthcare and research markets. Kyle's firsts for AEI include: first use of Revit Server model sharing and the implementation of owner/contractor asset tracking for the UWHealth's The American Center facility, first use of the subsequent BIM 360 simultaneous design platform, and first use of virtual reality for the Caltech Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. He is a member of the National BIM Standards Committee. 

• Program Director

  Mark Malkin