ASHRAE has announced a call for papers for its 2016 Annual Conference in St. Louis, June 25-29.

“The 2016 Annual Conference features a great mix of the engineering basics as well as advanced systems and professional development,” said Wade Conlan, chair of ASHRAE’s Conferences and Exposition Committee. “In addition to the Fundamentals and Systems Tracks, there will be a Professional Skills Beyond Engineering track that focuses on the development of the business side of engineering. Two tracks that will push boundaries are smart building systems as well as renewable energy systems and net zero buildings. And finally, we are going back to the core of air conditioning with a track on Advances in Refrigeration Systems and Alternative Refrigerants.”

The Renewable Energy Systems and Net Zero Buildings track delivers sessions on high-energy efficiency and methods of design. The track addresses recent advances in alternative energy systems and equipment and new design strategies for achieving net zero buildings.

Exploring the wide range of refrigeration systems under development, the Advances in Refrigeration Systems and Alternative Refrigerants track places special emphasis on the use of alternative refrigerants in vapor compression machines to address environmental concerns.

The Smart Building Systems/Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics track covers advanced communication protocols, system integration, BMS tools, data management, and analysis.

ASHRAE says new engineers and veterans alike will benefit from the Professional Skills Beyond Engineering track, which seeks to ensure professional skills are being developed and maintained beyond engineering essentials.

ASHRAE offers two types of paper submissions.

Conference Papers: Abstracts due Sept. 14, 2015. Upon acceptance, papers will be due Jan. 4, 2016. These “final” papers undergo a single-blind review, are submitted as a PDF and have an eight single-spaced page maximum length.

Full Technical Papers are due Sept. 14, 2015. Papers submitted for review must be both technically accurate and clearly written. These papers undergo a rigorous double-blind review and can be a maximum of 30 double-spaced pages.

To submit a conference paper abstract or a technical paper and for more information about the conference, visit www.ashrae.org/stlouis.