BranchPattern Celebrates 30 Years, Establishes Merit Scholarship
- Blog
To commemorate 30 years of Improving Life through Better Built Environments® in 2021, BranchPattern is excited to announce a scholarship endowment with the University of Nebraska Foundation. The BranchPattern Pioneer Award honors BranchPattern’s founder, Ravi Maniktala.
“I am incredibly excited to share this scholarship honoring the accomplishments and legacy of Ravi Maniktala during BranchPattern’s 30th Anniversary Year,” said Rick Maniktala, BranchPattern’s President. “Ravi’s 50+ years of pioneering for better, and more sustainable, built environments has inspired generations of architects and engineers. BranchPattern’s existence and purpose is the direct result of Ravi’s passion. This $2,000 annual scholarship will support funding for students who are not only pursuing mechanical or architectural engineering degrees within the University of Nebraska system, but also share our purpose for creating better built environments that improve peoples lives and exist in harmony with the planet.”
Through contributions, BranchPattern hopes the scholarship support will be a catalyst to create more graduates that exemplify the pioneering spirit and passion for sustainability in the built environment modeled by Ravi.
As a young mechanical engineer in the early 1970s, Ravi was eager to expand his knowledge to the fields of architecture, ecology and the life sciences. He advocated for approaching the physical design of buildings as an integrated system that impacts operational efficiency, durability, as well as occupant health and comfort. Today, this approach is often referred to as Building Science. Some of Ravi’s notable impacts on the industry include:
- Teaching building systems integration courses at the University of Nebraska, College of Architecture in the mid 1980s.
- Serving as the Engineer-of-Record for the Kansas City Zoo’s Deramus Education Pavilion – this project won AIA’s 1999 Earth Day award, now known as the Committee on the Environment’s (COTE) Top 10 Award.
- Co-authoring the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEEDv2 Accredited Professional Exam and pioneering LEED® Certifications across the United States.
- Serving as the Lead Energy Engineer to implement deep energy retrofits for 25+ Million square feet of U.S. federal buildings under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.
- Collaborating with The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, created by Congress, on the development of the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture.
- Serving as the High-Performance Building Consultant for the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse – in 2014 this project became an AIA COTE Top Ten Project, which included LEED Platinum Certification and Net Zero verified sustainability.
Ravi’s leadership has helped BranchPattern become a leader in the field of building science, working with owners to help create buildings that are more reliable, healthier and sustainable. He has inspired generations of building professionals to reach new heights of sustainability. That legacy is what inspired BranchPattern to establish this endowment to foster a fresh generation of innovation-driven engineers and leaders with a sustainable vision.
