About AKF
In 1989, AKF was founded in response to clients’ needs for a mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection firm that provided engineering leadership, better communication, and direct access to the best talent to solve the challenges they faced. We created a firm with a flat organizational structure that eliminated bureaucracy and needless hierarchy, allowing clients to directly connect to the team with the best solutions to complex engineering challenges.
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What I did at AKF
In the summer of 2023, I worked at AKF as a commissioning engineering (Cx) intern doing a variety of onsite and offsite commissioning tasks. When my internship ended I was offered a part time position as a commissioning engineer for the duration of the fall. While at AKF I completed a variety of commissioning related tasks. I have listed some of these tasks below along with additional details of what each task entailed.
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Functional Testing
One of the primary roles of a commissioning engineer is performing on-site functional testing of site equipment. I tested equipment from the mechanical, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, and lighting systems for various projects. To improve project communication, AKF used the CxAlloy platform to collaborate with contractors and document equipment deficiencies to be rectified by the corresponding system contractor.
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Pre-functional Checklist Development
Before AKF performs functional testing of a project, site contractors must complete pre-functional checklists (PFCs) for all installed equipment. I worked to generate these checklists for dozens of types of equipment from all building systems. This required reviewing equipment submittals and project specifications for installation requirements so that each checklist was specifically tailored for each project and piece of equipment. While working on pre-functional checklists, I also worked to create a more efficient and repeatable process for their generation that included templates and previously generated checklist items significantly reducing the amount of hours required for their completion.
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Project Documentation
To verify all equipment is thoroughly tested and all deficiencies are rectified, commissioning requires various forms of project documentation. I worked to generate some of these documents for various AKF projects. My work included reviewing project plans to generate complete building wide equipment lists and building project specific commissioning logs. In addition to completing multiple Cx logs, I redesigned the Cx log process and built a new spreadsheet that included automation for viewing project completion percentages as a glance.