CCE’s Top 10 Under 40: Tim Zhu

Photo courtesy Tim Zhu.

This year, for the first time, Canadian Consulting Engineer launched an initiative to recognize up-and-coming consulting engineers across the country. We are now showcasing them on our website, in alphabetical order by surname.

Tim Zhu, 34, is a senior mechanical engineer and project manager with HH Angus & Associates in Toronto. He studied mechatronics engineering at Ontario’s University of Waterloo, where co-op term with controls contractor Automation Engineering Associates (AEA) and consulting engineering firm Genivar (now WSP) brought him into the construction sector.

“I made control systems for building automation systems (BASs) to make mechanical equipment work together,” he explains. “Later, I designed the systems myself. I enjoyed putting them together to solve problems.”

He continued to work for Genivar after graduating, until he was let go during a recession. He joined HH Angus in time to draft with Autodesk’s Revit software for the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), one of North America’s largest public-private partnership (P3) health-care facilities, for which the firm was designing mechanical, electrical and security systems.

“Now I’m a one-stop shop for projects.”

“That experience led me to a position in the commercial division after my first three months,” Zhu says. “Now I’m a one-stop shop for projects, from design through to construction.”

He is also currently overhauling the firm’s CAD drafting standards for AutoCAD and Revit platforms and developing template control sequences and diagrams for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

“Tim has been instrumental in developing our HVAC piping and ductwork sizing tools and calculation tools for ASHRAE 62.1, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality,” says Kevin O’Neill, principal and commercial division director. “He has consistently demonstrated strong technical abilities and unparalleled work ethic.”

Another ongoing project that drives Zhu is the use of ASHRAE Guideline 36 for control sequences and the WELL standard for human health and wellbeing to help the firm reach its energy conservation and sustainability goals.

“The firm is very supportive of these goals and of its staff,” he says. “We work on a variety of exciting projects and each one is different.’