A new IEA EBC Annex on occupant-centric design and controls has been approved. The Annex will involve about 100 experts from 20 countries for five years and focus on fundamental research issues regarding occupant comfort and behaviour, application to design and operations practice, new technology Read more
Occupant centered building control
The energy savings of buildings promised by automatic control systems are often ineffective due to occupants who may not use the features of the system to the full potential at best, or deactivate the system at worst. Therefore, systems that adapt to the occupant over time without compromising Read more
Occupancy detection using Bluetooth
Gathering occupancy data is considered as one of the grand challenges in building information modeling. Direct occupancy detection methods, such as the typical passive infrared (PIR) motion detectors detect motion rather than presence and are difficult to retrofit into existing buildings. Read more
Whole Communities—Whole Health
CHANGING THE WAY SCIENCE HELPS SOCIETY THRIVE IS OUR GRAND CHALLENGE Traditional research studies take “snapshots” of people’s lives at different points in time. Those snapshots give us information, but it’s incomplete. That means we might make incorrect assumptions or develop policies and Read more
Austin building stock under climate change
This project is in collaboration with the Sustainable Built Environment group in the School of Architecture. Each year the city of Austin stays amongst the top of the list of fastest growing metro areas in the country, with an average increase of 160 residents per day. As a result, the building Read more
