Carnegie Mellon Deploys IBM ‘Smarter Buildings’ System

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IBMCarnegie Mellon University (CMU) expects to save about 10 percent on utilities, nearly $2 million annually, when a new IBM “smarter buildings” system is fully deployed across 36 buildings on its Pittsburgh campus.

Carnegie Mellon will use the new IBM Building Management Center product delivered on the IBM SoftLayer cloud to monitor thousands of data points from on-premise building automation and control systems. The Building Management Center will also detect system problems such as simultaneous heating and cooling not identified by other means, and proactively trigger corrective actions.

The new technology will be piloted in nine buildings and then extended to 36 buildings across campus. The initial application of the Building Management Center will focus on HVAC systems and later will extend to lighting, water and other utilities. The system is scheduled for full implementation in about three years.

The smarter buildings’ work with IBM also supports CMU's education and research focus. The initiative will connect with research already underway at the university's Smart Infrastructure Institute, of which IBM is a founding partner, and the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics.

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