The US Department of Energy announced $600,000 in funding to help American universities establish stronger partnerships with industry and business in the area of building efficiency.
Each selected project for the Building University Innovators and Leaders Development (BUILD) awards will receive $200,000 in funding; more than 50 percent of expenditures in each project will be used to support undergraduate students.
The projects selected for award negotiations are:
Drexel University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania): The project will develop an automated fault detection and diagnostics tool that integrates statistical process control, machine learning, and rule-based methods to reduce building energy consumption. To enhance the tool’s plug-and-play capability and potential market penetration, it will be compatible with VOLTTRON, an open-source software platform that is highly interoperable.
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia): Georgia Tech will support 20 student project teams in developing building energy efficiency technologies through a Capstone design project. Students will be involved with the manufacturing and testing of a prototype solution, as well as publically demonstrating the solution at the Capstone Design Expo. Student teams partner with company sponsors, which will foster student employment in the building energy efficiency sector.
University of California, Davis (Davis, California): Undergraduate students will work with industry partners to develop and validate a new EnergyPlus solution to model hybrid rooftop air conditioners. This model will integrate the function of multiple cooling elements to gain climate-specific advantages in comfort and efficiency.
