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INSTRUCTORS: 
Piljae Im, Ph.D.
Scott West
Nora Wang Esram, Ph.D.
Jie Zhao, Ph.D.

Course Length: 1 hour

Purpose and Background

This course will only award PDHs for completion.

Building Energy Modeling for Sustainable Cities

Buildings account for 40% of all energy use and 75% of total electricity use in United States. Significant efforts have been made to reduce energy in the building sector to conserve natural resources and ensure a sustainable future. Building energy modeling (BEM) has been used to incorporate energy-efficient technologies and designs into new buildings and building retrofits that could result in substantial energy and cost savings. Furthermore, BEM has been used extensively in demonstrating building energy code compliance, supporting green certification, qualification for tax credits and utility incentives, real-time building control, building performance analysis, and fault detection study. In this presentation, Dr. Im will present recent multi-lab efforts to improve the building energy modeling accuracy by measuring and documenting validation data sets for use in identifying errors and inadequate assumptions in simulation engines so that they can be rectified by the developers.

Emerging Trends in Building Energy and Automation

Global climate change and technological progress are both having a profound impact on the buildings industry. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation that was already in progress and increased the focus on building occupants. These drivers are culminating in a dynamic environment that will shape the sector in the next decade and beyond. In this session, Scott West explores some of the trends impacting the built environment along with the challenges and opportunities they present.

The Policy Implication of Building Energy Efficiency

Building decarbonization is a critical piece of our transition to a lower-carbon future. As the pandemic and a series of climate-related events (e.g., extreme heat wave in world history hitting Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.; devastating flood events over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast in the U.S., western Germany and eastern Belgium, and China; a disastrous winter weather onslaught over Texas, U.S.) have taken a big toll on the world in the past two years, we must think more holistically and design a new paradigm for the built environment—where we live, work, and play. Energy efficiency can slash US greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% by 2050. However, Only 14% of energy that we extracted from the Mother Nature is used to complete useful work that contributes to our economic growth. In this presentation, Dr. Esram will discuss how we should re-envision our technology and policy development to transform the built environment.

Healthy Building is an Ethical Choice

We spend 90% of our time indoors. Decades of studies have shown that buildings have a significant impact on people’s health and well-being. In the post-Covid world, building owners and tenants care about the health and well-being of their occupants and visitors more than ever. Creating healthier spaces today is no longer a luxury, but a mandate and ethical choice for many corporations. The WELL Building Standard provided us with a holistic approach to quantify interventions aimed at improving our built environments, so that our buildings can be vehicles for making us healthier, happier and more productive. This presentation will discuss the healthy building framework, introduce the factors that contribute towards making buildings healthier, outline the reasons why healthy buildings are important to different stakeholders, and offer solutions for how to improve building design and operations.

Learning outcomes and session benefits

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain methods to improve building energy modeling accuracy.
• Identify contributing factors of digital maturity and the adoption automation.
• Describe strategies needed to reduce carbon emissions of the energy sector.
• Identify factors that contribute to healthy buildings

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are assessed by responding to the post-session survey. If the course is taken On-Demand, there will also be a 10-question multiple choice post-test.

Who Should Attend?

• Civil Engineers
• Architectural and Structural Engineers
• Students
• Sustainability Engineers

How to Earn your PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

This course is worth 1 PDH. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 365 days of the course.