WANTED: Creative, sustainability-minded, data-oriented Systems Engineering MEng Student for Energy Efficiency Research MEng Project.
Skills needed:
1) Willingness to apply systems thinking to a real-world policy challenge
2) Interest in energy efficiency and sustainability
3) Basic knowledge of stakeholder analysis and the process of defining system requirements
4) You must be taking or have taken (preferred) SYSEN 5100 (Model Based Systems Engineering)
DESCRIPTION:
Current residential energy modeling is primarily based on simulated data; essentially how much heat is lost from a house in the winter time. The weakness is that it is never measured. In this project, other students will gather 200+ temperature data series from houses and compare simulated data to actual data and find various kinds of information about house permformance from the data. Your challenge is to engage with a diverse group of stakeholders (policymakers, customers, construction contractors, utilities) to understand how helpful they would view real-world data.
From the outside, one might ask, “how could anyone be against real data?” Many people are against it. The issue is that real data can be interpreted in many ways; and people hate uncertainty or interpretations that don’t fit their current understanding (confirmation bias). Temperature and energy use is modeled with idealized conditions. Actual temperature and energy use has lots of messiness: people may leave windows open, not set their thermostats, and houses react differently to wind and sun.
The key insight of this research is that “Big Data” analytics on real-world data can give essential, missing information to stakeholders in energy efficiency. This assumption however needs to be tested by a systems-thinker like you.
In terms of vision, this project is large. “Big Data” analytics with cheap sensors can solve some persistent problems in how energy efficiency works. The potential scope is $18Billion per year in energy savings. It has large implications for science and energy policy. (For more details, see http://tinyurl.com/ChongLBL )
DETAILS
Two term project (Fall2015+Spring2016) with more work in Spring 2016. Some funding available between terms and in summer.
To apply, please send a “cover letter” with your interest via email to Al George (arg2@cornell.edu ) and Erica Anderson (ejs73@cornell.edu ), subject: MEng Project – Temperature Data.