ABCPhD CALL4SCHOLARSHIP 34 RESEARCH TOPIC: IoT and real time data to improve energy use and facilities management

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1 ABC PhD DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN ARCHITECTURE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING ABCPhD CALL4SCHOLARSHIP 34 RESEARCH TOPIC: IoT and real time data to improve energy use and facilities management 34 th Cycle

2 Funding and management of the thematic scholarships Number of scholarships: 1 (one) Monthly net income: ,72 (max 36 months) [In case of a change of the welfare rates during the three-year period, the amount could be slightly modified] Additional support: Funding for educational activities (*) : ,33 per student [for the 2 nd and 3 rd year] Starting of PhD activity: 1/11/2018 Deadline for application to the call: 6 th September 2018 Research Director: Fulvio Re Cecconi Research Group: F.Re Cecconi, M.C.Dejaco. Funding and cooperating Institutions: the scholarship is s co-funded by Politecnico di Milano, Department ABC and Tekser s.r.l. (*) (purchase of study books and material, funding for participation in courses, summer schools, workshops,conferences)

3 Context of the research activity The built environment has a growing data dimension (usually referred to with the IoT - Internet of Things) enabling brand new processes in asset management, allowing to reach advanced building performances with a higher level of effectiveness, to control and to automate the adjustment of comfort conditions, and to perform continuous commissioning and maintenance management of physical assets. From the users point of view, the building is going to be able to recognize external and internal changes and adapt itself (its passive configuration and its active behavior), to provide the best performance levels. The nervous system of the cognitive building, exchanges and collect information, in a real time heterogeneous flow of data about users behavior, external conditions, physical shapes and their effects in terms of building performances, involved in the control loop in a bi-directional way. Building operations account more than 2/3 of the total cost of a building over its lifespan, and buildings more than 1/3 of the electricity supply, projected to be, in a close future, the largest emitters of greenhouse gases on our planet. Employing a cognitive buildings strategy can help organizations to reduce energy use up to 1/2 and to increase facility utilization by more than 3/4. For what concerns commercial buildings, where employees are spending more time in alternative workplaces, a cognitive buildings strategy can also enhance productivity.

4 Motivation and objectives of the research The general objective of the research is finding a new way to manage (collect, store, use ) the large amount of data that may come from sensorized built environment and to change traditional asset operations, for example extending them to users behavior and preferences, while reducing the gap between expected and predicted costs and benefits and, eventually, finding a practical compromise between users and property targets. The research has an important explorative character: the information is not all available and, if available is not always ready to use. The sensors that may be used and the way they produce and we interpret the data must be specified. The same issues concerning the management of the buildings may be redefined and need a new thought, to review its economical and technical management, adapting them to user behavior, market change and other dynamic factors. The project will develop: new data collection, management, sharing, exchange and update strategies new approaches for building operation and management relying on new available information.

5 Educational objectives and skills that the Candidate will develop The Candidate will learn to define procedures for the collection, organization, analysis and management of data acquired continuously in the built environment, both with regard to the technical elements (conditions, service life, application of the maintenance plan) and the environmental control of buildings (operation of plants, control of environmental parameters, optimization of consumption), in the context of current technologies and market demands. He will tackle both theoretical and applicative aspects of the research thanks to the collaboration with the external sponsor that will guarantee the possibility of testing and experimenting what is proposed during the theoretical research phase and the definition of the operational tools. The possibility of developing contacts and further relationships at an international level will be guaranteed, both through study periods abroad and through the production of articles and publications for congresses and international journals. From the point of view of skills to be acquired, the candidate will develop innovative competences related to the management of information applicable since from the early stages of development of a construction process, with practical and operational insights thanks to direct collaboration with the sponsor company. The innovative skills acquired are required in the field of design, construction and testing, as well as in the use and management of the building, and will ensure fruitful implications both in academia and in the construction industry.

6 Methodologies and research activity plan / 1 The first step of the research, carried out in close collaboration with the sponsor company, will be the development of a semantic reasoning to model physical relationships of sensors and building systems and their parts. This model will be used to define a knowledge relationship among sensors, users and the building, using different machine-learning and statistical approaches. Through this relationship it will be possible: To define specification for information management in operation. To extract knowledge from real-time data about user behavior. To manage built assets with increased value, originated by information. In this context, suitable supporting tools and software for information and business process management will be evaluated and used, also in compliance with national and international regulations for the real estate assets knowledge. By effectively managing collected data and information, different services the research will focus on providing users innovative services, such as showing them indoor conditions in a user-friendly way and providing tailored information in relation to their position. The work will be developed in strict relation with the industry partner and will be tuned with the most advanced, available research groups in a period abroad in a foreign university, as well as taking part of national and international conferences about the topic.

7 Job opportunities The problem of collecting, managing and returning information within the construction industry is gaining momentum, both in the system design, installation and testing phases, and in use and management. On one hand, current ICTs technologies offer the possibility of obtaining a large amount of data continuously. On the other, there is the risk of not being able to use these data. The presence of operators who know how to correctly set up a collection campaign and define the correct return information to improve the phases of design, execution and management of the built environment, will become necessary in the context of cost control and optimization of resources. The job possibilities are linked to the different operators of the building process, from the project to the construction and the use phase, both from the point of view of the control operations to be carried out by the owner and by the side of supplier offering a service. Last but not least, the company sponsoring this project may be interested in continuing the collaboration professionally after the end of the PhD.