3 Ames Street, Box B
Cambridge, MA 02142
carrieb@mit.edu
617-909-9991 (cell)
carrie brown
SUMMARY
I returned to MIT in the fall of 2007 to begin a PhD with the Building Technology
Group. Previously, I had completed an MS at UC Berkeley with the Building Science
Group and a BS at MIT in Architectural Design. I have concentrated on energy use in
the built environment, working to integrate more sustainable practices into the field. In
addition to academic research, I have worked as a consultant for a number of
organizations such as Buro Happold, Retroficiency, and the French Polynesian
government. At MIT, I am a research assistant for Dr. Leon Glicksman in the Building
Technology Group. My current research focuses on using optimization techniques to
quantitatively assess technology choices in the built environment. This work aims to
minimize energy use and emissions in a cost effective manner, working to match supply
to demand by balancing distributed generation alternatives with energy efficiency
measures through building simulation tools for non-technical users.
EDUCATION
PhD 2011 (projected), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building Technology Group
MS 2007, University of California, Berkeley, Building Science Group
BS 2004, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Architecture
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Fall 2010, Guest Lecturer for 11.369: Energy Policies for a Sustainable Future
Fall 2010, The First International Symposium practices in Sustainable Innovation and
Clean Technologies. Invited speaker: Toward Zero Energy Systems, Optimized for
Energy Use and Cost.
Spring 2009, Teaching Assistant for 4.464: Energy and Building Design. Led weekly
recitations and organized the final project in addition to providing lecture, grading, and
course material support.
2008-2009, Volunteer teacher for Lawrence@MIT. Gave energy and sustainability
lectures to local middle school and high school classes.
Spring 2007, Graduate Student Instructor for Architecture 140: Introduction to Energy
and Environmental Management. Class of about 150 undergrad and graduate students,
with GSI led sections of about 35 students.
Fall 2004 – Summer 2005, Kaplan: Taught SAT class to high school juniors and seniors.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Fall 2007 – date, Research Assistant, MIT Building Technology Group, Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Toward Zero Energy Systems: Optimized for Energy Use and Cost.
Summer 2005 – Summer 2007, Research Assistant, UCB Building Science Group,
Berkeley, California. Requested to work on several projects to help to plan for PhD
research. Projects centered around energy use in buildings, including several demand
response technologies, underfloor air distribution (UFAD) commissioning equipment,
and multizone residential heating. Tasks were varied, including performing detailed
building simulations, developing optimization methods, implementing occupant surveys,
installing and maintaining building monitoring equipment, designing monitoring
hardware, welding thermocouples, writing reports, and managing interdisciplinary group
projects. Masters thesis (“Multizone register controlled residential heating: Optimized
for energy use and comfort.”) is now being used by a California company to
commercialize the idea.
Summer 2006, Buro Happold, New York, New York. Green Buildings and
Productivity, Performed a background study of productivity research to explore how
green buildings affect productivity. Prepared a powerpoint presentation to be presented
to clients and at conferences to try to use information about productivity benefits to
encourage more sustainable design decisions.
Spring 2006 - Fall 2007, Moorea House Design: Worked with the French Polynesian
government to redesign a kit house used in Moorea, French Polynesia with an emphasis
on increased energy efficiency and thermal comfort. Helped to design and model a new
kit house using local materials with heavy emphasis on natural lighting and ventilation.
2000-2004, Research Assistant, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Throughout undergrad career,
utilized the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to work on a
variety of projects including a Light Symposium, Fabric Materials for Daylighting,
Prada Meinhof: The Radical Chic of Documenta, and Pet Projects (training Alex the
Parrot). Skills and tasks for these projects were diverse, but in general required good
organizational skills and an ability to perform independent research in a
multidisciplinary environment.
MAJOR PROJECTS
Fall 2007 – date, Toward Zero Energy Systems: Optimized for Energy Use and Cost
focuses on using optimization techniques to quantitatively assess technology choices in
the built environment. To minimize energy use and emissions in a cost effective
manner, this project will match supply to demand by balancing distributed generation
alternatives with energy efficiency measures. Design space exploration will determine a
set of distributed generation and energy efficiency choices that can be effectively
implemented in Portugal and in Boston. This set will then be used as input to a multiobjective optimization to quantitatively compare the options. A number of existing
building design optimization tools do exist. However, this research project will be
unique in its ability to perform a multi-objective optimization of both commercial and
residential buildings with user-defined design variables and parameters. MIT’s Design
Advisor will provide the framework for this project. A distributed generation model and
corresponding cost functions will be developed to be coupled with Design Advisor.
Then, an optimization algorithm will be wrapped around these models to perform the
multi-objective optimization.
Spring 2009 – date, Retroficiency consultant: Help building managers quickly identify
and analyze measures that reduce energy use, lower costs, and increase ENERGY STAR
ratings across a single asset or a portfolio of buildings. Responsible for helping develop
our proprietary models and expand our solution databases.
Spring 2005 – Fall 2007, Multizone register controlled residential heating: Optimized
for energy use and comfort: With the introduction of wireless sensors and actuators, this
project aimed to introduce a simple, inexpensive solution to multizone control, which is
currently lacking in the residential sector.
Focused on the optimization model
development to explore the control of the wirelessly actuated registers. Used model
results to determine the impact on energy use and thermal comfort, as well as to provide
insight into how these registers should be actuated based on weather and occupancy
patterns.
Summer 2005 - Spring 2007, Demand Response Enabling Technology Project: Part of
the thermostat group working to create technology for real time meters and priceresponsive thermostats for demand shifting purposes. Responsible for developing
building energy models for thermostat testing under various conditions. Also organized
and ran weekly meetings of this interdisciplinary group of about 30 students and
professors from Building Science, MechE, CS and EE.
Summer 2005 - Spring 2007, Demand Shifting with Thermal Mass: Evaluated
automated load shifting during peak periods to determine feasibility of strategies and
their effect on occupants. Organized and implemented indoor environment monitoring
equipment. Also implemented online occupant survey throughout the study. Compared
results to data from surveys and ‘Comfort’ software predictions. Joint project with
LBNL.
Fall 2005 - Spring 2007, Underfloor Air Distribution Monitoring Cart: Designed a
portable cart that is used to monitor indoor conditions such as temperature stratification
and pressure in the under floor air distribution system in the new NY Times building.
Spring 2006 - Fall 2007, Moorea House Design: Worked with the French Polynesian
government to redesign a kit house used in Moorea, French Polynesia with an emphasis
on increased energy efficiency and thermal comfort.
Spring 2006 – Fall 2006, Reuse and Recycling of Building Materials in New Orleans:
Conducted a comparative life cycle assessment of standard demolition vs.
deconstruction in residential houses in New Orleans.
Summer 2006, Buro Happold: Green Buildings and Productivity, Performed a
background study of productivity research to explore how green buildings affect
productivity. Prepared a powerpoint presentation to be presented to clients and at
conferences.
Fall 2004, MIT D-Lab: Traveled to Honduras to work on water treatment projects.
Helped to developed water testing and treatment techniques that would utilize locally
available materials.
Spring 2003 Ski Resort Research: Conducted research to help Tenney Mountain, NH
introduce summer snow tubing and early fall skiing. Designed a canopy system to
minimize snow loss.
Spring/Summer, 2003, Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), MIT, Light
Symposium, 2004: aimed to bring the visual intelligence embodied in the arts into
contact with the scientific and technological processes that are shaping society and
culture.
Fall 2002, Fabric Materials for Daylighting: worked to find ways to utilize materials to
enhance natural lighting using a multi-layered fabric exterior.
Summer 2002, Hooper Shiles Architects: Wayne, PA, FormZ rendering, 3D Autodesk
drawings, presentation boards, floor plans, updated detail library, surveyed, attended
client meetings.
Summer 2001, Bentley: Exton, PA, Updated Microstation V8 manual. Some writing,
but concentrated on put script for manual directly into the source code. This allowed the
manual to be directly updated by programmers.
Summer 2001, Media Lab: MIT, Worked on Pet Projects, trained three African Gray
Parrots (including Alex). Used various training techniques to teach the birds to
associate English words with their corresponding objects, recognize colors, read small
words and count.
PUBLICATIONS AND OTHER WORKS
Brown, C. 2007. Multizone register controlled residential heating: Optimized for energy
use and comfort. Masters Thesis, University of California Berkeley.
Brown, C. 2007. Multizone register controlled residential heating: Optimized for energy
use and comfort. Poster at SimBuild 2008. Berkeley, CA.
Brown, C., N. Pereira, S. Ray. 2009. Retrofit options for increasing energy efficiency
in the exisiting building stock—Lisbon case study. Poster at Alliance for Global
Sustainability Conference, Zurich, Switzerland.
Brown, C., 2010. Toward Zero Energy Systems: Optimized for Energy Use and Cost.
Proceedings of SimBuild 2010, New York, NY.
Brown, C., L. Glicksman, M. Lehar. 2010. Toward Zero Energy Systems: Optimized for
Energy Use and Cost. Proceedings of SimBuild 2010, New York, NY.
Xu, P., R. Yin, C. Brown, and D.E. Kim. 2009. Demand Shifting with Thermal Mass in
Large Commercial Buildings in a California Hot Climate Zone. LBNL-3998E.
AWARDS & ACADEMIC / PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Alliance for Global Sustainability Best Poster Award
ASHRAE Eric Thor Anderson Memorial Scholarship
MIT Energy Initiative Campus Energy Grant
Department of Architecture Fellowship
2009
2007
2007-2009
2007
Graduate student representative for the Campus Energy Task Force
Graduate Student Council Sustainability Task Force Member
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
(ASHRAE) member
International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) member
Sustainability@MIT: secretary, founding member
MIT Generator: co-president. Exists to unite and catalyze student groups working on
local energy, environment, and sustainability projects.
RetroMIT: founding member.
retrofits on campus.
Lead student brigades to perform energy efficiency
Tamahine ‘o Ta’iri Polynesian Dancers