Computational Science Needs in the Design, Optimization
and Operation of Energy Efficient Buildings
Position Papers and Presentation Material
Summary
The purpose of this document is to request material that can be used as a basis to begin the discussions on July 8 – 9. In particular, we are asking participants to provide a short position paper
(2 to 3 pages in Word) outlining what they see as computational science needs for the design,
optimization and operation of energy efficient buildings. In addition to the position paper, each
participant should provide a set of presentation charts (no more than 10 in Powerpoint).
The position paper is intended to frame the research needs and should focus on specific areas to
be addressed, bottlenecks that must be removed in the delivery process of low energy buildings,
and a quantification of the benefits that would be derived from R&D investments in this area.
The papers should discuss timelines for technology development as well as key metrics to track
research progress are intended to be detailed. The position paper should present a concise and
detailed statement of the specific research challenge.
The presentation charts should convey the essentials of the position paper and augment the material with case studies where available. The presentation should utilize appropriate graphics to
convey the bottlenecks and the necessity and benefits of carrying out specific research. The
presentation should have content that is accessible to the broad computational science community.
The intent is to have this prework material delivered by Monday June 28 and to post the material
on an open Wiki.
Position Paper Contents
The position papers should address the following:
1. What areas in the delivery process of low energy buildings are to be addressed and who
are the stakeholders involved?
2. What is the current state of practice in industry and what bottlenecks must be addressed
to improve the delivery process? What metrics are important to monitor to track progress
against the identified bottlenecks?
3. Identify the specific research challenges and goals in computational sciences must be met
to address bottlenecks.
4. Provide a science and technology development plan and timelines to mature a deployable
methodology and toolsets.
Meeting Prework
Computational Science Needs for
Building Energy Efficiency
Page 1
FINAL
June 15, 2010
5. Provide quantifiably benefits to be achieved if the R&D goals are achieved along with
metrics to track progress
6. Suggest possible demonstration projects to prove out the technology and computational
tools.
The position paper should address where in the delivery process the research is needed – design,
construction and operations being the initial decomposition of the delivery process. The current
state should describe or reference material on the design and engineering process and existing
state of computational toolsets. Where possible, provide quantifications of the time needed to
carry out the process and the quality of the decisions taken in each phase.
When discussing the bottlenecks to be addressed and specific research needs one can use case
studies to demonstrate these bottlenecks. It is important to discuss why computational science
has not already been brought forward to address the bottlenecks. State what relevant new mathematics, sciences and technologies can be brought to bear on the bottlenecks identified in the
whitepaper.
Presentation Material Content
The charts should attempt to provide a material that summarizes:
1. Area of delivery process of low energy buildings to be addressed. Stakeholders affected
by area and lack of computational support.
2. Case studies of current state of area (methodology and toolset) and quantification of energy or efficiency loss incurred due to lack of computational support.
3. Statement and explanation of mathematical and computational science research needed to
achieve the goals. Provide timelines and key milestones to evaluate the development and
maturation of the science and technology and metrics to track progress of research.
Wiki
A wiki-based website has been set up to collect prework for the meeting. Please upload your
present tion to the "Prework" page under the "Computational Science for Building Energy Efficiency Meeting July 8-9 2010" page at the location below.
http://www.engineering.ucsb.edu/~mgroup/wiki/
user: CompSciMeet
password: CompSciMeetpwd
A brief help page to describe how to upload files is linked under the "help" link on the left hand
column of the wiki page.
Meeting Prework
Computational Science Needs for
Building Energy Efficiency
Page 2
FINAL
June 15, 2010
Meeting Prework
Computational Science Needs for
Building Energy Efficiency
Page 3
FINAL
June 15, 2010