BenchSys 2023

About BenchSys 2023

Building energy benchmarking is a proven energy management strategy that can positively quantify - and relatively quickly provide objective and reliable information on building energy use and the benefits of improvements. Energy benchmarking is a growing practice in many cities across the world as part of the energy disclosure policy. Many cities have already started to reap the benefits of energy benchmarking with up to 8% energy savings. However, there remains a gap in the widespread adaptation of benchmarking methodologies in terms of their scalability and standardization (data acquisition, analytics, validation, reporting, and automation). Several government organizations, industry practitioners, and researchers are working towards building a holistic and standardized energy benchmarking system.

The second ACM international workshop on “Advances in Building Energy Benchmarking” invites papers on the current developments in building energy benchmarking. Researchers and practitioners working on data acquisition technology and processes, data sharing protocols and policies, benchmarking modeling methodologies, standardization and widespread adoption, strategy and collaboration, case studies, open source platforms and crowdsourcing are invited to participate. The workshop also aims to explore the existing challenges in data acquisition techniques in emerging economies. It will foster a discussion on the widespread adoption of energy benchmarking methods while bringing together researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to discuss related challenges and breakthroughs.

Call for Papers

BenchSys 2023 Call for Papers (PDF)

The objective of this BenchSys workshop is to ascertain several ongoing research and advancements in the application of building energy use benchmarking and rating methods across countries, while connecting academic scholars, industry partners, government agencies and policy makers. Topics of interest for the workshop include (but are not limited to) the following:

Data acquisition technology and processes
Building energy data sharing protocols and policies
Building IEQ, IAQ, and Thermal Comfort related data analytics
Data-driven modeling methodologies
Top-down statistical analysis
Simulation-based energy benchmarking
ML, AI and analytical tools for enabling benchmarking
Standardization, scalability and widespread adoption
Urban-scale digitalization strategy and collaboration
Open source platforms and crowdsourcing
Advancements in energy disclosure policies and limitations
Novel (Smart) Methods: Demonstrated use of new and unconventional methods to measure energy use in facilities, e.g., GIS, Drones, Thermal Imaging
Case studies: Practical applications in faciities of employment of either unconventional or frugal innovation, low cost in collecting, and quantifying energy use that deems attention for scalability are particularly welcome

Submission Guidelines

Submitted papers must be unpublished and must not be currently under review for any other publication. Paper submissions must be at most 4 single-spaced US Letter (8.5"x11") pages, including figures, tables, and appendices (excluding references). All submissions must use the LaTeX (preferred) or Word styles found here. Authors must make a good faith effort to anonymize their submissions by (1) using the "anonymous" option for the class and (2) using "anonsuppress" section where appropriate. Papers that do not meet the size, formatting, and anonymization requirements will not be reviewed. Please note that ACM uses 9-pt fonts in all conference proceedings, and the style (both LaTeX and Word) implicitly define the font size to be 9-pt.

Research Track: High-quality technical articles are solicited, describing advances in methods, design, implementation, and validation of building energy benchmarking systems are welcome under this category. This may also include demonstrated evidences supporting policy changes towards net-zero energy.

Practitioners Track: BenchSys’23 would like to facilitate a forum exchange of ideas, stimulate active engagement with larger stakeholder group outside academia and document critical perspectives. For instance, fresh perspectives employing data-driven decarbonization opportunities in unconventional forms/functions/use type of buildings and facilities such as worship facilities, public buildings such as rural child care centre facilities, secretariat buildings, transportation hubs, public schools, healthcare facilities etc. are specially welcome. Topics describing new public policies, programs, their digital implementation and expected socio-economic and environment impact around the workshop theme of ‘advancements in building energy benchmarking’ are solicited.

Henceforth, in addition to the previous edition, the BenchSys’23 opens a special call soliciting critical position articles (as short-papers or posters or documentaries or other creative forms) from practitioners, NGOs, policy makers, and think tanks (such as MoHUA and NIUA) who are championing and pushing the frontiers of both science, research, and policies both globally and regionally. This includes architects and urban planners working on large community transformation projects for large corporations or institutions or government agencies are welcome under this category. But the scope of employment of digitalization catalyzing democratization leading to decarbonization in their design and/or implementation has to be articulated well.

The workshop solicits submissions under three categories:
Submission formats:

Technical papers: Upto 4-6 pages (everything except references), reporting on novel research, to be presented at the workshop as an oral presentation.
Short paper and Posters: Submission from public administrators and practitioners can be made in posters, and short papers (2-4 pages) are welcome, in addition to regular technical research papers (4 to 6 pages).
Documentary videos and other creative aids: Under this category, we solicit submissions inspired by other disciplines outside CS such as art and social sciences that stimulate engagement and active interaction leading to urban innovation. Authors submitting under this category have to clearly structure articulating their ideas and approach in a single page or a poster, indicating the relevance to the workshop audience, how it stimulates critical analysis & reflection among workshop participants, the originality, the creativity, and lastly, how they would like to present them in a hybrid mode. These creative submissions will also go through peer review as other submissions. However, these may not be indexed or published in workshop proceedings but will be archived in the BenchSys workshop portal.

Submission link

All submissions must be in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) format through the HotCRP: https://benchsys23.hotcrp.com

Registration

Participation through any form of submissions will require authors & contributors to register against payment to ACM BuildSys Organization. Exact registration fees will be communicated in due course of time."