BenchSys 2024

The 3rd ACM International Workshop on Advancements in Building Performance Simulation and Benchmarking Systems
(A BuildSys 2024 Workshop)
November 6, 2024
Hangzhou, China

About BenchSys 2024

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 third 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 2024 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:
  • IoT and real-time sensor networks for building performance monitoring and analysis
  • AI, machine learning and big data analytics in building performance simulation
  • Latest developments in energy simulation software for enhanced accuracy
  • Establishing comprehensive benchmarking standards for various building types
  • Integration of IoT and smart technologies in building performance systems
  • Energy sustainability and efficiency through advanced benchmarking pathways
  • Benchmarking thermal comfort, indoor air quality, occupant health and well-being
  • Adoption of digital twins for real-time building performance monitoring
  • Case studies on the application of building performance benchmarking
  • Other topics related to building performance benchmarking such as integration with BIM tools, renewable energy integration, water sustainability, resilience, and circularity.

Submission Guidelines

The workshop solicits submissions for technical papers, or works in progress, reporting on novel research to be presented at the workshop (in person). 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.


Submission link

All submissions must be in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) format through the HotCRP: https://benchsys24.hotcrp.com

Important Dates

  • Paper submission: September 20, 2024 (AOE)
  • Notifications: September 30, 2024 (AOE)
  • Camera-ready: October 4, 2024 (AOE)
  • Workshop: November 6, 2024

Program

*All times are local (Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China), which is UTC + 8 hrs

8:00 – 8:30
Registration (On-site)
8:30 – 8:40
Opening Remarks

Chirag Deb (on behalf of BenchSys 2024 Organisers)

8:40 – 9:15
First Keynote Talk

Wentao Wu (The University of Canterbury)

9:15 – 10:00
Technical Session 1 (Each paper: 15 minutes including Q&A)
  • Scalable application of streaming analytics for chiller plant optimisation
    Vincent W.L. Chiu, Ray W.H. Lam, Safiya W.K. Yu, Charlie C.H. Lo, Gary Y.H. Tiu, Jenny T.Y. Ip, Samson C.K. Fung (The Hong Kong Government)
  • A machine learning approach to benchmark thermal comfort
    Jeslu Celine Jacob, Debapratim Pandit, Joy Sen (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)
  • BuildingSage: A safe and secure AI copilot for smart buildings
    Volkan Dedeoglu, Qianggong Zhang, Yang Li, Jiajun Liu, Subbu Sethurvenkatraman (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - CSIRO)
10:00 – 10:30
Break
10:30 – 11:00
Second Keynote Talk

Thomas Parkinson (The University of Sydney)

11:00 – 12:00
Technical Session 2 (Each paper: 15 minutes including Q&A)
  • Urban cooling demand benchmarking based on built-urbanization
    Nilabhra Mondal (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur), Chirag Deb (The University of Sydney), Prashant Anand (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur), Ardeshir Mahdavi (TU Graz)
  • Numerical study on thermal and humid environment in underground powerhouse of pumped storage power station by airflow network modeling
    Jianwei Li, Hongxin Tian, Shengyu Liu, Xueqing Sun, Ronghui Zhou, Yuzhen Zhang, Bezoun Deborah Dembele, Xiong Shen (Tianjin University)
  • Comparative analysis of climate data sources for UBEM and their implications for energy demand in Mumbai
    Arunim Anand (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Anmol Gaur (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Gurubalan Annadurai (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Eswar Rajasekaran (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Chirag Deb (The University of Sydney)
  • Probabilistic distribution identification for power load in Australian “Smart Grid, Smart City” dataset
    Zhichen Ye, Fengji Luo (The University of Sydney)
12:00 – 12:15
Closing Remarks

Pandarasamy Arjunan (on behalf of BenchSys 2024 Organisers)

12:15 – 13:30
Lunch

Keynote Speakers

Ardeshir Mahdavi
Title: TBA
Speaker: Wentao Wu (The University of Canterbury, New Zealand) had worked at Harvard University for two years as a postdoctoral researcher. Prior to UC, he was a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Tennessee State University. He received 5 grants (National Science Foundation, DHUD, DOE) in the first year at Tennessee State University. He received his Ph.D. in engineering at Aarhus University, Denmark. Dr Wu worked in the Danish industry for a couple of years. Then he returned to academics and did his first postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich. Dr Wu’s research focuses on energy storage, renewable energy, building simulation, HVAC, CFD and low-carbon building technologies.

Ardeshir Mahdavi
Title: TBA
Speaker: Thomas Parkinson (The Unviersity of Sydney, Australia) is a Lecturer at The University of Sydney, and Deputy Director of the IEQ Lab in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Thomas’ research efforts are directed towards high performance buildings that enhance occupant comfort and wellbeing. He received his PhD in Architectural Science from the University of Sydney, focused on thermal perception in dynamic environments. Following this, he worked as a Lecturer in Architectural Science and led the technical development of the SAMBA IEQ Monitoring System. He was most recently a Professional Researcher at the Center of the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley.

Organization

General Co-chairs

Chirag Deb
Chirag Deb
School of Architecture, Design and Planning
The University of Sydney
Pandarasamy Arjunan
Pandarasamy Arjunan
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
India
Priya Vishnu
Priya Vishnu
Building Services, School of Built Environment
Massey University of New Zealand
Balaji Kalluri
Balaji Kalluri
School of Computing and Data Sciences
FLAME University, India
Prashant Anand
Prashant Anand
Department Of Architecture & Regional Planning
IIT Kharagpur, India

Technical Program Committee

  • Albert Thomas, IIT Bombay, India
  • Arnab Jana, IIT Bombay, India
  • Ashan Asmone, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Bharath Seshadri, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Daniel James Bishop, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Eswar Rajasekaran, IIT Bombay, India
  • Eziaku Rasheed, Massey University, New Zealand
  • Federico Fernandez, Urbanly (Founder and CEO), Argentina
  • Gearoid Lydon, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
  • Isabel Andrade Beltran, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Jungsoo Kim, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Maria Andre, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Raghu Ande, TM Consultants Ltd, New Zealand
  • Raul Castano de la Rosa, Tampere University, Finland
  • Rama Rao Karri, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Brunei Darussalam
  • Rochelle Ade, University of Auckland, New Zealand
  • Somwrita Sarkar, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Subbu Sethuvenkatraman, CSIRO, Australia
  • Thomas Parkinson, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Vishal Kumar, Massey University, New Zealand
  • Wentao Wu, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Xiong Shen, Tianjin University, China
  • Saurabh Jain, KODE Labs, Inc., USA

Registration and Venue

For registration and venue details, visa information, etcetera please visit the BuildSys webpage