Grant: Alliance Grants

This project will extend a collaboration with Strato Automation, a Montreal-based company specialized in delivering building automation solutions, with a focus on light commercial buildings (i.e., small to medium commercial buildings) across North America. The projects aims to develop and more importantly deploy / test novel control sequences for these buildings, along three key axes: Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics (AFDD), Occupant-Centric Control (OCC), and Model Predictive Control (MPC). The AFDD component will focus on early fault detection and real-time automated correction of HVAC issues, including automated ongoing commissioning, minimizing downtime and enhancing operational efficiency. For OCC, the project will create dynamic algorithms that adapt HVAC settings to real-time occupancy, occupant counts, and comfort preferences using data generated from occupants' regular interactions with the buildings (e.g., motion sensing and thermostat setpoint changes). This occupant-centric approach aims to balance energy use and comfort by continuously learning from user interactions and environment feedback. The MPC axis will combine weather and occupancy predictions to fine-tune HVAC operations, optimizing start/stop times for air handling units and achieving substantial energy savings. Interns will ultimately test and fine-tune these algorithms in Strato-managed buildings across different climate zones and integrate them into the OCN+ software platform, ensuring wide applicability and scalability. By directly aligning with Canada's energy reduction and sustainability goals, this project promises to improve building energy performance, cut operational costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, it will train a new generation of building engineering professionals in advanced data science, predictive controls, and hands-on building systems integration, preparing them for impactful careers in smart building technology.