Accomplishments

Li's Research Enhances Buildings' Systems

A project to develop low-cost plug and play automated monitoring, diagnostics and optimal controls technologies by Haorong Li, assistant professor of architectural engineering, has been awarded $201,744 from private industrial sponsors.

Retailers are interested in HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning), refrigeration, lighting and electrical system improvements that stem excessive maintenance and unnecessary costs. Li's work will utilize an automated fault detection and diagnosis (AFDD) laboratory, including two environment chambers, at the Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI); this laboratory is the biggest of only a few such labs in the U.S. academic setting. Testing and evaluation will take place in the lab and at field sites, including 18 Target stores.

Earlier this year, Li's project to develop automated FDD technology for commercial building centrifugal chillers was awarded $152,220 from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.