Smart building systems: NUS and Johnson Controls embark on S$5 million research

Singapore, 17 March 2021 – The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Johnson Controls will embark on a joint collaboration on smart buildings research. Johnson Controls will commit about S$5 million into this research programme, and the teams from both organisations will work together to address industry-wide challenges.

The NUS School of Design and Environment (SDE) will kick off with the first research project in April 2021, which will be led by Assistant Professor Clayton Miller from the Department of Building. The research will use machine learning to accelerate the conversion of Internet of Things (IoT) data into the BRICK Schema, a standardising model for data labels in buildings.

This open-source schema describes smart buildings and their subsystems in a format that enables software to quickly and easily connect to a larger number of buildings. With the establishment of a consistent schema across buildings, the industry is better able to understand metadata usage across all building types, to improve overall wellness for its users.

As it is a labour-intensive process to convert existing meta-data schemas into the BRICK framework, the team intends to set up a machine learning competition to crowdsource solutions. This is to find the most accurate approach to converting each building’s existing labelling methods into the BRICK schema.

“This collaboration will combine the university’s expertise in the science of cities and sustainability with the industry knowledge, to co-create people-centric smart building systems and bring about impactful and radical changes to the lives of people in Singapore and the world,” said Professor Chen Tsuhan, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology).

“NUS is an important partner in our journey to transform the urban built environment, especially with the focus of building back better in the recovery from the pandemic. Tapping on the talents from both sides to research on artificial intelligence, sustainability as well as smart experience and wellness, we can innovate and scale from this NUS living laboratory. Singapore’s larger regulatory environment is also conducive for the adoption of technologies to ensure our built environment is healthier and more sustainable,” said Alvin Ng, Vice President, Digital Solutions, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls.

– Construction+ Online

Source: NUS