eSim 2021 is the rescheduled version of eSim 2020, the biennial conference of IBPSA-Canada. IBPSA-Canada is one of the largest and most active of the 28 Regional Affiliates of the International Building Performance Simulation Association, with over 600 members from industry, academia, and government.
Principal, Focal Engineering
Susan MacDougall (FEC, P.Eng., LEED AP BD+C, CPHC) founded Focal Engineering in 2015 and is considered a leader in the field of energy modelling in British Columbia. She is a mechanical engineer, energy modeller, and project manager with 15 years of experience in the building industry. Susan has contributed to many committees related to energy modelling and the BC Energy Step Code and has co-authored guides and documents that aim to improve energy modelling and building performance in BC.
Susan is active in the community, focusing on roles that promote sustainability and support women in engineering. She volunteered with the provincial energy modelling association, IBPSA BC, for 6 years, leading it for 4 years as Chair. She is serving her fourth year as an elected Councillor with Engineers and Geoscientists BC.
Assistant Professor, National University Singapore
Dr. Clayton Miller (ResearchGate)(LinkedIn)(GitHub)(ORCID)(Publons)(Kaggle)(Publons) is an Assistant Professor at NUS in the BUDS Lab, the Co-Leader of Theme D - Data Analytics at the UC Berkeley SinBerBEST2 Lab and the Co-Leader of Subtask 4 of the IEA Annex 79 Occupant-Centric Building Design and Operation. He holds a Doctor of Sciences (Dr. sc. ETH Zurich) from the ETH Zürich, an MSc. (Building) from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and a BSc./Masters of Architectural Engineering (MAE) from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL). He is the former CTO of Optiras Pte. Ltd, a Singapore NRF-funded start-up, a former Fulbright Scholar to Singapore at NUS and a Walter Scott Jr. Scholar at UNL.
ESIM 2021 is grateful to have received generous sponsorship and support from:
The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) is a research collaboration in British Columbia between its major post-secondary academic institutions. Its mandate is to produce leading climate solutions research that is actively used by decision-makers to develop effective mitigation ad adaptation policies and actions.
Headquartered in British Columbia, Starline Windows is a leader in the design and manufacturing of architectural aluminum window systems, as well as residential vinyl windows and doors for over 50 years.
IES is widely regarded as a world leader in intelligent sustainability solutions for the built environment. It’s hallmark simulation platform, IES-VE, continues to be one of the most widely-used building performance simulation tools in the world.
The full conference schedule is now live and publicly available on the conference’s ConfTool site. Click here to access the full programme.
eSim 2021’s main conference sessions will take place across June 14 to 16, 2021. The conference programme will include paper presentations, industry discussion panels, special networking events, and our keynote talks. The conference will be held online using Zoom. Please find below an overview of the programme’s main sessions.
All times posted are in Pacific Standard Time (PST).
Please allow for sufficient time to connect to the conference Zoom session before the opening session.
The BC Energy Step Code: 4 Years In
Susan MacDougall, P.Eng., FEC, has been involved with the BC Energy Step Code since its inception in 2015, representing the energy modelling community at various committees throughout its development and implementation. It is one of the first target-based energy codes used in Canada. The code has now been in effect for four years and has been adopted by numerous jurisdictions across the province. Susan will share success stories, lessons learned and ongoing work, and discuss how the energy modelling landscape in BC has changed since the adoption of this progressive energy code.
Measured data? Simulated data? What's the future? Towards bridging the gap between physics-based and data-driven modeling
Dr. Clayton Miller, an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, will weigh in on the long-standing discussion about white, black, and gray-box building performance modeling. Does the future lie with building physics and systems experts? Or will the machine learning people take over soon? The short and incomplete answer is that we really need innovation from both, but with a better understanding of how they can fit together. Dr. Miller will explore this dichotomy in the somewhat analogous scenario of self-driving cars research and development. We can learn a lot from looking at where other fields have been. He will build on this discussion with interesting aspects of the Great Energy Predictor III Kaggle Competition (https://www.kaggle.com/c/ashrae-energy-prediction) that was held in Oct-Dec. 2019. This machine learning competition was hosted by the ASHRAE organization and had over 3,600 teams from around the world competed for US$25k in prize money to create the most accurate data-driven hourly building energy models for over 2,300 building energy meters.
ESIM 2021 will be held online on the Zoom platform. Connection details will be sent to registered participants by e-mail before June 10, 2021. Late registration to the conference between June 10 and June 16 is possible, and attends will be provided connection information shortly upon registration.
Conference Chairs
Dr. Adam Rysanek
University of British Columbia
esim.2020.vancouver@gmail.com
Eoghan Hayes
Edge Consulting
ehayes@edgec.ca
Scientific Committee Chair
Dr. Ralph Evins
University of Victoria
revins@uvic.ca
