Group items tagged

Building America Industry Partnerships and Research Priorities for High Performance Housing Innovation - 2018 The mission of BTO's Residential Buildings Integration (RBI) Program is to accelerate energy performance improvements in existing and new residential buildings using an integrated building systems approach to achieve peak energy performance. The RBI Program's market outcome goal is to reduce, by 2025, the energy used for space conditioning and water heating in single-family homes by 40% from 2010 levels. RBI's focus on space conditioning and water heating offers the best opportunities for influencing residential energy use. With this FOA, RBI will select building science project teams in 2018 for the Building America Program to accelerate energy performance improvements in existing and new residential buildings using an integrated building systems approach, and achieve optimal home energy performance. These Building America teams will work with industry partners and real world homes to develop and validate technologies and practices that achieve optimal energy and cost performance while effectively managing related risks (e.g., indoor air quality and moisture durability).

The challenge to the teams competing in Solar Decathlon 2015 is to safely and effectively design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive in less than 24 months. The Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an educational workforce development program designed to educate university-level students. The Solar Decathlon is also a public outreach demonstration designed to foster greater adoption of clean energy technologies and energy efficiency. 

The Energy, Power, Control, and Networks (EPCN) Program supports innovative research in modeling, optimization, learning, adaptation, and control of networked multi-agent systems, higher-level decision making, and dynamic resource allocation, as well as risk management in the presence of uncertainty, sub-system failures, and stochastic disturbances. EPCN also invests in novel machine learning algorithms and analysis, adaptive dynamic programming, brain-like networked architectures performing real-time learning, and neuromorphic engineering. EPCN's goal is to encourage research on emerging technologies and applications including energy, transportation, robotics, and biomedical devices & systems. EPCN also emphasizes electric power systems, including generation, transmission, storage, and integration of renewable energy sources into the grid; power electronics and drives; battery management systems; hybrid and electric vehicles; and understanding of the interplay of power systems with associated regulatory & economic structures and with consumer behavior.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to seek information from developers and manufacturers of gasifier equipment, power generation equipment manufacturers, utilities, power plant architects and engineers, and other stakeholders that can be used as input to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) research and development (R&D) program for versatile gasification technology for modular or small-scale conversion/consumption of a wide range of feedstocks, including coal, biomass, municipal solid waste (MSW), energetic materials and munitions, and other opportunity feedstocks. Modular implementations of gasification imply unit sizes of approximately 1 to 5 MWe equivalent, while applications for the syngas produced could range from power generation to fuels synthesis and beyond. Modular gasification implementations or systems are expected to find a place in the market through high efficiency, thoughtful integration of system components, and reduction of costs. For example, combined heat and power (CHP) applications of modular gasification technology would enable higher overall efficiencies and diversity of product value.

The overall goal of the Structural and Architectural Engineering and Materials (SAEM) program is to enable sustainable buildings and other structures that can be continuously occupied and/or operated during the structure's useful life. The SAEM program supports fundamental research for advancing knowledge and innovation in structural and architectural engineering and materials that promotes a holistic approach to analysis and design, construction, operation, maintenance, retrofit, and repair of structures. For buildings, all components including the foundation-structure-envelope (the façade, curtain-wall and roofing) and interior systems, are of interest to the program. Research in new engineering concepts and design paradigms for buildings that have significantly reduced dependence and interdependence on municipal infrastructure through, for example, self-hydrating (closed-loop water system) and self-heating-cooling-ventilating (energy usage) is encouraged. In addition, the program targets research in the building systems that are reconfigurable for rapid construction, disassembly and disposal, are reliable and resilient, and are less complex. Research topics of interest for sustainable structures include the following: strategies for structures that over their lifecycle are cost-effective, make efficient use of resources and energy, and incorporate sustainable structural and architectural materials; mitigation of deterioration due to fatigue and corrosion; serviceability related to large deflections and vibrations; and advances in physics-based computational modeling and simulation.

PD 15-1637, Structural and Architectural Engineering (SAE) program replaces Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering (HMSE) program. The overall goal of the Structural and Architectural Engineering (SAE) program is to evolve sustainable structures, such as buildings, that can be continuously occupied and /or operational during the structure's useful life. The SAE program supports fundamental research for advancing knowledge and innovation in structural and architectural engineering that enables holistic approach to design, construction, operation, maintenance, retrofit, repair and end-of-life disposal of structures. For buildings, holistic approach incorporates the foundation-structure-envelope-nonstructural system, as well as the façade and roofing. Research topics of interest for sustainable structures include the following: strategies for structures that over their lifecycle are cost-effective, make efficient use of resources and energy, and incorporate sustainable structural and architectural materials; deterioration due to fatigue and corrosion; serviceability concerns due to large deflections and vibrations; and advances in physics-based computational modeling and simulation. Research is encouraged that integrates discoveries from other science and engineering fields, such as materials science, building science, mechanics of materials, dynamic systems and control, reliability, risk analysis, architecture, economics and human factors. The program also supports research in sustainable and holistic foundation-structure-envelope-nonstructural systems and materials as described in the following reports: * National Science and Technology Council, High Performance Buildings; Final Report: Federal R & D Agenda for Net Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings. Building Technology Research and Development (BTRD) Subcommittee, OSTP, U.S. Government, September 2008. http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/ostp/NSTC%20Reports/Federal%20RD%20Agenda%20for%20N

The Geotechnical Engineering and Materials Program (GEM) supports fundamental research in soil and rock mechanics and dynamics in support of physical civil infrastructure systems. Also supported is research on improvement of the engineering properties of geologic materials for infrastructure use by mechanical, biological, thermal, chemical, and electrical processes. The Program supports the traditional areas of foundation engineering, earth structures, underground construction, tunneling, geoenvironmental engineering, and site characterization, as well as the emerging area of bio-geo engineering, for civil engineering applications, with emphasis on sustainable geosystems. Research related to the geotechnical engineering aspects of geothermal energy and geothermal heat pump systems is also supported. The GEM program encourages knowledge dissemination and technology transfer activities that can lead to broader societal benefit and implementation for provision of physical civil infrastructure. The Program also encourages research that explores and builds upon advanced computing techniques and tools to enable major advances in Geotechnical Engineering.

With this publication, HUD is making available up to $5,000,000 for Planning Grants, including Planning and Action Grants.1. Planning Grants are two-year grants that assist communities with severely distressed public or HUD-assisted housing in developing a successful neighborhood transformation plan and building the support necessary for that plan to be successfully implemented.2. Planning and Action Grants are three and a half year planning grants that pair planning with action. Experience shows that tangible actions taken early on help communities build momentum for further planning and the eventual transition from planning to implementation of that plan. These actions improve neighborhood confidence, which in turn sustains the community’s energy, attracts more engagement and resources, and helps convince skeptical stakeholders that positive change is possible. Under these grants, the planning process activities would take place during the first 24 months of the grant period. The planning process will identify Action Activities that will be carried out during the latter portion of the grant period. Action Activities must build upon the planning for the target housing and neighborhood.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computation and physical components. Advances in CPS will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security, and usability that will expand the horizons of these critical systems. CPS technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems, just as the Internet has transformed the way people interact with information. New, smart CPS drive innovation and competition in a range of application domains including agriculture, aeronautics, building design, civil infrastructure, energy, environmental quality, healthcare and personalized medicine, manufacturing, and transportation. Moreover, the integration of artificial intelligence with CPS creates new research opportunities with major societal implications.

With this publication, HUD is making available up to $5,000,000 for Planning Grants, including Planning and Action Grants.1. Planning Grants are two-year grants that assist communities with severely distressed public or HUD-assisted housing in developing a successful neighborhood transformation plan and building the support necessary for that plan to be successfully implemented.2. Planning and Action Grants are three and a half year planning grants that pair planning with action. Experience shows that tangible actions taken early on help communities build momentum for further planning and the eventual transition from planning to implementation of that plan. These actions improve neighborhood confidence, which in turn sustains the community’s energy, attracts more engagement and resources, and helps convince skeptical stakeholders that positive change is possible. Under these grants, the planning process activities would take place during the first 24 months of the grant period. The planning process will identify Action Activities that will be carried out during the latter portion of the grant period. Action Activities must build upon the planning for the target housing and neighborhood.

The proliferation of mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, and their pervasiveness across nearly every sphere of our society, continues to raise questions about the architectures that organize tomorrow's compute infrastructure. At the heart of this trend is the data that will be generated as myriad devices and application services operate simultaneously to digitize a complex domain like a smart building or smart industrial facility. A key shift is from edge devices consuming data produced in the cloud to edge devices being a voluminous producer of data. This shift reopens a broad variety of system-level research questions concerning data placement, movement, processing and sharing. Importantly, the shift also opens the door to compelling new applications with significant industrial and societal impact in domains such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, public safety, energy, buildings, and telecommunications.

Through this EPA program, college students can benefit people, promote prosperity and protect the planet by designing environmental solutions that move us towards a sustainable future. EPA considers projects that address challenges from a wide range of categories including water, energy, agriculture, built environment, and materials and chemicals. These can be challenges found in the developed or developing world. The P3 Award competition is a two-phase team contest. For the first phase, interdisciplinary student teams compete for $15,000 grants. Recipients use the money to research and develop their design projects during the academic year. The final projects include a Phase I project report and a Phase II proposal. In the spring, all teams submit their reports and proposals. Scores from the reports, proposals and the design presentations are combined into a final overall score for each P3 team. Based on these scores, a panel of expert judges recommend to EPA which teams should receive the EPA P3 Award and the opportunity for Phase II funding. Given to the best student designs, this is an award and opportunity for grant funding up to $75,000 to further the project design, implement it in the field, and move it to the marketplace.