Project Challenge
Develop human-centric building control for heatwave resilient communities in Arizona. Community needs: citizen-awareness of the dangers and resources available to address heat emergency, cost-effective communities' preparedness and resilience to extreme heat events. Technical needs: AI- powered energy efficient building operations, indoor air quality.
CIVIC-PG Track A: Building a Heatwave Resilient Community in Arizona
Pilot Locations: Community Christian Church
University Presbysterian Church, Tempe, Maricopa County, Arizona
NSF Award ID: 2431395
PI: Teresa Wu, Arizona State University
2024 Civic Innovation Challenge
Pilot Vision
- Energy responsible design and operation to support resilient community development (target: 40% energy saving)
- Indoor environment quality based sensor deisgn and control for occupant satisfaction
- Community engagement to increase the acceptance from neighborhood
Civic Partners:
- Maricopa Association of Government
- City of Tempe
- Community Christian Church
- University Presbyterian Church
Research Partners:
- Arizona State University
- Texas A&M
- Temple University
- Drexel University
Research Questions
- RQ1: How to best support community resilience planning? (1a) Can we co-develop AI-based predictive models to forecast the risk and determine the hours-of-the-safety for a community with heat relief centers? (1b) Can we develop strategies to have community-wide conversation about heat preparedness and improve the usage of cooling/respite centers?
Figure 1: Community Christian Church: google bird view (Left), Digital Twin (Middle, developed from Stage I), Full scale energy audit (Right, from Stage I)
- RQ2: How to best support human-centric operation of community heat relief centers? (2a) Can we co-develop AI-powered sensing technologies to monitor indoor environment quality to prompt real time control for occupant well-being and safety? (2b) Can we simultaneously minimize electricity demand to alleviate potential overload from power grid as well as reduce the operational costs of the cooling/respite centers?