Tacc Podcasts

Computer scientist Joshua New of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory speaks with host Jorge Salazar on how to optimize buildings to save energy using computer models. Saving energy saves money. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using supercomputers to do just that by making virtual versions of millions of buildings in the U.S. The Wrangler data-intensive supercomputer is working jointly with ORNL's Titan in a project called Autotune that trims the energy bills of buildings. Computer scientist Joshua New of the ORNL Building Technology Research and Integration Center is the principal investigator of the Autotune project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Autotune takes a simple software model of a building's energy use and optimizes it to match reality. "What we're trying to do is create a crude model from publicly available data," New said. "Then the Autotune project takes utility bill data, whether it's monthly electrical utility bills, or hourly bills from advanced metering infrast