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Center Overview
The Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST) Center seeks to transform the building industry through the development and adoption of sustainable, efficient, and intelligent technologies. Bringing together universities and industries, the BEST Center uses an integrated systems approach to design, retrofit, construct, and operate sustainable buildings and cities.
Ultimately, the BEST Center will support the U.S. building industry’s efforts to meet increasingly stringent building regulations — and society’s expectations for improved sustainability, resiliency, and security in communities and cities. Through educating and training, the BEST Center will also help develop a skilled and diverse STEM workforce to address current and future employment needs for the U.S. building industry.
Center Personnel
Moncef Krarti
Center Director
+1 303 492 3389
moncef.krarti@colorado.edu
Ahmed Mohamed
Site Director (CCNY)
amohamed@ccny.cuny.edu
John Zhai
Site Director (CU Boulder)
john.zhai@colorado.edu
Nicholas Clements
Manager
+1 303 532 6546
nicholas.clements@colorado.edu
Research Focus
The BEST Center’s interdisciplinary research includes many topics related to the energy systems of buildings, such as indoor–outdoor energy flows, advanced building envelope systems, demand–response informatics, advanced in-situ and remote sensing for monitoring the environment and occupants, and distributed energy-efficient and renewable technologies. To cover the rich and wide diversity of the building industry needs, the Center conducts research in five areas:
- City-scale building energy systems and informatics,
- Distributed and renewable energy systems.
- Intelligent building mechanical and electrical energy systems.
- Smart buildings materials.
- Smart grid systems integrated with distributed energy and data systems.
Awards
The BEST Center will enable the development of new and sustainable building energy technologies through a holistic understanding of the interactions between built and-natural systems. In particular, the center will address design and operation solutions for the built environment associated with extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense due to a rapidly changing climate. Additionally, the center will focus on the emerging challenges in the building sector due to pandemics and health crises such as those caused by COVID-19, and increase cybersecurity of the buildings systems and of occupants’ privacy. The center’s research scope spans various disciplines specific to building energy systems, including indoor-outdoor energy flows, advanced building envelope systems, demand-response informatics, application of advanced in-situ and remote sensing for monitoring the environment and occupants, and distributed energy efficient and renewable technologies. To cover the rich and wide diversity of the building industry needs, five Thrust Areas are proposed for the center’s research activities: (i) smart buildings materials, (ii) intelligent building mechanical and electrical energy systems, (iii) distributed and renewable energy systems, (iv) city-scale building energy systems and informatics, and (v) smart grid systems integrated with distributed energy and data systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >
The BEST Center will enable the development of new and sustainable building energy technologies through a holistic understanding of the interactions between built and-natural systems. In particular, the center will address design and operation solutions for the built environment associated with extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense due to a rapidly changing climate. Additionally, the center will focus on the emerging challenges in the building sector due to pandemics and health crises such as those caused by COVID-19, and increase cybersecurity of the buildings systems and of occupants’ privacy. The center’s research scope spans various disciplines specific to building energy systems, including indoor-outdoor energy flows, advanced building envelope systems, demand-response informatics, application of advanced in-situ and remote sensing for monitoring the environment and occupants, and distributed energy efficient and renewable technologies. To cover the rich and wide diversity of the building industry needs, five Thrust Areas are proposed for the center’s research activities: (i) smart buildings materials, (ii) intelligent building mechanical and electrical energy systems, (iii) distributed and renewable energy systems, (iv) city-scale building energy systems and informatics, and (v) smart grid systems integrated with distributed energy and data systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >