Session: CIE-18-02 SEIKM: Systems Engineering and Complex Systems

Paper Number: 143653

143653 - Integrating Machine Learning Into the Design of Green Building Systems 

Sustainable infrastructure design is a complicated process often requiring detailed estimates specifications and constraints of the project scope to be compiled. Beyond the time-consuming gathering of project data sometimes the availability of completed projects is limited. Therefore, a method to produce similar designs with varied constraints requires a system engineering perspective. Systems engineering provides a method to evaluate multidisciplinary design development while simultaneously following stakeholder requirements. Ecologically inspired systems have shown the ability to maintain balanced resources and structural relationships even under duress. Driven by the imperative to build sustainable infrastructure, this research explores the utilization of machine learning techniques to generate robust and reliable forecasts of green building specifications, even when design resources are scarce. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, machine learning techniques were performed on a dataset of 93 green educational buildings, and on an oversampled dataset containing synthetically generated data points at the aim of certification level prediction. Both datasets contained metrics quantitatively characterizing cost, energy efficiency, and ecologically sustainable metrics specific to each building. Results indicate that the oversampled dataset allowed for better machine learning among the classification algorithms considered while maintaining good data quality while minimizing cost during initial design. This data suggests that oversampling is a reliable technique to amplify the design area of infrastructure projects when applied on data containing strong patterns in system resilience.

Presenting Author: Emily Payne Texas A&M University

Presenting Author Biography: Emily Payne is a Ph.D. student in the Bio-Inspired Systems Lab at Texas A&M University in the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering. She has an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in Architectural Engineering. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and a Women in Engineering Chevron Award Recipient for her volunteer efforts, as well as a TEX-E Fellow (2023/24). Emily has worked on developing a more sustainable balance between building energy usage and resilient technology. Her current research is looking at improving how buildings impact the health of people and the community, with a focus on cyber-physical power systems.

Authors:

Emily Payne Texas A&M University
Astrid Layton Texas A&M