Keynotes
Rob Greig
Global Chief Information Officer
Arup
Rob is the leader of Arup’s strategic digital technology ambitions globally. He joined the firm in 2017 bringing over 20 years of experience of technology and digital leadership, digital content development, cloud capabilities and strategic cyber security practice. A seasoned practitioner of leading people through digital transformation, as CIO he heads up a global team based in 90 offices around the globe with 20,000 users. Much of Rob’s work focuses on enabling the firm’s digital transformation, including leading the development of our cloud strategy. He has also led the establishment of the firm’s cyber advisory services.
Prior to joining the firm Rob worked across the creative and public sectors. As Chief Technology Officer of the Royal Opera House he created World Ballet Day, an annual live stream event connecting some of the world’s biggest dance companies with millions of viewers around the globe. As the Director of Parliamentary Digital Services he enabled greater access to information about the UK’s democracy by driving open data initiatives. His work connected the public to political debate by developing the largest social media following of any parliament globally. He introduced pivotal cyber security measures that successfully defended the House of Commons and House of Lords during the 2017 cyber attack.
Rob is a lay trustee for the Royal College of Surgeons, a Fellow of the Institute of Information Technology and a Cultural Fellow of King’s College London. He is formerly a board member of the National Association for Gallery Education (Engage) and a director of the non-profit arts-technology company Tessitura.
Clayton Miller
Assistant Professor
National University of Singapore
"How AI Disrupts: Lessons for the Built Environment from Other Industries"
Dr. Clayton Miller is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in the Department of the Built Environment. He is the creator of the edX online Course - Data Science for Construction, Architecture, and Engineering - that has had 30,000+ participants worldwide since April 2020. Dr. Miller's research focuses on performance data analytics using thousands of real-world case study buildings collected from facilities worldwide.
We all know the hype — but what AI-driven mechanisms do companies actually use when changing how they do business? Numerous examples of AI-driven disruption exist in retail, advertising, travel, manufacturing, and other industries. The built environment sector is slow to innovate, but this gives us a huge advantage to learn from others! This talk will explore the framework of AI disruption in the built environment context. It will cover what AI is good for (point versus application versus system solutions) and explain why humans are still crucial, as they are much better at judgment than AI despite being beaten in terms of prediction capabilities. Applying new data sources from building occupants (wearables, smart devices, etc.) and applications (influencing behavior in buildings) will be covered and explored
Tea Žakula
Associate Professor and the Head of Laboratory for Energy Efficiency
University of Zagreb
"Embracing the Future: AI Integration for Advanced Building Control"
The unstoppable march of technological progress has permeated even the most conservative industries, sparking disruption and innovation. With AI's rapid advancement, the building and energy sectors are now entering a new realm of possibilities. AI's role in the building sector extends beyond mere automation; it holds the potential to revolutionize the way we design, operate, and experience our built environments.
In this presentation, we share the latest results of our research on advanced building control, employing cutting-edge strategies that leverage AI technology. Here, AI plays a pivotal role in executing model predictive control (MPC) and personalized comfort models, bridging the gap between technology and humanity. It's a delicate dance where humans actively participate, offering unique preferences, constraints, and invaluable feedback, while AI's optimization capabilities tackle the multifaceted challenges posed by competing objectives.
However, the true challenge lies in implementing these theoretical advancements in the real world, where tangible demonstration sites remain extremely scarce. In this talk, we present our latest findings from the implementation and testing of AI-based algorithms at the RCK Rudera Boskovica living laboratory for intelligent buildings in Zagreb, Croatia. Just as AI generated an abstract for this talk using limited inputs, our goal is to make use of limited data acquired on a building to optimize building operation with as few inputs as possible.
What do people truly desire from AI? How do they wish to interact with this new force? And, most importantly, to what extent can AI genuinely assist us in operating our buildings, and what might be the price we pay for such invaluable assistance? These thought-provoking questions form the focal point of this talk as we navigate the uncharted territory of AI's potential impact on our built environment, unraveling the complex relationship between humans and AI. Ultimately, this presentation serves as a platform for stakeholders in the AI, building and energy industries to explore the practical integration of AI in buildings, engaging in a dialogue that shapes the future of our built environment.
