CAREER: Modeling Irrationalities of Designers to Support their Decisions for Net-Zero Energy Buildings

该学院早期职业发展(Career)计划奖的目标是通过应用决策理论和行为科学来模拟和支持设计师的净零能耗建筑决策。这将促进对设计师决策影响的理解，这些影响是系统地非理性的(定义为与最大化效用无关)。研究方法是：(1)表示建筑项目中使用的一般能源设计过程；(2)通过应用决策论和行为科学的方法，表征非理性对特定高影响能源决策的影响(例如，采用针对变化的偏差的开创性研究，以表征其对创新建筑冷却系统选择的影响)；以及(3)设计并测试规范的方法，以解决这些非理性，从而支持设计师的净零能耗建筑决策(例如，测量重新设计能源性能目标如何影响设计师的决策)。综合教育方法是：让两个多学科团队参与研究；并创建和提供能源决策课程，作为萨凡纳河环境科学野外站能源重点课程的基石，该项目面向来自27个地区机构的代表不足的学生。建筑消耗的能源比整个交通部门都多，因此实现净零能源建筑的进展有望带来巨大的社会效益，包括降低成本和排放，以及提高能源独立性。其他更广泛的影响将通过项目方法发生，工程学博士生实践领导本科生的多学科团队，这些本科生反过来获得研究经验。项目主题和多学科项目方法的明确社会相关性将导致更全面的工程师，并扩大代表不足的群体对工程学的参与。主动接触外地站也将扩大这种参与，并使项目成果能够在传统的学术渠道之外得到广泛传播。

The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to model and support designers' decisions for net-zero energy buildings by applying decision theory and behavioral sciences. This will advance understanding of designers' decision influences that are systematically irrational (defined as unrelated to maximizing utility). The research approach is to: (1) represent the general energy design process used on building projects; (2) characterize the impact of irrationalities on specific high-impact energy decisions by applying methods from decision theory and the behavioral sciences (e.g., adapting seminal studies of bias against change to characterize its influence on selection of innovative building cooling systems); and (3) devise and test prescriptive approaches that address these irrationalities and therefore support designers' decisions for net-zero energy buildings (e.g., measuring how reframing an energy performance goal impacts designers' decisions. The integrated educational approach is to: engage two multidisciplinary teams in the research; and create and deliver an Energy Decisions course as a keystone offering for an energy focus at the Savannah River Environmental Sciences Field Station, a program for underrepresented students from 27 regional institutions. Buildings use more energy than the entire transportation sector, so progress towards net-zero energy buildings promises tremendous societal benefits including decreased costs and emissions, and increased energy independence. Other broader impacts will occur through the project approach, where engineering Ph.D. students practice leading multidisciplinary teams of undergraduates, who, in turn, acquire research experience. The clear societal relevance of the project topic and multidisciplinary project approach will lead to more well-rounded engineers and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering. Proactive outreach to the Field Station will also broaden this participation and enable widespread dissemination of the project results beyond traditional academic channels.