OIT's collaboration with PSU's Digital City Testbed Center

The Office of Information Technology (OIT), Portland State University’s (PSU) research Digital City Testbed Center (DCTC), and Facilities & Property Management (FPM) collaborated to save energy and improve airflow by leveraging room occupancy data to optimize HVAC controls. The team utilized technology from Cisco to capture WiFi occupancy data, Sensible Building Science (SBS) to format the anonymized data for the controller, and Siemens to automatically adjust temperature and airflow based on occupancy. This approach saves money by not cooling unoccupied rooms and targets increased airflow needed for pathogen (COVID-19) dilution and dispersal in classrooms.

Learn more about PSU’s work with SBS and other Digital City technologists in this video presentation featuring Digital City Testbed Center Director and Professor of Geology, Jonathan Fink