In my opinion, this is an emerging, multi-faceted, interdisciplinary research field, which is rooted in systems science, social science, urban science, science of risk and resilience, and institutional ethics, with potential impact in 3 key areas namely Technology for Change, Responsible Design and Engineering, Innovation Management, and Low-carbon Sustainable Society.
My research interest in this topic is primarily motivated by the urge and void in the scientific body of knowledge to address the critical gap in the responsible design of the technology, buildings and society for a sustainable low-carbon digital urban future. This interest is developed based on a fair share of professional experience that I have accumulated working across multiple projects, visiting several buildings of various forms and functions, studying state-of-art system implementation and best practices from across the world.
Some noteworthy buildings include Infosys Hyderabad LEED office building, Infosys solar farm in Jaipur, Infosys campus in Bangalore, Manipal Hospital Bangalore, Dhirubai Ambai Knowledge City in Mumbai, UWCSEA Dover campus in Singapore, Ventus and University Hall in NUS Singapore campus, Copenhagen International Airport, Jysk Warehouse in Denmark, Siemens HQ office building in Copenhagen, Navitas office building in Aarhus, DTU Smart Library building in Copenhagen.
Most of which are categorized under three thematic areas as listed below.
Indriya - a low-cost wireless sensor network based development platform for academic & professional research and development (Completed, 2010)
Vidyut - an indigenous single-phase smart metering plug with both Zigbee & Wi-Fi based wireless capabilities for urban residential & office buildings (Completed, 2010)
Sama – a mobile, indoor ambient climate (Temperature, Humidity, Light) sensing mote for networked enterprise infrastructures (Completed, 2011)
Design of power supply module for Zigbee-to-GSM/GPRS gateway (Completed, 2012)
Design of dual-out power supply for three-phase energy meters (Completed, 2012)
Lighting management system in a SME (Payne India Pvt. Ltd.) employing ambient light harvesting & occupancy based controls, Bangalore, India (Completed, 2011)
Implementing wireless energy (single & three-phase power) monitoring system in a Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, India (Completed, 2012)
Post-occupancy Lighting Audit of Infosys Office Building, Hyderabad, India (Completed, 2013)
Thermal comfort and indoor air quality assessment in SDE3 University campus building, Singapore (Completed, 2013)
The grey-side of lighting automation system- A case study of University Hall Building, NUS, Singapore (Completed, 2014)
Office plug load energy conservation in Ventus office building, NUS, Singapore (Completed, 2014)
Non-intrusive Load Monitoring algorithm for office environment (PhD Thesis, Completed, 2017)
A pilot implementation of real-time occupant engaged personalized indoor light monitoring and control system using Wireless Sensor Actuator Network in EMDL Lab, NUS, Singapore (Completed, 2018)
The Cyber-Security of Future, Denmark (Completed, 2021)
Balancing smartness and resilience in integrated building management system, Denmark (Completed, 2021)
Integrating cyber-physical risk assessment framework into Smart Building Certification process (External, Ongoing)
Cybersecurity for Fire Protection Systems (External advisor, Ongoing)
Implementing wireless energy monitoring system in a 250 KW solar farm in Infosys Jaipur Campus, India (Completed, 2012)
Pilot implementation of resources (energy, water, indoor climate & air-quality) management system employing Wireless Sensor Networks in a Dhirubai Ambani Knowledge City campus, Mumbai, India (Completed, 2012)
Developed a cyber-physical middleware for energy performance assessment and benchmarking of the '3for2' office building among other office buildings in Singapore (Completed, 2018)
Towards Responsible Design of Low-Carbon Buildings (External, Ongoing)
In principle, my future research charter envisions accomplishing responsible design goal across all three aforementioned levels.