Syracuse, NY –Leading researchers from around the world convened again at the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy (SyracuseCoE) to take part in a workshop and meeting on advanced building systems. The events examined the major challenges facing the combined heat, air, moisture and pollutant simulations for the design and operation of sustainable buildings, featured the most recent progress, and discovered opportunities for further collaboration.

The 15th International Forum and Workshop on Combined Heat, Air, Moisture and Pollutant Simulations (CHAMPS) included presentations by the international visitors and Syracuse University faculty and students. The 6th Expert Meeting of IEA-EBC Annex 68 Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings was held on the same day at SyracuseCoE. The two events had a joint public meeting, with topics at the forum including indoor environment quality models, energy performance research, healthy and intelligent buildings strategies and site planning around the effects of climate change.

Both events highlighted the importance of creating high-performance buildings that improve human health and performance while remaining sustainable and reducing building energy use. Research has indicated that people spend up to 80% of their time in indoor environments and 40% of building energy consumption goes to normal operations of heating, cooling and lighting. Industrialization has made it more critical than ever to develop sustainable buildings that boost human quality of life while reducing energy consumption.

15th Annual International Forum and Workshop on CHAMPS Organizers
Danish Technical University, Denmark
Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Nanjing University, China
Syracuse University, U.S.A.
University College of London, U.K.
University de la Rochelle, France
University of Tokyo, Japan

Aims and Scope
CHAMPS 2018 and IEA-EBC Annex-68 will have a joint public meeting in the afternoon of September 30, 2018 to discuss the major challenges facing the combined heat, air, moisture and pollutant simulations for the design and operation of sustainable buildings, highlight the most recent progresses, and identify opportunities for further collaboration. Topics may include:

1. Whole building IEQ and energy performance: Modeling and simulation of combined heat, air, moisture, and pollutant transport processes in and around buildings, and how these processes impact IEQ and building energy efficiency;
2. Healthy and intelligent buildings: Interaction and interdependencies between IEQ and energy efficiency measures, effectiveness of source reduction, ventilation and air cleaning strategies; model-based predictive control, application of internet of things (IOTs) technology in distributed building environmental control;
3. Climate, community and site planning: Climate change effects on IEQ, urban and community planning, micro-urban climate and energy efficiency of building clusters;
4. Building envelope performance: hygrothermal performance of buildings in different climates, leakage and moisture control, envelope-integrated ventilation and energy storage systems, energy and durability;
5. Micro-environment around occupants: demand-based personal environmental control, occupant behavior and impacts on IEQ and energy efficiency;
6. Design studio: Methods and tools for coordinated and integrated urban and building systems design, building information modeling (BIM), CHAMPS simulation framework, software, and optimization techniques, common databases of materials, assemblies, building topologies, climates, and real-world versus design performances.
7. Case studies: Applications of CHAMPS for building systems design and model-based predictive controls.

SyracuseCoE previously hosted the 13th International Forum and Workshop on CHAMPS in 2016. The city of Syracuse is a leader in the international community of indoor air quality and sustainable building technology. Previous events such as the 2018 International Building Physics Conference and upcoming expos like the Emerging Technology Showcase draw global experts and researchers to Syracuse.