C-Tech - Climate Driven Technologies for Low Carbon Cities

Christoph Reinhart (MIT PI), Jessika Trancik (MIT co-PI) (since 2020) supported by MIT Portugal Porgram
SDL Staff: Yu Qian Ang, Sarah Mokhtar and Nada Tarkhan
Portuguese Institutions: Instituto Superior Técnico, Centro de Excelência para a Inovação da Indústria Automóvel (CEiiA), NOVA Information Management School, Lisboa E-Nova - Agência de Energia e Ambiente de Lisboa
Industry: NOS Comunicações

The goal of this project is to develop new scientific models and components for an integrated urban modeling platform that holistically considers building energy use and resident mobility and thus provides the foundation for a range of derivative third-party services. The services will include walkability and public transportation apps, building retrofitting advice for homeowners, integration strategies of grid-scale and building-scale renewable power generation, and urban-level carbon-emission reduction scenarios. On the Portuguese side the project is led by NOS Comunicações, Portugal’s largest cell phone and cable provider as well as the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Centro de Excelência para a Inovação da Indústria Automóvel (CEiiA), NOVA Information Management School and Lisbon’s energy agency Lisboa E-Nova. On the MIT-side this is a collaboration between the Sustainable Design and Trancik Labs, bringing together deep expertise in urban data analysis, transportation modeling, as well as building energy and resident comfort modeling. Working together with a large telecommunication company offers the project team a unique opportunity to validate and test very localized mobility mode-choice, and route-choice predictions, and their impact on city energy-use and emissions, based on models that consider ambient climate, urban infrastructure and economics.