BD Spokes: PLANNING: NORTHEAST: Partnerships for Energy cycle Innovation through Big Data (PPEID)

Suny At Buffalo, Amherst NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project is to conduct the planning needed to develop a Big Data Spoke focused on energy sector innovations using big data. The project group will bring together interests and strengths on building and data center energy usage informatics, grids and demand management and alternate and future energy sources along with storage methodologies. The primary outcomes of the project will be the development of a series of partnerships to leverage new and existing data science methodologies and inspire new research on such methodologies driven by the core needs of the energy sector. The project will focus the setup of these partnerships using the well-defined problems arising from utility provisioning for a brown-field redevelopment in the South Buffalo area that is a critical part of the transformative economic resurgence currently underway. Spoke planning activity will take the form of a series of "mini-workshops" that define the needs followed by a series of "consulting engagements" to be supported by project personnel and partners that can address needs in different aspects of the challenge problem. The engagement of private sector (utility companies, brownfield investors and tenants), non-governmental organizations and academics (from 6 universities across the region) will provide a clear understanding of capabilities and issues at the end of the planning exercise. The Northeast Big Data Hub will provide essential support in forming these partnerships, logistics for the engagement processes and providing access to the skills in many core areas like data sharing, ethics, privacy and education. The Project will support brownfield redevelopment that will revitalize large swaths of Buffalo will have an immediate impact on the economic well being of upstate New York and the region. Many communities commonly encounter the issues involved in such development and our solutions will have a large set of beneficiaries in the long term. The successful formation of the many partnerships needed to accomplish this will then go on to serve many other communities in the data and information needs of the energy sector in the North east and beyond. There will also be a large engagement of students and early career professionals from the universities involved.