David Blum

David Blum is a Computational Research Scientist/Engineer in the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division. His research focuses on the development and implementation of next-generation computational tools and workflows for buildings operating in isolation or within broader energy networks. In particular, his interests are in the development, evaluation, and implementation of control strategies that reduce energy use and cost as well as enable flexible load management important for coordination with electric grids with renewable generation, integration of on-site distributed energy resources, and improving resilience to emergency situations. Much of this work has been applied to model predictive control (MPC), where a model of building performance can be used to optimize its energy use, occupant service, and energy network interactions, though additional approaches are considered as well. David received his B.A.E. degree from the Department of Architectural Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University in 2011 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Building Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013 and 2016 respectively. At MIT, his research focused on improving the use of commercial building HVAC systems to provide ancillary services to electric grids through dynamic modeling and MPC. He is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA).