Efficient Control of Tunnel Freezers
Food products need to be rapidly cooled and frozen using freezer tunnels but with minimal energy wastage. The research considers striking a balance between energy conservation, freezer performance, and quality, given the food products are stochastic in terms of size and thermal loads. Using a stochastic dynamic programming model, total system-wide cost is minimized by controlling cryogen generation optimally. Industrial Partner: Air Liquide.
Energy Conservation in Wireless Sensor Networks
Efficient information sharing in multi-hop wireless networks is needed to optimize energy usage while not compromising performance. The research is a combination of multiple topics: (a) strategies to leverage network coding opportunities; (b) maintenance policies for underwater sensors; (c) techniques based on epidemic spread models for information dissemination. Collaborators: S. Shakottai, A. Sprintson, R. Gibson (all Texas A&M).
Control System for Net-Zero Energy Buildings
Low energy buildings require advanced stochastic controls to optimize energy use, interface and inform the users and operators, and connect to renewable energy systems. This research develops a logic-based control of building systems, where dynamic interaction between a knowledge-based system and stochastic control is utilized for energy and comfort management. Collaborators: A. Aksamija (Perkins+Will), G. Elvin (Ball State U.)
Young Myoung Ko (Ph.D. Student) website
Ezgi Can Eren (Ph.D. Student) website
Arupa Mohapatra (Ph.D. Student) website
Ronny Polanski (Ph.D. Student) website
Rincon-Mateus, C. and Gautam, N., "Efficient Control of an M/M_t/k_t Queue with Application to Energy Management in Data Centers", under revision, 2009.
Rincon-Mateus, C. and Gautam, N., "Adaptive Resource Allocation in Data Centers for Balancing Energy Conservation, Quality of Service and Reliability", under revision, 2009.
Eren, E.C. and Gautam, N., "Energy Conservation in Tunnel Freezers via Stochastic Dynamic Programming", under revision, 2009.
Ko, Y.-M. and Gautam, N., "Epidemic-based Information Dissemination in Wireless Mobile Sensor Networks", under review, 2009.
Chen, Y. and Gautam, N., "Server Frequency Control Using Markov Decision Processes", IEEE INFOCOM, 2009.
Qin, W.B., Wang, Q., Chen, Y. and Gautam, N., "A First-Principles Based LPV Modeling and Design for Performance Management of Internet Web Servers", Proceedings of American Control Conference, 2006.
Chen, Y., Das, A., Qin, W.B., Sivasubramaniam, A., Wang, Q. and Gautam, N., "Managing Server Energy and Operational Costs in Hosting Centers," ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, 303-314, 2005.
Ramakrishnan, S., Gautam, N., and Wysk, R.A., "Tunnel Freezing Process with Adaptive Control: A Stochastic Modeling Approach," Proceeding of the Industrial Engineering Research Conference, 2002.
Energy Efficiency in DoE
Energy Portal at EPA
Green IT at Uptime Institute
Efficient Computing at Google
The Green Grid Website
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA/LCM)
Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL)