Category: nathan

SBS Lab Members Visit Net Zero Carbon Community Sites in Makassar Indonesia

Nathan Kurtz on

SBS Lab members Wangda Zuo, Leah Marucci, and Nathan Kurtz traveled to Makassar, Indonesia for a week-long field study as part of the Net Zero Carbon Community (NZCC) project. The team quickly learned that the project is having major snowball effects within the communities. Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels were installed in four locations across the city to allow the communities to reduce energy usage for their fish farms. In Indonesia, the utility grid is almost 80% comprised of fossil fuels, so reducing utility usage can significantly reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, from the energy savings, the communities can reduce their spending which they are immediately putting back into expanding to more fish tanks, and hydroponic systems.

This project has been going on for 6 months and all four installations across 3 sites are fully up and running with online monitoring that can be integrated with the city command center. Over these 6 months our tUS-Indonesian team comprising of Universitas Gadjah Madah (UGM), Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and the City of Makassar has successfully selected sites and procured, installed, and commissioned all equipment. We are deeply thankful for the long-lasting collaborations with UGM and ITB. We are also greatly thankful for the generous support from the U.S. Department of State (DoS), National Science Foundation (NSF), City of Makassar, and Penn State College of Engineering.

Additional news posts can be found on the project webpage and Prof. Zuo’s LinkedIn post 1 and 2.

Nathan Kurtz Receives the 2023-24 ASHRAE Setty Family Foundation Scholarship

Nathan Kurtz on

Congratulations to SBS undergraduate research assistant Nathan Kurtz, who received the ASHRAE Region III Setty Family Foundation Scholarship for the 2023-24 academic year. Nathan is a junior in Penn State University’s Architectural Engineering department. He has been working in the lab since Fall of 2022 on the NSF Smart Alley Garden project. And recently in December traveled to Makassar, Indonesia to work with the local team and conduct field measurements.

SBS Lab Members Visit Makassar, Indonesia

Julia Ho on

This December, Professor Wangda Zuo and undergraduate researcher Nathan Kurtz visited Makassar, Indonesia as part of their collaboration with the city in the NSF-funded Smart Garden Alley Project. During their visit, they met with many project collaborators and community organizers to learn more about Makassar’s ambitious plan to create circular economies – which have the potential to generate less material waste and pollution, increase sustainability, and decrease burdens on marginalized communities – in city alleys. With the help of the city, Makassar residents have improved drainage, created community and hydroponic gardens, and have started fish farms in alleys. Residents have shared the produce, fish, and lobster harvested from these alleys within the neighborhood and have also sold them to cover garden maintenance costs. The SBS Lab is analyzing sensor data with AI to help residents ensure optimal garden conditions.

During their visit, Professor Zuo also talked with researchers from the Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Indonesia University of Education to learn about localized sustainable improvements for Indonesians, including low cost cool roof technologies. We thank everyone involved with the visit for their hospitality, especially Mayor Moh. Romdhan Pomanto, Donny Koerniawan, and Beta Paramita. We look forward to more productive collaboration!

We also thank the National Science Foundation and the US Department of State’s US-ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership for their generous funding.

Picture: visiting Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Indonesia University of Education.

 

SBS Lab Undergrad Researchers Showcase Work

Julia Ho on

SBS Lab undergraduate research assistants Nathan Kurtz, Carter Lowell, and Almila Meng presented their research projects last week at BE-SURE‘s end-of-semester research expo. BE-SURE (Building Engineering – Seminal Undergraduate Research Experience) is a Penn State program that supports undergraduate students interested in research.

Carter and Almila are using artificial intelligence to perform large scale energy analyses with our NSF-funded US-Ireland R&D project, and Nathan is investigating how smart city technology can be used to help citizens of Makassar, Indonesia with our NSF-funded Smart Garden Alley project. Nathan and Prof. Zuo will travel to Indonesia this week to conduct field measurements.

Congrats to Almila, Carter, and Nathan! Keep up the good work.