The first annual meeting of the Adaptive and Intelligent Edge Computing based Building Energy Management System (AI-BEMS) project took place this week in Doha, Qatar to review the progress of the project.

AI-BEMS aims to optimise household energy consumption and enable demand response by researching and building an Edge Computing architecture based on virtual organisations and distributed Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) algorithms.

Virtual organisations dynamically optimise consumption patterns and recommend energy efficiency (EE) measures that will not only increase energy savings, but also maximise residents’ comfort. The virtual organisation will be able to learn autonomously from users.

AI-BEMS
Consortium representatives during the meeting in Doha, Qatar.

Juan Manuel Corchado, director of the BISITE Research Group at the University of Salamanca, participated in the event, together with other consortium partners, including Dr Muhammad Hanan Abdul Ibrar and Aiman Erbad from Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Mahdi Houchati, Hussam Kanaan, Javier Hernández and Paloma Álvarez from Iberdrola-Qatar.

The AI-BEMS project is a great initiative for achieving energy efficiency without reducing user comfort. Moreover, it analyses and improves the inhabitants’ consumption habits through the use of new technologies.  

This project has been funded by the Qatar Foundation’s QNRF (DOHA).

This article was made possible by a thirteenth (13th) cycle NPRP-Standard (NPRP-S) grant no. 13S-0128-200187 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation). The results herein reflect the work of, and are the sole responsibility of, the author(s).

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.