Optimising air quality and energy consumption of school buildings with supercomputing – Research Council of Finland awards grant to SustainSchool project

– SustainSchool is committed to optimising energy consumption and enhancing indoor environment for interconnected school buildings in Finland, says Professor Xiaoshu Lü, who leads the Renewable Energy and Built Environment team at the University of Vaasa.

The new project consortium includes Aalto University, which is coordinating the project, and the University of Vaasa. The three-year project falls under the special funding category for international collaboration in high-performance computing. As part of the research project, the researchers will use the LUMI supercomputer in collaboration with international partners and research teams.

– By using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, multi-objective optimisation and high-performance computing techniques, we aim to achieve optimal control of indoor environmental quality while minimising energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, says Lü.

In the project, Aalto researchers will focus on extensive data collection, while the University of Vaasa will specialise in modelling and high-performance computing. According to Professor Lü, the project is open to doctoral students with a background in computing and modelling, with a special focus on parallel computing.

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The Research Council of Finland selected 14 research projects for funding within a scheme that supports international collaboration in high performance computing. The total funding amounts to almost 7.2 million euros and covers the years 2024–2026. The funding will support the use of EuroHPC's high-performance computing resources and the LUMI supercomputer in the fields represented by the Finnish Flagships.

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