Background

Buildings are main energy consumers, and they account for more than 40% of the total energy consumption in the world. In high-density cities like Hong Kong, the energy consumption of buildings can reach 80% of the total energy consumption. The annual electricity bill of only the HVAC systems in Hong Kong buildings reaches 12.3 billion Hong Kong dollars. Improving building energy efficiency is essential to realize carbon neutrality.

The recent development of AI technologies has brought unprecedented opportunities for energy saving in buildings. In recent years, a number of data-driven and AI technologies have been developed by academia and industry, and they have shown great potential in energy saving. Nevertheless, advanced AI technologies still need to be developed for pervasive AI in buildings in the future. Many challenges need to be overcome, and a wide range of personnel are needed to be involved to contribute.

We organise this international challenge competition with three objectives:

To allow more scholars to understand the potentials and applications of AI technologies in building energy conservation.

To release a unique dataset on building operations. This can facilitate a wide range of scholars to participate in the R&D of smart building technologies, which would not be possible without the access of data.

To allow participants to understand the challenges in large-scale AI deployment, and to introduce semantic AI platforms for large-scale AI deployment in smart buildings.