Welcome to AMBER
Building Science Innovation with Impact.
At the Advanced Multiscale Building Energy Research (AMBER) we are passionate about having a positive impact on our communities. We believe in sound science with application. We focus on applying interdisciplinary building science to address everyday challenges faced by local and global communities. Each of our projects is geared towards addressing a specific challenge in both residential and commercial buildings by leveraging the cross-section of mechanical, civil, electrical, and material engineering.
Group Director: Dr. Paulo Cesar Tabares-Velasco
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What We Do
In collaboration with NREL, Dr. Tabares and AMBER Group have enabled accurate modeling of multiple thermal storage technologies in EnergyPlus, BEopt, OpenStudio and URBANopt in use by many researchers worldwide. Examples of multi-scale and multi-disciplinary projects range from heat transfer in envelopes to community-scale energy monitoring, analysis, and optimization in urban and rural communities, such as an 800-home community in Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, ND optimization of Mines campus and is currently retrofitting and electrifying a community in Colorado in collaboration with Colorado Energy Office (CEO) and Energy Outreach Colorado (EOC)
We don’t just do cool science; we do science that matters (…to you)
We Make an Impact by
- Inspiring the next generation of engineers: See our SE@M distinction program
- Advancing Building Science: Developing solutions that positively disrupt the market and support policy changes
- Creating Building and Community-scale Models: Developing models that enable engineers to design affordable energy-efficient communities
We Address Problems that directly affect people
- Affordable Housing: By constructing houses from mass timber, we will make homes more resilient to temperature changes, thereby reducing energy costs, housing crises, and unsustainable timber logging practices
- Building Retrofits: By electrifying and retrofitting houses at a community scale, we will reduce utility costs, improve thermal comfort, and decrease the impact of building carbon emission