Michael Wetter is a Staff Scientist at the Simulation Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). His research includes integrating building performance simulation tools into the research process, as well as their use for design and operation. He is leading the development of Spawn of EnergyPlus, a next-generation simulation engine for building and district energy and control systems, OpenBuildingControl, a project that digitizes the control delivery process, and the Modelica Buildings Library, the largest Modelica library for building energy and control systems. He has also been developing the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed software for co-simulation and model-based operation, co-simulation tools based on the Functional Mockup Interface standard and the GenOpt optimization program. He is the co-operating agent of IBPSA Project 1 and was co-operating agent of IEA EBC Annex 60, two multinational collaborations that develop new generation computational tools for buildings and community energy systems between 2013 and 2022. Prior to joining LBNL, he led the development of building system models at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC). He did his dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley and at LBNL, where he created the GenOpt optimization program and the BuildOpt building simulation program and where he developed the first building energy optimization technique that provably converges to the optimal building design. He is a recipient of the bi-annual Outstanding Young Contributor Award of IBPSA and of the bi-annual Distinguished Achievements in Building Simulation Award of IBPSA-USA. He is the Chair of the College of Fellows of IBPSA, an IBPSA Fellow, and a member of the Boards of IBPSA and the Modelica North America Users’ Group. He was Treasurer of IBPSA and President of IBPSA-USA.
Michael Wetter
PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 2004
BS in Energy and Building Technologies, University of Applied Sciences at Luzern, Switzerland, 1995
Awards
September 2014
Marco Bonvini, Michael Wetter and Thierry Nouidui, Simulation Research Group
September 2013
Professional Associations
International Building Performance Simulation Association ,
Member of Board of Directors, Chair of College of Fellows
Modelica North America Users' Group ,
Member of Board of Directors
International Building Performance Simulation Association - US Chapter ,
Member, Past President
Modelica Association ,
Member
ASHRAE ,
Member
Journal and Editorial Board Memberships
Journal of Building Performance, Editorial Board
Publications
2009
"Generic Optimization Program User Manual Version 3.0.0." 2009: 380-391. LBNL-2077E. .
"Modelica Library for Building Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning Systems." 7th International Modelica Conference. 2009. LBNL-2741E. .
"Modelica-based Modeling and Simulation to Support Research and Development in Building Energy and Control Systems." Journal of Building Performance Simulation 2.2 (2009) 143-161. LBNL-2740E. .
2008
"Comparing computer run time of building simulation programs." Building Simulation 1.3 (2008) 210-213. .
"A Modular Building Controls Virtual Test Bed for the Integration of Heterogeneous Systems." SimBuild 2008, July 30-August 1. Berkeley, CA, 2008. LBNL-650E. .
"Using SPARK as a solver for Modelica." Proc. of the 3rd SimBuild Conference 2008. LBNL-634E. .
"A Modelica-Based Model Library for Building Energy and Control Systems." Building Simulation '09. Glasgow, Scotland, 2008. .
"Using SPARK as a Solver for Modelica." SimBuild 2008. Berkeley, CA, USA, 2008. .
2007
"Comparison of Co-Simulation Approaches for Building and HVAC/R System Simulation." Proc. Building Simulation 2007. Beijing, China, 2007. .
"Comparison of co-simulation approaches for building and HVAC/R system simulation.
." Proc. of the 10th IBPSA Conference 2007: 1418-1425. .
2006
"Multizone Building Model for Thermal Building Simulation in Modelica." Proc. of the 5th International Modelica Conference 2006: 517-526. .
"Multizone Airflow Model in Modelica." Proc. of the 5th International Modelica Conference 2006: 431-440. .
"Modelica versus TRNSYS — A Comparison Between an Equation-Based and a Procedural Modeling Language for Building Energy Simulation." Proc. of the 2nd SimBuild Conference 2006. .
"Precision control for generalized pattern search algorithms with adaptive precision function evaluations." SIAM Journal on Optimization 16.3 (2006) 650-669
. .
2005
"Building design optimization using a convergent pattern search algorithm with adaptive precision simulations." Energy and Buildings 37.6 (2005) 603-612. LBNL-57341. .
"BuildOpt - A new building energy simulation program that is built on smooth models." Building and Environment 40.8 (2005) 1085-1092. .
2004
"A convergent optimization method using pattern search algorithms with adaptive precision simulation." Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 25.4 (2004) 327-338. .
"Building Design Optimization Using a Convergent Pattern Search Algorithm with Adaptive Precision Simulations." Energy and Buildings 37 (2004) 603-612. .
"BuildOpt - A new building energy simulation program that is built on smooth models." Building and Environment 40.8 (2004). LBNL-54657. .
"A comparison of deterministic and probabilistic optimization algorithms for nonsmooth simulation-based optimization
." Building and Environment 39.8 (2004) 989-999. .
GenOpt 2.0.0 - Generic optimization program. 2004. LBNL-54199. .
BuildOpt 1.0.1 validation. 2004. LBNL-54658. .
"Simulation-Based Building Energy Optimization." University of California, Berkeley, 2004. .
2003
"A convergent optimization method using pattern search algorithms with adaptive precision simulation." . Proceedings of the 8th IBPSA Conference 2003: 1393-1400. .