Prof. Richard Watson, Ph.D. is a Regents Professor Emeritus of the University of Georgia. He is a former President of the Association for Information Systems and was awarded its highest honor for his achievements in information systems (AIS Fellow). He was a visiting researcher at the Research Institutes of Sweden for about a decade. In 2021, the University of Liechtenstein awarded him an honorary doctorate. Professor Watson has published over 200 journal articles and written books on electronic commerce, data management, and energy informatics. His most recent book is Capital, Systems, and Objects. He recently accepted a partial appointment as Research Director with an Australian consulting firm.
Thermal comfort as a service
About 40% of all the energy consumed by buildings is used to provide thermal comfort to the occupants. However, sometimes rooms are heated when there unoccupied, or they are already warm enough, and vice versa for cooling. Thermal comfort is a range, not a fixed point. It can be managed across many rooms to minimize the cost of electricity while meeting occupants’ needs. Minimizing daily electricity costs requires sensitizing rooms to measure their thermal characteristics, determining their current and future occupancy, and predicting future electricity prices. We will prototype a system to manage thermal comfort as an energy company service.