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Construction research projects

“R&D en génie logiciel: domaine de la construction” banner.

UBUBI Project

Open-source software for the simulation of an alternative energy footprint for the life cycle of materials available in construction design.

This CRD project aims to develop a tool to support designers of energy-efficient buildings by integrating materials Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in BIM modelling, similar to Tally, but in open-source software.

UBUBI logo

The research team would like to propose an innovative assessment approach that extends the calculation of the overall energy of traditional building materials and energy equipment.

We are currently identifying the needs of each stakeholder in order to develop a document on high-level software requirements. See our article on this topic.

Challenge

Develop an open-source software component that is integrated in BIM Revit software in order to provide an interface and functionalities, and enable the use of an energy-related database on materials that would enable an assessment of alternatives, the energy life cycle (including its impacts), as well as various materials available at architectural design.

We use an agile software engineering process that requires the creation of a prototype, vision document and software requirements specification (SRS) to specify each stakeholder’s functional and data requirements.

Diagram representing an agile creation process used in the UBIBI project, in software engineering.

Examples of the LCA component prototype used to identify the project partners’ requirements:

Input parameters for a technological process, detailing flow amounts, formulas, units, and providers for various items.
Screenshot of the ECV prototype interface.

Technologies used:

  • Linux
  • Spark
  • Play Framework
  • Scala
  • MySQL
  • Git

This project is carried out using Amazon Web Services.

Students:

  • M. Dupuis
  • F. Saab
  • P. Pigeon