On 8 and 9 July the eViz Team was visited by international advisor to the eViz project Prof. Ardeshir Madhavi from the Vienna University of Technology, and Prof. Darren Robinson from the University of Nottingham.

After a productive day of presentations and discussions, with great input from Ardeshir and Darren, the team spend the second day at the EDEN project in Cornwall. There was an opportunity to talk to EDEN staff  and discuss shared interests and potential collaborations, which was followed by a walk around the EDEN project. Thanks to everyone involved for making it another successful eViz Team Meeting!

On the 20th and 21st of June the eViz team met up to discuss research progress and plans. We are very grateful that two of our international advisors were able to attend this meeting: Prof.Stephen Sheppard from the University of British Colombia and Prof.Cees Midden from Eindhoven University of Technology.

On Day 1 workshops took place to discuss key questions related to the eViz project with the international advisors.

On Day 2, after invited talks by the international advisors, demonstrations were given of ongoing research. This was followed by an expert panel. Thanks to the Eden Project, the Energy Saving Trust, Plymouth City Council, Regen South West, C3 Resources, Carnego Systems, and Argand Sollutions for providing us with their input!

Exiting news from Birmingham! Robert Guest  has developed a Virtual Home Visualisation and some first images can now be displayed on this website.

One of the key goals of eViz is to investigate means to reduce energy demand in buildings by altering peoples behaviour. With this in mind the concept of a virtual home was developed allowing users to interact with energy systems and help to visualise unseen energy usage. The current virtual home is based on a two bed room modern flat although the intention is to expand this out to multiple home types.

- In the virtual home users can interact with multiple objects that would typically affect the energy usage within the home

- Thermal images have been used greatly to assess the effectiveness of building design and energy efficiency. While the cost of members of the general public using thermal images cameras is very prohibitive the virtual home has been developed to allow the users to see simulated thermal views.

The virtual home will now be tested in collaboration with the Psychology Team to investigate how individuals interact with the virtual home and how the virtual home can be used to increase energy literacy.

Islam Abohela was awarded the Jeffrey Cook Memorial Scholarship 2013 to attend the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE) Retreat 2013: Measuring Design: Models + Metrics which took place in Pomona, California between 21 and 23 June 2013.

The scholarship was awarded on a competitive basis following review of all applications received. Islam was invited to give a presentation at the Retreat about his past and current teaching and research activities. His presentation outlined three lines of research including the eViz project. The presentation included an outline of the eViz project and the preliminary results from the simulations of two test houses in Newcastle and Plymouth.

Among the concluding remarks of the Retreat were recommendations regarding using smart devices for visualizing energy consumption in buildings for informing occupants of potential energy saving which is one of the main objectives of the eViz project.  The attendees of the Retreat showed interest in the eViz project and requested communicating further results with them. The retreat was a great opportunity to explore potential future cooperation with other researchers especially in the USA and Canada since most of the attendees were from Northern America.