IBPSA-Canada is a regional affiliate of IBPSA (also known as IBPSA-World), a non-profit international society of building performance simulation researchers, developers and practitioners, dedicated to improving the built environment. This section provides an overview of IBPSA-World’s mission, goals, and organization. For further details on IBPSA-World can be found at http://www.ibpsa.org/.

IBPSA’s mission IBPSA is founded to advance and promote the science of building performance simulation in order to improve the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of new and existing buildings worldwide.

IBPSA’s vision The building industry, without a doubt, is one of the most important industrial and economical sectors influencing the quality of life and the environment. And yet, planners and property developers pay very little attention during the design process to the life-cycle cost of owning and operating buildings.


Building Simulation offers the potential to cope adequately with building performance related concerns, as well as with the construction process. Increasingly, computer based models (programs) are being employed to aid in the design, operation, or management decision making process. The DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION, USE IN PRACTICE, and STANDARDIZATION, of the models and programs in therefore of growing importance. For building Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance and Management activities, there is also an urgent need for the INTEGRATION of “generally applicable” and “generally accepted” methods and tools, for various applications, each having various levels of complexity and/or various types of end-users. Also important is the TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER issue within the building modeling field.

To take a leading role in the promotion and development of building simulation technology, IBPSA aims to provide a forum for researchers, developers and practitioners to review building model developments, Facilitate evaluation, encourage the use of software programs, address standardization, accelerate integration and technology technology transfer. So that, one day:

  • members all over the Globe will find membership in IBPSA worthwhile and profitable in their area of interest;
  • governments, industry, utilities and academic institutions will look to IBPSA for guidance in determining policies, areas of research, and application development in building simulation;
  • local chapters around the Globe will benefit from the body of knowledge and experience available through IBPSA;
  • IBPSA will act as a clearing house for software products and services in building simulation; members will network with other members and societies through electronic means;
  • IBPSA will provide a framework for strategic alliances for information and cooperation in R&D and Technology Transfer.

IBPSA’s Goals

The following goals were identified at the inception of IBPSA:

  • Identify problems within the built environment that may be solved by improved simulation tools and techniques;
  • Identify the performance characteristics of buildings on which simulation should be focused;
  • Identify building performance simulation research and development needs and transfer new developments to the user;
  • Promote standardization of the building simulation industry; and
  • Inform and educate its members and the public regarding the value and the state-of-the-art of building performance simulation.

IBPSA’s Function

The key functions of IBPSA are to:

  • Seek advice of building designers, owners, operators, and developers, regarding the proper role of building performance simulation;
  • Promote simulation through education programs, advertising, and other means for the good of the building simulation industry;
  • Building a scientific base upon which all interested in building simulation may draw;
  • Develop software framework form which improved building performance computer programs may be developed;
  • Enhance the proper application of simulation tools;
  • Help achieve an integration of computer aided drafting (cad) with engineering and performance software by identifying standard methodologies and data files;
  • Prepare and/or sanction training courses, technical forums, journals, newsletters and other material to educate its members and the public regarding building performance simulation;
  • Sponsor/co-sponsor research and development projects to improve simulation tools and practices;
  • Survey available simulation codes and publish descriptions of the characteristics of the codes;
  • Serve as a clearing house for public domain computer code in building performance simulation;
  • Assist private and public sector computer program developers to learn and use public sector codes thereby stimulating the development of new tools and methods;
  • Organize building elements terminology and other definitions to achieve the necessary standardization that will serve the industry;
  • Assist codifying organizations to understand and interpret standards of practice prepared by the IBPSA;Support various communication media including an active electronic network to keep its membership informed; and
  • Promote the exchange of information on building performance simulation internationally and with other disciplines.

Organization of IBPSA

IBPSA is an international organization with regional affiliate organizations around the world. Since the regional affiliate organizations often have names like “IBPSA-Canada” and “IBPSA-France”, the parent organization is sometimes referred to as “IBPSA-World” to clearly distinguish it from the regional affiliates.

IBPSA (IBPSA-World!) is governed by a board of directors elected by the membership of all the regional affiliates. In addition to the president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, the board is made up of members-at-large and representatives sent by the regional affiliates.

Each regional affiliate will have their own governing board.

IBPSA-Canada’s Governing Charter

Established February 2002
Modified by Letters Patent (incorporation) June 2005
Modified by Ammendments to Letters Patent May 2008

Mandate

  • IBPSA-Canada’s objective is to provide a forum for the exchange of information between Canadian practitioners and researchers on the topic of building performance simulation.
  • IBPSA-Canada will strive to achieve this objective through biennial conferences, an interactive web site, and e-mail discussion lists.

Board

  • The board controls the policies and procedures of IBPSA-Canada.
  • It is anticipated that IBPSA-Canada’s charter will evolve over time in response to the needs of the membership. The board will approve all changes to this governing charter.
  • The board will meet quarterly, usually by teleconference.
  • The board will be composed of up to eleven members. The board members must be actively involved in the field of building simulation in some capacity, and must be based in Canada.
  • Nominations for board members will be sought by the current president, normally using the IBPSA-Canada general e-mail list.
  • Board members will be voted by the membership.
  • All board positions are for a two-year term, renewable for multiple terms.
  • The board will strive to reach decisions by consensus. Where this is not possible, decisions will require a two-thirds majority vote. Attendance of half the board members will be required to establish a quorum for voting.

President and Vice-President

  • The board will select a president and a vice-president from amongst its membership.
  • The president and vice-president positions will be for a one-year term, renewable for multiple terms.
  • The president (or the vice-president in the president’s absence) will chair the board meetings.
  • The president and vice-president will actively participate to realize the mandate of the organization.

Organizational framework

  • IBPSA-Canada will operate as a network of volunteers

Membership

  • Any individual with an interest in the field of building simulation can become an individual member of IBPSA-Canada.
  • Any organization (a company, university group, government agency, etc) based in Canada and active in the field of building simulation can become a corporate member of IBPSA-Canada.
  • Membership will be registered via IBPSA-Canada’s web site.
  • All individual members will have access to IBPSA-Canada’s web site.
  • All individual members will be on an IBPSA-Canada general e-mail list and will receive announcements of upcoming events and new services.
  • All corporate members will have the right to list their organization’s building simulation services on the IBPSA-Canada web site, subject to the policies established by the board.
  • There will be no membership dues.

Languages of operation

  • IBPSA-Canada is a bilingual (French and English) organization.
  • Where possible, services will be provided in both languages. Where not, either language can be used.

Biennial conferences

  • IBPSA-Canada will organize a conference on the topic of building simulation every two years.
  • These conferences will be held in even-numbered years to alternate with the IBPSA international conferences, which are held in odd-numbered years.
  • The conference will be named eSim.
  • The eSim conferences will be hosted by some organization other than IBPSA-Canada (since IBPSA-Canada cannot handle with finances).
  • The event will be announced as eSim 20??, the biennial conference ofIBPSA-Canada, is hosted by (name of host organization), and supported by (names of financial sponsors).
  • The board will target dates for the conference and invite (normally through the IBPSA-Canada general e-mail list) organizations interested in hosting the event to submit proposals. The board will review the proposals and select the host site for the eSim conference.

Board of Directors

(June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2026)

Yuxiang Chen
President

Yuxiang Chen is an associate professor in the School of Building Science and Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. His research expertise is on high performance buildings, with focuses on energy efficiency and peak demand reduction through thermal energy storage, daylighting, robust controls, utilization of renewable energy, and their integrated design and operation. He was a key researcher in the Industrial Research Chair for “Optimized Operation and Energy Efficiency: towards High Performance Buildings” funded by NSERC and Hydro Québec, before he Joined the University of Alberta in July, 2015. Dr. Chen has participated in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Tasks “Economical Heating and Cooling Systems for Low Energy Houses” and “Towards Net-Zero Energy Buildings”, and is currently involved in another task “Energy Flexible Buildings”.

Burak Gunay

Burak Gunay is an Associate Professor at Carleton University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research examines methods to optimize the operation of commercial buildings for comfort and energy use. He uses the operational data gathered inside modern automation and control networks to learn from the occupants’ comfort, behaviour, and presence patterns. Using operational data, he employs inverse modelling to characterize building equipment operation and the envelope performance. Aside from field-scale data analyses, his research commonly uses building performance simulation.

Karine Lavigne

Karine Lavigne is a researcher and project manager at the Laboratoire des Technologies de l’Énergie (LTE) of Hydro-Quebec Research Institute since 2005. She is actively working to increase the energy efficiency of commercial and institutional buildings though the development of continuous commissioning and energy simulation tools. Karine participated in the development of simulation software “SIMEB” an interface to EnergyPlus and DOE2 energy simulation engines. She published several scientific papers related to the building energy simulation, model calibration and management of power peak demand. Karine completed her undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering and her master degree in mechanical engineering-Latent and Sensible thermal energy storage at the University of Sherbrooke. She is also a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.

Adam Wills

Adam Wills is a Research Council Officer at the National Research Council Canada – Construction Research Centre. His current research is focused on simulation of new and existing residential building stock to explore impacts of potential changes to the National Building Code, and to provide technical feedback to building code committees. Analysis is conducted using the Housing Technology Assessment Platform developed by CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, and ESP-r. Adam received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Windsor, and a MASc and PhD at Carleton University. His master’s research used co-simulation of ESP-r and TRNSYS to evaluate the technical feasibility of residential seasonal solar thermal systems in Canadian homes. His PhD research used the Canadian Hybrid Residential End-Use Energy and GHG Emissions Model (CHREM) and particle swarm optimization to study cost-optimal retrofit solutions for converting existing residential communities to net-zero.

Mohamed Ouf

Mohamed Ouf is an Associate Professor at Concordia University’s Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering department. He is the principal investigator of the Intelligent Buildings and Communities Lab (IBCL) and a member of Concordia’s Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS) as well as the newly established Next-Generation Cities Cluster. His research focuses on using data-driven approaches to investigate occupant-building interactions at multiple scales, ranging from zone- to building-level and up to urban scales. He is actively involved in several academic and professional organizations; including the International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 79: Occupant-Centric Building Design and Operation, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Helen Stopps

Helen Stopps is is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on the intersection between the political, social, and technical factors that determine building performance. She leverages methods from the social sciences (e.g., participatory research, aspects of critical systems theory, qualitative analysis methods) in combination with methods from the natural sciences and engineering (e.g., building performance simulation, remote sensing. data-driven analysis) to understand how well buildings perform and to identify barriers to the adoption of best practice.

Sebastián Carrizo

Sebastián Carrizo is is an associate and senior building performance consultant based in DIALOG’s Toronto studio with over a decade of experience in building performance simulation and analysis over a range of market sectors including higher education, healthcare, sports & recreation, and mixed-use buildings. His focus is on low carbon design of the built environment, including complying with local green building codes, attaining relevant certifications (like Net Zero Carbon or LEED), and hitting energy efficiency targets. Sebastián holds a B.Eng. from The Intituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires (Argentina), and an M. Eng. from Carleton University.

Ralph Evins

Ralph Evins is an associate professor at the University of Victoria, leading a group investigating the application of computational techniques (simulation, optimization, machine learning) to energy use in cities (buildings and urban energy systems). Current projects include the use of machine learning in data-driven building control and the development of an online portal for energy systems optimization. Ralph completed an MEng in Civil and Environment Engineering at Imperial College London, then an Engineering Doctorate on “Multi-objective optimisation as an aid to design space exploration for low-carbon buildings” at the University of Bristol, UK, together with the industry partner Buro Happold. After this he was a post-doctoral researcher then Group Leader at the Urban Energy Systems laboratory at Empa / ETH Zurich in Switzerland, leading development of the Holistic Urban Energy Simulation platform for the ‘Future Energy Efficient Buildings and Districts’ project. He is a Chartered Engineer with CIBSE and an IBPSA-World Projects Committee member.

Andrea Pietila

Andrea Pietila is currently working as an Energy and Sustainability Analyst at RDH Building Science, working with a team of energy modellers and building enclosure specialists to make buildings better. Andrea’s work at RDH is focused on “buildings that perform” – such as net zero, Passive House, and LEED certified buildings. She works on a variety of building types in the commercial, institutional and residential sectors, and covers both new construction and deep energy retrofit projects. Andrea has a B.Eng and an M.A.Sc. from Carleton University in Ottawa. Her thesis research employed building performance simulation to examine the feasibility of eliminating electrical draws from houses during periods of high demand on the central electrical system, a concept known as “zero peak housing”. Outside of building performance simulation, Andrea likes to play beach volleyball and spikeball, and enjoys concerts and listening to podcasts.

Eoghan Hayes

Eoghan Hayes is a Principal at Edge Sustainability Consulting located in the Vancouver area, British Columbia. He has extensive experience in energy modelling, indoor air quality, sustainability, and healthy buildings.

Kun Zhang

Kun Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) in Montréal. His expertise lies in optimal design and operation of energy systems in buildings and cities, including HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and energy storage systems. His current research focuses on the development of next-generation modelling languages and tools, advanced controls, data analytics, and machine learning techniques, as well as their integration into buildings and cities to improve energy efficiency, flexibility and resilience. He participates actively in the IBPSA Project 2 BOPTEST (Building Optimization Testing Framework) and is on the editorial board of Journal of Building Performance Simulation. He has contributed to the IEA EBC Annex 67 project on energy-flexible buildings, the Spawn of EnergyPlus project and the development of Control Description Language (CDL) in the OpenBuildingControl project.

Dahai Qi

Dahai Qi is an Associate Professor at Université de Sherbrooke in Building Engineering. Dr. Qi focuses on the study of building safety and resilient cooling and heating technologies. As a PI, he holds the CFI-John R. Evans Leaders Fund, NSERC Discovery Grants Program, FRQNT-New Researcher Program, NOVA – FRQNT-NSERC PROGRAM for junior researchers, etc. He is the Early Career Editorial Board member of Journal of Energy and Buildings, and the guest editor of many journals. He was the leader of Subtask C-Field Studies for the IEA-EBC Annex80 Project-Resilient Cooling of Buildings. He served as the secretary of 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment.

David Rulff

David Rulff joined WSP at their Toronto office in 2012, and has worked in the Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability group for over 10 years as an energy performance technical lead and project manager. David is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria with the Energy in Cities group, under the supervision of Prof. Ralph Evins. His research explores the application of component surrogate modeling and uncertainty quantification to improve best practice in building simulation. Previously, David graduated with his B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo; he completed his M.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2011, working with Prof. Chris Kennedy and Enwave Energy on optimization of distributed district energy systems.