Michael Kane
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Office
- 463 SN
- 617.373.7193
Related Links
Research Focus
Citizen-centric controls, infrastructure automation; community resilience; grid-interactive efficient buildings; sustainability
About
Education
- PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, 2014
- MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2011
- MS, Civil Engineering, Drexel University, 2009
- BS, Architectural Engineering, Drexel University, 2009
Honors & Awards
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2021
Professional Affiliations
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Research Overview
Citizen-centric controls, infrastructure automation; community resilience; grid-interactive efficient buildings; sustainability
Selected Research Projects
- Training the Coming Generation of Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Operators
- – Principal Investigator, DOE
- Human Centric Automation in the Built Environment
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation, CAREER Award
- A Scalable Hardware-and-Human-in-the-Loop Grid- interactive Efficient Building Equipment Performance Dataset
Principal Investigator, US Dept. of Energy Building Technologies Office - Community Resilience in Extreme Temperatures
Principal Investigator; Northeastern University
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- T. Abuimara, B.W. Hobson, H.B. Gunay, W. O’Brien, M.B. Kane, Current state and future challenges in building management: practitioner interviews and a literature review, Journal of Building Engineering, 2021.
- Z. Afroz, B.W. Hobson, H.B. Gunay, W. O’Brien, M.B. Kane, How Occupants Affect Building Operators’ Decision-Making, ASHRAE Journal, 62(11), 2020
- M. Schweiker, E. Ampatzi, M.S. Andargie, R.K. Andersen, E. Azar, V.M. Barthelmes, C. Berger, A. Jamrozik, M.B. Kane, et al., Review of Multi‐Domain Approaches to Indoor Environmental Perception and Behaviour, Building and Environment, 176, 2020, 106804
- M.B. Kane, J.P. Lynch, J. Scruggs, Run-Time Efficiency of Bilinear Model Predictive Control Using Variational Methods, With Applications to Hydronic Cooling, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 24(2), 2019, 718-728
- M.B. Kane, L.P. Jerome, J. Scruggs, Development of a Scalable Distributed Model Predictive Control System for Hydronic Networks with Bilinear and Hybrid Dynamics, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 32(5), 2018, 0401803
Aug 11, 2023
Clean Energy Might go to Waste if We Don’t Figure out How to Use it
CEE Assistant Professor Michael Kane is the lead researcher on Whole Energy Homes, which is funded by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is the first study to explore people’s reactions to utilities controlling their thermostats in a residential setting. The study focuses on how to get people to use clean energy when it’s available by remotely adjusting thermostats.
Aug 07, 2023
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU Pathways) completes 10 week Boston program
MIE Professor Ibrahim Zeid and STEM Executive Director Claire Duggan led a 10-week NSF-funded REU program called “REU Pathways,” which mentors community college students in engineering research.
Mar 08, 2023
Training the Coming Generation of Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Operators
CEE Assistant Professor Michael Kane received a $750,000 award from the US Department of Energy to develop a training program for vocational technology high schools and community colleges that improves entry-level building operators’ literacy in grid-interactive efficient buildings.
Feb 08, 2023
Building a Carbon Negative Future with Steel and Cross Laminated Timber
In a new $3.1M grant from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Northeastern Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair and CDM Smith Professor Jerome Hajjar will lead a multi-institution team of researchers developing a new carbon sequestration technique using cross-laminated timber composite floor systems in bolted steel construction for building structures.
Sep 27, 2022
Solar Decathlon Team Looks to Design Net-Zero Housing Properties
The Northeastern Solar Decathlon team was a winner of the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, a distinction that came with $50,000 in funding. They are working to become the first collegiate Solar Decathlon Build Challenge team to build a multi-unit, energy-efficient structure in an urban environment. The team is led by students Aasav Harania, MS in Energy Systems, and Ted Walinskas, BS in Chemical Engineering and MS in Engineering and Public Policy, and is advised by CEE Assistant Professor Michael Kane.
May 11, 2022
Northeastern University Solar Decathlon Team Wins $50K in Contingent DOE Funding
Northeastern University’s Solar Decathlon team’s project won contingent approval to proceed in the 2023 Build Challenge from the Department of Energy (DOE) last month, a distinction that comes with $50,000 in funding.
May 09, 2022
CEE PhD Student Shows Academic Excellence with Receipt of GRFP & DOE iBuild Fellowship
Katherine Bassett is a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering under the advisement of Assistant Professor Michael Kane. She is pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering in his Automation in the Built Environment Lab, and will receive an MS in Sustainable Building Systems along the way. She is the recipient of […]
Aug 20, 2021
NU Team PARIS Wins in Phase 1 of American-Made E-ROBOT Prize
A Northeastern faculty and student team was awarded a $200K prize as a finalist for Phase 1 of the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Challenges E-ROBOT Prize. In Phase 2, up to four teams (from the 10 finalists) will receive a $500K award. The team’s submission proposed development of a Precise Air-sealing Robot for Inaccessible Spaces (PARIS). The Northeastern team is advised by ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir, CEE Assistant Professor Michael Kane, and ECE Distinguished Professor Carey Rappaport.
Mar 15, 2021
NSF CAREER Award for Smart Thermostats for Energy Management and Occupant Comfort
Assistant Professor Michael Kane, civil and environmental engineering, was awarded a $763K NSF CAREER Award for “Human-Centric Automation in the Built Environment.” The project will enable the design of automation in the built environment that models human physiological and behavioral responses to changing environmental temperature conditions to satisfy competing objectives of energy management and occupant […]
Sep 21, 2020
Civil and Environmental Engineering Solutions to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and its Industrial Advisory Board held a series of panel discussions entitled “Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) solutions addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic”.