The International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) yesterday celebrated the official opening of its research facilities in Lleida, an office and lab space within Lleida’s Agrobiotech research park.

The new facilities, opened in 2022, host the centre’s Building, Energy, and Environment Innovation Unit (BEE Group), a highly-specialized team working on big data and artificial intelligence solutions to reduce building energy consumption.

Lleida city mayor, Mr. Felix Larrosa, joined CIMNE’s director Dr. Javier Bonet, Managing Director, Ms. Anna Font, and BEE Group leader, Dr. Jordi Cipriano, in the opening ceremony, which was also attended by Agrobiotech Park’s director, Mr. Miquel Aran, and Mr. Roberto García González, deputy to the Vice-Rectorate for Knowledge Transfer at the University of Lleida.

In Dr. Bonet’s words, the new facilities will leverage BEE Group’s potential to “working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and energy management”, offering “tangible solutions” for researchers, organizations, and society to “address the energy transition challenge”.

CIMNE’s BEE Group research lines span different facets of energy efficiency, ranging from demand-response solutions, user behaviour tools, big data analytics, biodigester technology, and energy community management.

The group was founded in 2001 as an autonomous research department at CIMNE and has led or take part in dozens of international research and technology transfer projects, including five spin-off companies.

The BEE Group team is formed by 20 multidisciplinary experts, between staff scientists, research engineers, postdocs, PhD students, and collaborators.