WNE Awarded Grant to Use AI, Drones to Help Families Reduce Energy Costs

SPRINGFIELD — West Springfield families will benefit from a new partnership between Western New England University (WNE) College of Engineering and Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity (GSHFH) that uses drone and AI technology to identify heat loss and implement energy-saving home retrofits — at no cost to qualifying residents.

This partnership is possible thanks to a $149,700 EmPower Massachusetts grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

Through this initiative, the team will conduct thermographic assessments to detect heat loss in the homes of low-income families in West Springfield. Principal investigator (PI) Yu Hou and co-PI Steven Li will lead efforts using drones equipped with thermal cameras to create thermographic models. They will apply artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to analyze and quantify heat loss, simulate building energy consumption, and generate automated retrofitting plans. WNE will work with GSHFH to implement these plans for selected families.

“This project helps residents understand their home conditions and reduce energy costs while giving WNE students hands-on experience applying classroom knowledge to real-world construction projects,” said Hou, assistant professor in the WNE Construction Management department. “Students will use AI techniques — specifically computer vision methods — to identify areas of heat loss from building envelope images.”

Students can use local homes as case studies, integrating building energy simulation and tools like building information modeling into their coursework.

“This work enables us to assess residential energy consumption and building efficiency while also exploring public trust in generative AI,” said Li, professor in the Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management department at WNE.

Aimee Giroux, executive director at GSHFH, added that “we’re excited to partner with Western New England University on this important initiative. This grant will support our Home Preservation Program and help us provide lower-income homeowners with valuable information on improving energy efficiency. We’re especially thrilled to work alongside WNE students, whose participation brings fresh insight and energy to our shared mission of building stronger, more sustainable communities.”