Sonoma State University Energy Sustainability Dashboard
The Sonoma State University Energy Sustainability Dashboard is a student-driven project designed to make campus energy data more accessible and useful for education, sustainability awareness, and future energy-related projects.
Initiated last year, the project has continued to evolve with valuable feedback and support from campus Facilities staff. Over the summer, several improvements were made to the platform, and the dashboard has now been operating continuously for more than six months.
The dashboard currently provides interactive visualization of campus-wide electrical energy consumption, as well as thermal energy usage associated with selected HVAC systems. Users can explore energy consumption over different periods and better understand how energy is used across the campus.
An important goal of the project is to create a campus-based living laboratory for students. Rather than working only with simulated datasets, students can explore actual campus energy data and connect concepts from electrical engineering, energy systems, data analysis, IoT, and sustainability to a real-world environment.
Students can explore the project through the SSU Energy Sustainability Dashboard, along with a student tutorial developed to introduce the platform and guide students through the available energy data.
Future plans include expanding the dashboard to incorporate solar energy production and energy consumption data from additional campus buildings. The project may also explore ways to automate data collection from meters that are currently read manually, providing additional opportunities for student involvement in sensing, IoT, data acquisition, and visualization.
The long-term goal is to continue developing the platform as both a practical sustainability resource for Sonoma State University and an educational tool that allows students to use their own campus as a laboratory for exploring energy, technology, and sustainability.