Case Study: Carnegie Mellon University achieves smarter building savings with IBM Cloud

Launches Buildings Management analytics initiative with IBM

Carnegie Mellon University partnered with IBM Systems to improve campus facilities management. The university faced a challenge common to older building-automation environments: data from HVAC, lighting, occupancy, security, and other systems was trapped in separate proprietary tools, making it difficult to detect inefficiencies, identify root causes, and manage multiple buildings as a unified portfolio.

IBM Systems implemented a cloud-based smarter buildings solution using IBM TRIRIGA, IBM Cloud/SoftLayer, SkyFoundry’s SkySpark analytics, and integration with IBM Maximo Asset Management. The system analyzes building data across systems, flags anomalies, prioritizes work orders, and supports proactive maintenance. Carnegie Mellon expects to cut utilities by about 10 percent and mechanical operations costs by at least 8 percent, saving nearly $2 million annually and recouping its investment in about 24 months.

Carnegie Mellon University

Don Coffelt

Carnegie Mellon University