Title of Talk:
Adventures in start-up land: what I did on study leave, with pointers on entrepreneurship for engineers
This talk will focus on his journey since becoming a Co-Founder of Building Atlas Ltd, a UK-based start-up company that helps decarbonise portfolios of commercial buildings. It will include some background on Software-as-a-Service companies and the opaque world of fund-raising as well as personal reflections on the benefits and pitfalls of start-up life.
Short Bio:
Dr Ralph Evins is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria researching the application of computational techniques like machine learning to energy use in buildings and urban energy systems. Dr Evins’ research group has pioneered the use of machine learning algorithms as ‘surrogate models’ for detailed engineering simulations of building energy use, achieving huge improvements in speed and usability. He has led the development of two open-source software platforms to make these methods accessible for use in academia and industry. 
