Project Outcomes
Experts and scientific research state that obtaining a post-secondary degree is a huge indicator of higher wages, financial stability, and increased opportunities. However, many students do not have the means to fund higher education. Stacks+Joules (S+J) is a nonprofit that provides opportunities for students around New York City to gain skills in computer programming and coding, specifically in relation to hardware and IoT. S+J is housed in the Diversity in Automated Buildings (DAB) Laboratory at the Henry Street Settlement (HSS) in the Lower East Side of New York City. S+J has partnered with Burro Happold, a civil engineering firm, in implementing newer retrofits at Henry Street. The plan is to scale the retrofitting process into other similar buildings around New York City.
Research was conducted to identify other nonprofit organizations that were of similar building and employee size, as well as those that had similar financial statuses, specifically revenue, expenses, and capital expenditures. Additionally, further research was conducted into the processes that each of the stakeholders had employed over the past year to initiate the retrofitting project.
The main deliverable in this project was the scalability report. The report summarizes steps taken to determine the current state of equipment, how machine workflows were analyzed, the technology that was installed as improvements, and how scaling processes could be initiated. The report also creates an outline for future steps.
This report will help other small businesses, particularly nonprofits, develop better building conditions and reduce carbon emissions, contributing to a healthier environment. Additionally, this project will allow students from the S+J curriculum to gain experience with retrofitting and data analysis systems, thus enriching their learning and skill sets for the workforce.
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