Abstract
Abstract Background Governments and societies all over the world pay more and more attention to the research and development of smart buildings. There are numerous research projects on smart buildings that have been or being conducted worldwide. Case presentation In this project report, we give an introduction about a newly launched research project sponsored by the Chinese central government. This project aims to combine information technology and control & optimization methodology to address challenging problems in building energy. To study and implement a decentralized control and optimization paradigm in smart buildings is one of the key tasks of this project. Conclusions The combination of informatics and energy is a very important viewpoint to study the management and operation of modern buildings. Research activities in this area shall contribute a lot to the invention and development of new building industrial opportunities.