Latest

Publications

Gulai Shen, Ruixiao Yang, Ahmed S. Alahmed, Chuchu Fan
IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 2025 (Under Review)
Honglin Li, Gulai Shen, Soroush Senemmar, Ali Mehmani, Jie Zhang
Cell Reports Sustainability, 2025
Gulai Shen, Ruixiao Yang, Ahmed S. Alahmed, Chuchu Fan
IEEE PESGM, 2025
Gulai Shen, John J. Gilbert, Ali Mehmani
Building and Environment, 2025
Amir Behjat, Gulai Shen, Gurpreet Singh, Gerald Toge, Ali Mehmani
ACEEE Summer Study, 2024
Gulai Shen, Hongling Li, Gurpreet Singh, Amir Behjat, Gerald Toge, Souroush Senemmar, Cong Feng, Jie Zhang, Ali Mehmani
ACEEE Summer Study, 2024
Gulai Shen, Zachary E. Lee, Ali Amadeh, K. Max Zhang
Energy and Buildings, 2021

Academic Community

INFORMS Annual Meeting, 2025

Invited Presenter, Presentation topic: Optimizing Building Operations Using Data and AI.

Harvard GSD DDes Conference, 2025

Organizer for the Harvard GSD annual DDes Conference 2025

ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC), 2025

Session Chair for DAC-05-Design and Optimization of Energy Systems

Northeast Systems and Control Workshop (NECSW), 2025
Building and Vehicle Air Environment (BVAE) Seminar of Young Scholars, 2025

Presenter, Presentation topic: Optimizing Building Operations Using Data and AI. Link to the presentation

Princeton Energy Conference, 2022

Industry guest and panelist

AEE World Conference, 2022

Presenter, Presentation topic: Using AI for Anomaly Detection, Carbon Tracing, Energy Savings & More

Field Validation of a Building Operating System Platform, 2022

Acknowledged contribution and technical support for this project. Link to the paper

Evaluating the Performance of HVAC Optimal Control Based on Real-time Floor-by-Floor Occupancy Data, 2022

Acknowledged contribution and technical support for this project. Link to the paper

Paper Reviews, 2021 - Present

Journals:

  • Solar Energy

Conferences:

  • ICML CO-BUILD 2025
  • IEEE PESGM 2025
  • ACEEE Summer Study 2024
  • ASME IDETC 2021 - 2025

Experiences

Research Assistant

2024 - Present
Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Harvard University
  • Researching and developing learning-based intelligent systems to building systems.
  • Researching and developing interactive occupant-centric smart controls algorithms.
  • Facilitating operation and performing analysis on Harvard HouseZero.

Research Scientist, Lead AI Research

2020 - 2024
Nantum AI, New York
  • Researching and developing ML, AI applications for building and portfolio (JPMC, GSA, Blackrock, Rudin, etc.) carbon measurement, decarbonization, carbon procurement, and carbon accounting.
  • Developing and managing real-time occupancy-driven optimal Building Control and Energy Conservation Application prototypes and products, for building controls using Data Science and Analytics, ML and AI.
  • Developing physics-informed ML modeling for building potential savings and Measurement & Verification. National Research Laboratory verified $28.7M In Potential Annual Energy Savings for GSA portfolio.
  • Performing and managing research on various smart-building related applications including Fault Detection Diagnostic, space utilization, occupancy sensing, etc.
  • Participating in industry challenges, conferences, and paper publications and reviews.

Research Assistant

2019 - 2020
Energy and the Environment Research Laboratory, Cornell University
  • Developed and Implemented IoT-sensor based hardware and software for smart building communities.
  • Led research projects on optimization related to smart building applications with water and other energy.
  • Led research projects on Grid-interactive buildings optimal scheduling and control applications.

Awards and Honors

  • 2025 Harvard GSD Student Conference Attendance Fund Recipient
  • 2024-2025 Harvard GSD DDes Grant Recipient
  • 2024-2025 Harvard GSD Merit Grant Recipient
  • 2024 The Daniel L. Schodek Fellowship Recipient
  • 2024 Blueprint Generative AI in Buildings Challenge Finalist
  • 2022 NYSERDA RTEM Challenge Finalist 9 out of 400+ groups
  • 2022 PropTech Challenge 1 of 5 Finalists
  • 2021 PropTech Challenge – NYSERDA Tenant Energy Data 2nd Place
  • 2014-2018 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dean’s List
  • 2014-2018 Unviersity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, James Scholar
  • 2014 Euclid Mathematics Contest, top 25% worldwide
  • 2014 Meicun High School Zouwenhai Scholarship Award, 10 out of the class of 2014