Chirag Deb

Chirag Deb is a Lecturer in Building Science at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney. His research focuses on energy efficiency in buildings and cities, building sensing technology, and data-driven modeling. He holds a PhD from the National University of Singapore (2017, awarded President’s Graduate Fellowship) and prior academic roles at IIT Bombay (2021 Young Faculty Award) and ETH Zurich (2017–2021). He leads the Data & Energy in Buildings & Cities laboratory (DebCLab) and is a top 2% cited scientist (2023).

Education:

• B.Arch, National Institute of Technology Trichy (Gold Medalist)
• M.S. (Research), Civil Engineering, IIT Madras
• PhD, National University of Singapore

Research Interests:

• Urban energy systems and climate resilience
• Building energy performance assessment
• Data-driven modeling for sustainability
• Impact of urban morphology on energy demand

Key Contributions:

• Developed machine learning tools for energy audits and retrofit analysis
• Conducted pioneering work on building energy benchmarking in India
• Contributed to IEA’s EBC Annex-71 project on building energy performance

Awards:

• President’s Graduate Fellowship (NUS, 2017)
• Young Faculty Award (IIT Bombay, 2021)
• Top 2% Global Cited Scientists (2023)

Labs & Roles:

• Founder of DebCLab (IIT Bombay)
• Early Career Board Member for Energy and Buildings journal
• Review Editor for Frontiers in Built Environment