Dr.-Ing. Rita Streblow is a leading researcher at RWTH Aachen University's Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate, where she heads the Digital Energy Neighbourhoods team (since 2021). Formerly, she served as Chief Engineer at the same institute (2007-2023) and held a professorship in Digitale Vernetzung von Gebäuden, Energieversorgungsanlagen und Nutzenden at Technische Universität Berlin (2019-2024). Since 2025, she has been an Associate Member of the Einstein Center Digital Future. She earned her doctorate from RWTH Aachen in 2011 with a thesis on thermal comfort modeling. Her research spans energy-efficient building systems , smart grid integration , and HVAC optimization , with focal areas including: Digitalization of energy neighborhoods and local market mechanisms Thermal comfort modeling for inhomogeneous environments Semantic interoperability in building automation Retrofit strategies for residential and office buildings Analysis of her recent publications reveals strong emphasis on smart building technologies , district-scale energy management , and data-driven fault detection , with recurring themes of IoT integration, open-source tool development, and policy-relevant energy planning. She has received notable scientific awards including: Borchers-Plakette, RWTH Aachen (2012) Award for Young Researchers, German Society of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (2011) She leads experimental research at the Urban Energy Lab 4.0 and collaborates on national projects like PLUG-N-HARVEST (adaptive façade retrofits) and AGENT (multi-agent energy systems).






