Daniel Veronica (Fed)

Dr. Daniel A. Veronica P.E. is a mechanical engineer in the Mechanical Systems and Controls Group of the Energy and Environment Division (EED) of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Since October 2008, Dr. Veronica has been an engineer in the Mechanical Systems & Controls Group, where his research focuses on advancing the technologies for automatic detection and diagnosis of faults in the mechanical systems of buildings. His current projects include a new in-field implementation of the NIST Air-Handling Unit Performance Assessment Rules (APAR) and the VAV box Performance Assessment Control Charts (VPACC) into the dual-duct heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems of the 22-Story, 130,000 sq m Phillip Burton Federal Building. Dan is working on embeddable methods to employ real-time data acquired from process sensors more fully into the autonomous decisions made by APAR and VPACC, as well as new autonomous fault detection for ground-coupled heat pumps. He is a member of the Smart Buildings technical committee (TC7.5) of ASHRAE.

Before coming to NIST, Dan managed the Karl Larson Building Energy Systems Laboratory at the University of Colorado, where he taught laboratory technologies and methods to all graduate students conducting research.

Dan was an engineer practicing in the industry for over 15 years before graduate school, having designed HVAC, piping, and automated machinery systems. He specialized in HVAC of microelectronics and aerospace cleanrooms. At Cape Canveral, Florida, he directed technicians in assembly and test of satellites carried by the Space Shuttle and designed ground support equipment. Earlier, Dan was a commissioned engineering and deck officer on U.S. Navy nuclear submarines, and a graduate of the Naval Nuclear Power School.

Dan's parallel skills in HVAC system design, embedded microcontroller technology, artificial intelligence, and data analysis provide a unique synergy well suited to furthering the development of autonomous intelligence in buildings.