Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** rural communities face…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** rural communities face compounding challenges with the impacts to labor, health, and economic from the opioid crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and now mounting pressures to reach greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions to mitigate climate change. The recent renewable energy for america program as part of the congressional inflation reduction act provided a vital downpayment on the resources needed to incentivize rural businesses and communities to implement the activities needed to reach GHG goals. However, the rate of change, scale, and complexities involved with highly varied residential and commercial building inventories is a very big challenge. This phase I R & D proposal from universal schedule and booking (USB) seeks to determine feasibility for machine learning to correlate energy, efficiency, and emissions profiles for these buildings on building-by-building bases, without the need for widespread installation of new sensors. Sensors are often cost prohibitive, have technical challenges for rural populations, and introduce cybersecurity risks. The research activities include proprietary digital infrastructure to facilitate a shift in economic framework for rural communities, so that the drive to reach net-zero GHG goals by 2030, 2040, 2050 becomes primarily an economic opportunity for rural communities and governments. In collaboration with texas a & M university mechanical engineering department, the results of this sbir/sttr research will assist usdawith reaching federal GHG reduction goals and aligns with national institute of food and agricultural topic 8.6 research priorities for development of technologies that protect or enhance the environment and address climate change while promoting economicdevelopment.