50 years of evolution in Building Automation
The first computer dedicated to monitoring building systems was installed in 1974 or 1975.
In an attempt to capture some of the history of building automation, I have prepared this page connecting to resources that provide good recreational reading of how the industry evolved in Mike Newman’s eyes and mine over the last 50 years.
Here’s the link to an article I wrote 10 years ago, which provides history about BACnet
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/h-michael-newman-hisstory-mine-ken-sinclair
The “final frontier” in recent years, since 1987, has been the effort to develop a standard communication protocol to replace all of the proprietary ones. (We have had 8 proprietary protocols communicating from the VAX concurrently!) This work has led to the adoption by the building control industry of “BACnet,” the “building automation and control networking protocol.” The protocol was developed within ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) by a committee that I have chaired since its inception. There are now “BACnet Interest Groups” in the U.S., Europe, and Australia – all as a result of the Cornell-sponsored initiative!
AI summary https://gemini.google.com/share/c8be2573dcc0
I love this picture, all my BACnet superheroes, and I am as tall as Superman, good fun.
Hi Ken,
After being over 1/2 year in 5 different Hospitals, I found 6200 Emails. That was because there was no Internet in the rooms at that time.
Hans Our Super Hero
Wow, you are back, man. 
Great to hear from you
You are still our hero
We are creating a 50-year-plus club, and we would love to have you join.
We need to have our past defined to create our future.
