Ms Melissa James

Ms Melissa James is a data scientist, project leader, and communicator with more than eleven years of experience in residential building energy efficiency research. She delivers science, data, software, and communications that support the shift towards energy efficient housing in Australia.

Current activities
Ms James is currently exploring ways in which data collected as part of the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) can be integrated and used for research which contributes to reducing energy consumption in Australian households.
She is leading the development of RapidRate, a tool for quickly rating the energy efficiency of dwellings, developed using machine learning techniques over NatHERS certificate data.

Achievements
Since joining CSIRO in 2004 Ms James’ achievements include:
* Conceptualised and lead the development of the novel house energy rating tool RapidRate utilising NatHERS Certificate data and machine learning techniques. RapidRate is unique in that it enables quick predictions of residential energy efficiency that are aligned with NatHERS.
* Collaboration on Energy Saver Study with the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance (SECCCA) under the umbrella of the Department of Industry & Science’s Low Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP). This 3 year project aimed to assist low income households reduce their energy use. 320 homes underwent retrofits and/or behaviour change programs. Melissa was the Data Manager for this project, and managed the collection and analysis of electricity and gas consumption data in order to determine which actions (retrofit and/or behaviour change) save the most energy in low income homes.
* Successful grant application to the Consumer Advocacy Panel to fund a project exploring the impact of cost-reflective electricity tariffs on consumers. Ms James led this project and communicated results from this research to consumer groups and the energy regulator (Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC)).
* Leading contributor to a project commissioned by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (now the Department of Industry & Science) to evaluate the impact of the residential building energy efficiency 5-star standard on actual energy use by studying 420 volunteer households. Integrated a diverse range of interdisciplinary skills (information technology, public relations, statistical analysis, administration, report writing), and collaborated with a diverse range of people both inside and outside of CSIRO, contributing to the creation of a rich and reliable data source of residential building energy use, which will be used to inform government policy and assist householders to reduce home energy use. This valuable data source provides the basis for future research.
* Contributed to the development of Genersys – an electricity and gas industry simulation and analysis tool developed with AGL and Core Collaborative Pty Ltd. Led the process of documenting Genersys, collaborating with both internal and external participants, to produce a 200 page well structured yet flexible document of a complex system. Explored the impact of carbon pricing and renewable energy technologies on the Australian electricity market by conducting simulations using Genersys.
* Managed the process of building the Your Development website framework – a portal designed to help land developers, architects and urban planners create climate-adapted, sustainable Australian suburbs

Background
Prior to joining CSIRO in 2004, Ms James designed and built software across a variety of domains, including urban development, construction, welfare, banking and media. She has been involved in all aspects of the software development life-cycle and specialises in data and systems modelling.
Ms James also has four years experience teaching secondary science and maths in Victorian and Queensland schools, as well as three years as an analyst and trader in the commodity futures market.