Kyle Benne
Software Engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKyle Benne is a software engineer with 13 years of experience specializing in back-end development for building-energy simulation tools. As a principal developer on NREL’s OpenStudio team, he has deep familiarity with core architecture, queue systems, and data model integrity in a widely used open-source energy modeling platform. His contributions to Modelica Buildings and build-system work demonstrate expertise in cross-platform portability, CMake, and integrating simulators like EnergyPlus and JModelica. Kyle combines a mechanical engineering background (BS/MS) with hands-on coding, enabling him to bridge domain science and production software. Colleagues rely on him for pragmatic fixes to subtle bugs—variable scope, construction interfaces, and build-time library resolution—that keep complex simulation stacks running.
12 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
Master’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering, Master’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering at University of Missouri-Rolla
Github Skills (34)
cpp-library10
debugging10
debug10
c-language10
integrate10
model-driven10
enterprise-integration10
application-integration10
cmake10
c1110
object-oriented-programming10
integrations10
c1710
model-building10
system-integration10
Programming languages (9)
Github contributions (5)
NREL/OpenStudio
Jun 2013 - Dec 2022
OpenStudio is a cross-platform collection of software tools to support whole building energy modeling using EnergyPlus and advanced daylight analysis using Radiance.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:5 releases, 133 reviews, 2731 commits in 9 years 7 months
Contributions summary:Kyle primarily focused on back-end development, as evidenced by their work on queue-related functionality and schedule rule modifications within the OpenStudio core. They also addressed bugs related to construction interfaces and construction and internal source code, suggesting involvement with the core architecture and data models. The user demonstrated a strong understanding of the codebase, identifying and fixing issues related to variable scope and data handling.
renewable-energyhpc-applicationssoftware-toolsenergy-modelingcross-platform
lbl-srg/modelica-buildings
Jan 2019 - Dec 2021
Modelica Buildings library
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:1 review, 34 commits, 6 PRs in 3 years
Contributions summary:Kyle primarily focused on improving the build process and adapting the project for different environments. They modified the build configuration files (CMake) to handle standalone and integrated project builds and to correctly locate required libraries such as JModelica and BLAS. Further, they updated the project's EnergyPlus integration, including function calls, library paths, and build commands, demonstrating expertise in integrating with external simulation tools and addressing platform-specific details. These changes suggest a focus on improving the project's portability and overall build system.
energy-efficiencybuildingsenergymodelicarenewable-energy
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