Sandeep Ahuja is the co-founder and CEO of cove.tool, a software product that helps customers discover more efficient construction plans for buildings and facilities that reduce both energy usage and cost. The customizable software platform uses algorithms that enable energy modeling with a high degree of granularity, optimizing for the best kind of roof, windows, HVAC, lighting and other building materials. Cove.tool is already being used by some of the nation’s largest architecture firms.
“After working at firms for a combined 14 years, we understood the impact of buildings on the environment. We’ve helped clients optimize their building performance, but we also wanted to help other design firms without the resources to develop their own in-house consulting team […] To achieve this goal, we needed to add automation and decided a web-based app was the best way to make data driven design more accessible,” she said to Shoutout Atlanta.
Ahuja has presented at the United Nations Environment Assembly, with 1,500 global delegates, on the impact of buildings on climate change, showcased at the TEDx Atlanta, and won Forbes 30 under 30 recognition for developing cove.tool. She has also presented at several prestigious architectural and engineering conferences including AIA, ACUI, ASHRAE, Facades+, Tech+, Build Tech, DBL. . Multiple publications have written about Sandeep's impact in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) services sector, including Architect magazine, Tech Crunch, Site Selection, ArchDaily, and others.
With her desire to bring automation into the AEC world, Ahuja is pioneering the integration of data-driven thinking into the design and construction process with the development of intelligent software.
Prior to co-founding cove.tool, Ahuja was the co-founder of Pattern R + D, which runs full building simulations early and often to influence the design and deliver value. She led the 5th Year focus studio on building performance at Kennesaw State University, teaching students design and technology methodologies and workflows to design for the Living Building Challenge project. She has also served as a researcher for Perkins + Will Architecture where she specialized in energy analysis, healthcare planning process development, and web based project search tool planning and design.