Michael Sweeney

Hi! I’m Mike Sweeney. My pronouns are he/him/his.

At Cadence OneFive, my role is…

My role is Principal Mechanical Engineer / Building Scientist.

I’ll be integrating building science and software engineering, bringing experience with large public building energy datasets, data visualization, and mechanical engineering principles. Excited to dig into Momentum and help scale it.

Who am I?

Away from work

I’ve lived in New York State my whole life, and New York City for nearly 20 years! This past September, my wife and I got married at NYC City Hall. We share our apartment with two big orange cats (siblings) whom you’ll probably see at some point on a video call!

Outside of work, I play D&D, do a lot of yoga, and love to go see movies in theaters. I’m a drummer and guitarist, and used to do mixing / audio production work as a hobby. I’m working to get a more regular practice routine going soon—drumming is great stress relief! I also enjoy skiing (although I don’t get out nearly enough), and in my late teens / early twenties I was a volunteer member of the Windham Mountain Ski Patrol. One unexpected interest that began last year is home automation, sparked after I built my own PC from scratch. I’m embarrassed to admit that cable management has become a deeply meditative practice for me.

At work

I took a winding path to building science, having initially studied business and lacking a formal engineering education. After undergrad I worked in a CAD department and learned the MEP world. I’d always been environmentally and socially conscious, and after a few years I decided to pursue a master’s degree in Energy Management. This brought me into the world of energy modeling.

The frustrations of working with eQUEST and EnergyPlus files (IYKYK) led me to learn Python, which ignited an interest in data science and coding in general. I love data visualization, especially finding new ways to show complex datasets. In 2020, I built the first version of the Building Energy Exchange’s LL97 Calculator and it was my first time developing with React, D3 and other front-end tools.

Goals

Learning goals

My learning goals tend to evolve with the world around me, and in March 2026 it’s hard to talk about them without mentioning agentic AI. Large language models have taken the world by storm, and it seems like every few days there’s a new breakthrough. My current goals are to improve my skills setting up and working with agents, better understand testing frameworks behind custom agentic processes, and think about ways to leverage these skills for building science and tool development.

Career goals

The driving principles of my career have always been: use my skills on problems I care about, enjoy doing it, and keep learning. Over the last decade, the push for building decarbonization and specifically the release of Local Law 97 ignited a drive to use my data skills on a scale larger than individual buildings, and that has ultimately landed me at Cadence OneFive where I look forward to continuing the journey.

Ways of working together

I’m a really collaborative worker and a visual learner. I love pairing to work on a problem, but I do my best thinking with some room to breathe. I’d rather dig into a new idea solo first to make sure I understand it, rather than feeling pressured to come up with something on the spot.

You can lean on me to…

• Dive head first into a new topic or idea! I love prototyping and fleshing out ideas, even if sometimes I have to reel in that enthusiasm to meet current demands.
• Dig into simulation outputs to address and debug problems with models.
• Workshop ideas for interesting and efficient visualization approaches. I’m a huge fan of Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.”

How to support me as we work together

I’m always trying to improve my professional self-advocacy, and trying to avoid saying “yes” to too many things. As a natural introvert, I work best in smaller groups and can have a hard time speaking up in large meetings. It can also take me some time to digest and react to new information, which sometimes reads as shy — but most of the time I’m just thinking.

On the technical side: Because I’m mostly a self-taught programmer and haven’t worked much with coding-fluent teams, I might need some extra time learning best practices. Also, every company I’ve worked at has used Microsoft-dominated workflows, and while I’m very excited to be liberated from Teams and SharePoint, I may take some time getting caught up with the more open-ended worlds of Discord and Google Workspace.

I’m my best self on a team when…

• I have freedom and autonomy to explore. Give me a problem and some time to iterate, and I’ll come back with a solution.
• I thrive when there’s mutual trust and room to work through ideas on the spot.

Feedback preferences

I tend to absorb information better verbally but express myself more clearly in writing, so my preference depends on which side of the feedback I’m on. For simple, actionable commentary on work (“you should have done x instead of y”), messaging is great. For more constructive or difficult feedback, I prefer receiving it over a call or in person, where I can pick up on tone and ask questions in the moment. Giving this kind of feedback is harder for me in real time, though, and I can stumble over or overthink wording on the spot. I’m usually more thoughtful and precise in writing.

Technical preferences

I love Python, Jupyter notebooks, Obsidian and Markdown in general. I struggle with task switching, especially between coding and office communications, and find that automating my personal desktop and work setup has helped me a ton with that.

Schedule and availability

I’m on Eastern Time, and I’m usually online by 8AM and try to wind down around 5PM.

Working mostly remote has been liberating for me. I can be on when I need to be on, and take a walk or break to recharge when I need to.

I tend to work better and more frequently earlier in the morning rather than later in the evening. I take breaks periodically throughout the day.

If I’m in a period where I have back to back meetings, I’ll make sure that I book a break, but I’m not someone who schedules structured focus time in advance.