David G Nix

... is a technologist and serial entrepreneur in energy, real estate, and design.

Trained as an architect, Nix is a generalist with specialist tendencies for computation and applied science. His work focuses on developing the built world – crafting, optimizing, and energizing the places where we live, work, play, and dream.

To that end, Nix works on projects that connect dots across many fields, some that ordinarily seldom intersect: high-performance computing, data science + visualization, electrification + distributed energy, computational finance, digital cartography, real estate, architectural design, generative AI tooling, reality capture + digital twins, and building science / physics simulation.

Currently, Nix is Senior Director of Data Strategy at Palmetto, the leading consumer energy platform and fastest growing TPO and financier of residential renewable energy in the US. The newly formed Office of Data Strategy is responsible for directing the data infrastructure and applied AI capabilities that power Palmetto's business units and is the tip of the spear for the company's external data-forward initiatives.

Nix is also cofounder of real estate development workshop MoDe Studio, where he designs and builds buildings, pushes the envelope of architectural and computational tooling, and develops novel financial modeling and risk quant analysis platforms alongside strategy and design visionary Eduardo Berlin.

Nix is the creator of Performa, an open source framework for real estate financial analysis purpose-built for the AI era. Performa is a core set of foundational, composable building blocks used to create auditable models for any property or deal, with a processing engine capable of millisecond-compute on a server or in a common web browser – no website login or installation required. Performa is a structured, machine-executable language required for humans and AI agents alike to reliably underwrite and analyze real estate investments. Alpha stage, under development.

In his earlier tenure at Palmetto, Nix led the Energy Intelligence Group driving deep technology and applied science R&D across myriad subject matter including ray-tracing based daylighting and photovoltaic modeling, building energy modeling (BEM) with physics-based and statistical surrogate models, machine vision for semantic segmentation of aerial and satellite imagery, earth observation/reality capture for nation-scale on-demand 3D data retrieval, and geomatics data engines that power hyperlocal contextual awareness for all business units.

Prior to joining Palmetto, Nix was co-founder and COO of Mapdwell, an MIT-spinoff data science startup that built robust, enterprise-grade energy data services and award-winning data visualizations delighting millions of end-user customers with accessible behind-the-meter clean energy opportunities like solar PV, energy efficiency, and battery storage. Mapdwell was acquired by Palmetto in 2021.

Nix has been invited to teach, critique, exhibit, and speak widely: from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the Exelon Corporation, Tohoku University, Wake Forest University, New York Institute of Technology, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP 21), and more.

Nix received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University as an interdisciplinary Open Curriculum scholar, Richter Fellow, and King Family Art scholar. He studied architecture and design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (CD) and received his Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design where he was an Irving Miller scholar and Prowler Fellow, and where he pursued studies in Real Estate at the Wharton School of Business.

Nix was also a Fulbright scholar at United Nations IPCC-member Sustainable Environment Laboratory at Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering in Sendai, Japan with significant direct support from Toyota.

Nix is a LEED Accredited Professional, an NAIOP Principal Developing Leader, and a ULI Young Leader.