Unable to install Rhino 8 plugin because initialization failed

Hello McNeel team and Rhino community,

I am using Rhino 8 and am trying to install this “Urban Modeling Interface” (UMI) plugin from MIT for urban building energy modeling: https://web.mit.edu/sustainabledesignlab/projects/umi/index.html

The installation I thought went smoothly, but when I open up Rhino 8 I see that the plugins (.rhp) failed to load, showing:

Done installing plug-ins, press close to continue 
Error loading - Umi.DistrictEnergy.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.Energy.rhp 
Error loading - Umit.Mobility.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.SiteAnalysis.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.Daylight.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.Bia.rhp 
Error loading - Umi.Lifecycle.rhp

And then clicking on “Details” I see:

C:\UMI\umi.DistrictEnergy.rhp Unable to load Umi. District.rhp plug-in: initialization failed.

With the same “Details” message being shown for each plugin error.

I am having difficulty trying to diagnose this error, and cannot find this plugin within the Rhino toolbar>Options Plug-ins manager, telling me it never loaded to begin with due to the failure.

Does anyone here perhaps have experience with this type of error? I am struggling to make sense of this. I deleted Rhino 7 just in case for potential dependency conflict, I tried running Rhino 8 as an administrator and in safe mode, and I made sure I had .NET 7 installed, and none of this seems to fix the error. Am I perhaps missing a key step here? I have already tried uninstalling and re-installing UMI.

Thank you!

For reference, here is my Rhino 8 System Information:
Rhino 8 SR15 2025-1-13 (Rhino 8, 8.15.25013.13001, Git hash:master @ 424331904354085c3cb84eda50bc6e3d92d470f4)
License type: Educational, build 2025-01-13
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 11 (10.0.22631 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 16GB)
.NET Framework 4.8.9290.0

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Unplugged [84% battery remaining] ~279 minutes left

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: Intel(R) Arc™ Graphics (Intel) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 11-18-2023 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 - Build 31.0.101.5007
> Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port
Primary OpenGL: Intel(R) Arc™ Graphics (Intel) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 11-18-2023 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 - Build 31.0.101.5007
> Integrated (slow!) graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: Intel
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 - Build 31.0.101.5007
Driver Date: 11-18-2023
Driver Version: 31.0.101.5007
Maximum Texture size: 16384 x 16384
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 16384 x 16384
Total Video Memory: 1 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\WebBrowser.rhp “WebBrowser”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoScript.rhp “RhinoScript”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\IdleProcessor.rhp “IdleProcessor”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.15.25013.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”