News

Urban-Rural System Research Coordination Network funded by the US National Science Foundation
Urban-Rural System Research Coordination Network funded by the US National Science Foundation: Finding solutions to the Mississippi River basin’s biggest challenges Read More

August 31, 2022
Ulrike Passe was interviewed on IPRs River to River on Climate Change
Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture and director of the Iowa State University Center for Building Energy Research, discusses the importance of considering climate and social factors in building construction and design. Read More

June 18, 2020
SUS-RURI Proceedings of a workshop on developing a convergence sustainable urban systems agenda for redesigning the urban-rural interface along the Mississippi River watershed published
A new network of researchers and community officials is working to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges within the Mississippi River watershed. Iowa State University hosted a workshop last summer during which 82 academic experts and local stakeholders discussed a variety of issues in the watershed, including nutrient runoff, erosion, flooding, heat island effects, urban sprawl and much more – with particular attention given to the urban-rural interface. Read More

February 1, 2020
Major NSF-sponsored grant will help researchers discover ways to improve urban sustainability
The Sustainable Cities Research Team recently received a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a framework for analysis of food, energy and water systems for greater Des Moines, which includes the city and the surrounding six-county area, and to formulate scenarios that could result in a more sustainable city. The team includes scientists from a wide range of disciplines at Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and University of Texas at Arlington. Read More

January 22, 2020
“Modeling and data infrastructure for human-centric design and operation of sustainable, healthy buildings through a case study,
“Modeling and data infrastructure for human-centric design and operation of sustainable, healthy buildings through a case study,” a paper coauthored by Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture and director of the Center for Building Energy Research, has been published in the international journal Building and Environment, Volume 170, March 2020 Read More

January 20, 2020
Probabalistic Occupancy Framework presented at 2019 Building Simulation in Rome, Italy
Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture, presented “Development of a Modelling Framework for Refined Residential Occupancy Schedules,” co-authored with Diba Malekpour Koupaei, Farzad Hashemi and Vinciane Tabard-Fortecoëf, at the 16th IBPSA International Conference & Exhibition Building Simulation 2019 Sept. 1-4 in Rome. Read More

September 27, 2019
Sustainable Cities Researchers Present at the AIA Iowa Convention
The impact of urban trees on energy use and passive survivability Read More

September 27, 2019
Sustainable Cities Group in the NEWs
Researchers develop novel process to study how trees affect building temperatures, air flow in extreme heat Read More

August 2, 2019
NSF funded Sustainable Urban Systems Workshop ‘Redesigning the Rural-Urban Interface along the Mississippi River Watershed’
Three Iowa State University researchers have received a $50,000 National Science Foundation grant for an August workshop on “Redesigning the Urban-Rural Interface (RURI) along the Mississippi Watershed.” Ulrike Passe and Kimberly Zarecor, associate professors of architecture in the College of Design, and Janette Thompson, Morrill Professor of natural resource ecology and management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are organizing the workshop, which will be Aug. 12–13 in Ames. The event is intended to guide development of a sustainable urban systems research and action agenda for mid-sized metropolitan areas within the Mississippi River watershed, with a focus on relationships and connectivity among urban and rural landscapes and communities, Passe said. Read More

June 21, 2019
Professor Ulrike Passe presents at 2019 C.A.T.E. Conference
Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture and director of the Iowa State University Center for Building Energy Research, was invited to lead a natural ventilation workshop at CATE 2019, Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy, Climate conference April 10-11 at Heriot Watt University in Dubai, UAE. She also presented current research by her Sustainable Cities Research Group in the paper “Impact of trees on passive survivability in extreme heat events in warm and humid regions,” co-authored with Janette Thompson, Morrill Professor of natural resource ecology and management; Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, professor of mechanical engineering; and two doctoral students: Breanna Marmur, NREM, and Boshun Gao, mechanical engineering. Passe received a travel scholarship from the Charitable Jeffrey Cook Trust to attend the meeting, which was organized by the international NCEUB (Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings) and brought together experts from across the world from fields as diverse as architecture, engineering and health sciences for the first time “to discuss crucial questions and ways forward on how to best provide Comfort at the Extremes in the complex political and economic environments we occupy.” Read More

April 20, 2019