News

Diba Malekpour Koupaei presents at 2019 SimAUD conference
Diba Malekpour Koupaei, PhD student in the Department of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering, presented the team’s research findings on the impact of occupancy schedules on energy consumption of residential neighborhoods at the 2019 Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SimAUD) at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta on April 8th. In her presentation, titled “A Technique for Developing High-Resolution Residential Occupancy Schedules for Urban Energy Models”, Malekpour showcased the team’s newest findings in term of using the energy-use survey results to enhance the accuracy of current energy modelling approaches. For more information about the conference, refer to: http://www.simaud.org/2019/program.php You can now access the full article from SimAUD proceedings, available at: http://www.simaud.org/proceedings/download.php?f=SimAUD2019_Proceedings_HiRes.pdf Read More

April 20, 2019
Sustainable Cities team members present at 2019 ISU Research Day
The Sustainable Cities Team was well represented at the 2019 ISU Research Day with informative presentations by team members Diba Malekpour-Koupaei (presenting 'A technique for developing High-resolution occupancy schedules'), Breanna Marmur (presenting, 'The Impact of Trees on Urban Climate, Neighborhoods and Building Energy in Warm and Humid Regions), and Ulrike Passe, who gave a a Lightning Talk about the team's progress in reaching it's research objectives, and future goal setting. Thank you for your hard work and for sharing our teams work! Read More

April 1, 2019
Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) awards seed grant to Ulrike Passe
Ulrike Passe, Associate Professor of Architecture has been awarded $29,999 by the seed grant program of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) at The University of Iowa for the research project "Extreme Heat Adaptation Strategies for Buildings and Neighborhoods in the Upper Midwest Using Novel Urban Energy Modeling Techniques," for the period July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020. Read More

March 11, 2019
Article by Passe, Shenk, and Krejci published in Taylor & Francis Online
Professors Ulrike Passe, Linda Shenk, and Caroline Krejci have been published in Taylor and Francis Online for their co-authored article on agent-based modeling (ABM), titled Agents of Change - Together: Using agent-based models to inspire social capital building for resilient communities. Topics in the paper include generating social capital, systems thinking, Agent Based Modeling, and bottom-up approaches to community resiliency. Read More

February 17, 2019
Ulrike Passe selected as ‘Health in Buildings Roundtable’ Scholar at 2018 H.i.B.R Conference
Ulrike Passe was distinguished as a Health in Buildings Roundtable' (H.i.B.R.) Scholar at their 2018 annual conference, held July 19th - July 20th at the NIH Nacher Conference in Bethesda, Maryland. Passe presented the teams research investigation into the micro-climate impact of building interior thermal conditions as part of a designated scholars poster session held on Friday afternoon. The poster was titled: " Analyses of Near-building Microclimate Effects on Thermal Comfort in Low-resource Neighborhood Homes". Read More

December 19, 2018
Jacklin Stonewall presents team initiatives at M.O.H.E.R.E sponsored workshop
Jacklin Stonewall, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, presented the teams research agenda at the Smart and Connected Communities Workshop at the University of Washington, Seattle on December 10th and 11th; this was a sponsored event as part of the NSF-funded SCC-RCN project entitled, MOHERE: Mobility, Health, and Resilience: Building Capacities and Expanding Impact. Read More

December 10, 2018
Midwest Big Data Hub features I.S.U. Sustainable Cities research initiatives
The ISU Sustainable Cities team is having its research initiatives featured on the Midwest Big Data Hub! The blog post recognizes the teams overall agenda to combat climate change through its various targets and objectives, and highlights some of the recent achievements our team has accomplished. We are proud of all the work that our team is doing, and are grateful for the opportunity to share our goals with our supportive research partners. Read More

November 9, 2018
the 2018 Iowa Climate statement is focusing on adapting buildings to the changing climate.
Time for Action! At an Iowa news conference, Ulrike Passe, associate professor and director of the Center for Building Energy Research at ISU and Jerry Schnoor, co-director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa, met on Thursday to discuss climate change issues and building design. Read More

October 12, 2018
Ulrike Passe and David Jahn present The Role of Urban Forestry in Sustainable Communities
October 2nd, 2018: Professor Ulrike Passe and David Jahn (City of Des Moines Urban Forestry Team) presented their university-community partnership, titled "The Role of Urban Forests in Sustainable Communities", at the 12th annual Growing Sustainable Communities Conference in Debuque Iowa. Read More

October 2, 2018
Farzad Hashemi successfully defends graduate thesis
We are pleased to announce the graduation of Farzad Hashemi upon the successful defense of his Masters thesis, “Adapting Vernacular Strategies for the Design of an Energy Efficient Residential Building in Hot and Arid Climate: City of Yazd, Iran”. His research, which critically explores elements of Iranian Vernacular architecture, draws new lessons on how to improve energy efficiency in future buildings using applied methods of reduced heating, cooling, and lighting demand found in his investigations. Hashemi defended his thesis on July 10th, 2018 to complete his Masters of Science in Architecture. His committee members were Ulrike Passe, Dr. Kristen Cetin and Dr. Andrea Wheeler. Congratulations on your achievement Farzad! Read More

August 16, 2018