Dr. Seyed Amirhosain Sharif, with over 12 years in architecture and project management, leveraged digital tools for better decision-making in construction. His Ph.D. from Concordia University focused on enhancing building energy performance with machine learning, earning him multiple awards and recognitions, including the Quebec Research Fund and Pierre Arbour scholarship. As co-founder of ExtergyAI, he applied his research to urban energy efficiency, supported by leading Canadian incubators and tech giants. His work emphasizes the use of Metaverse, Large Language Models, and Digital Twins to foster smarter, inclusive cities. Dr. Sharif's contributions are marked by a blend of innovation, leadership, and commitment to societal betterment.

Sunil is a PhD student and a research assistant at BESLab. Sunil received his bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering in 2017 and a Master’s in Mechanical Design in 2021 from Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University. He has more than five years’ experience in the HVAC industry in Nepal working on building energy techniques, occupant behavior, and thermal comfort zone. His final thesis paper was based on CFD analysis of HVAC systems in isolation rooms during Covid-19. His research interests are machine learning control in building energy, fault detection system, and building energy modeling.

Xiaoqin is a PhD student and a research assistant at BESLab. He received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Application from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1991 and a master's degree in Computer Application Technology from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. His first PhD from Washington State University focused on software engineering, including program analysis and machine learning for security and data applications for distributed systems. Xiaoqin has more than ten years' work experience at several companies in China and the USA, focusing on software development, including requirements, coding, testing, maintenance, management, and so on. He has also published more than ten academic papers, including ones accepted by top conferences and journals. The research interests of Xioaqin are artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language models, and their applications in smart buildings.

Matt Leach originally joined the Commercial Buildings Research Group at NREL in 2009, and then returned in 2018 after four years in the private sector. His expertise is in building energy simulation and analysis, and integrated building design. Throughout his career, Matt has focused on enhancing the use of whole-building energy simulation at all stages of the design process to achieve cost-effective energy savings, code compliance, utility rebates, and building certification. He has extensive experience utilizing the EnergyPlusTM and OpenStudio® toolsets.

Dr. Jia Zou is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University - Tempe, starting in fall 2019. She is also the director of the CACTUS data-intensive systems lab founded in the summer of 2020. Before that, she was a Research Scientist in the Department of Computer Science of Rice University, Houston, TX, and before that she worked in IBM Research - China as a researcher. She received her Ph.D in Computer Science from Tsinghua University, China.

Dr. Alyssa Ryan is an Assistant Professor in transportation engineering at the University of Arizona. Her research group focuses on leveraging advanced technologies and data analytics to address the safety, economic, and equity challenges faced by transportation agencies.

Dr. Aaron (Zhelun) Chen is a research science at Drexel University. He has 7+ years of experience in building science and technology, including building energy modeling, dynamic system modeling, fault detection and diagnostics, building-grid integration, occupant comfort and behavior simulation, indoor airflow simulation, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, indoor air quality modeling, and HVAC system design. Familiar with ASHRAE standards and guidelines. Proficiency in multiple programming languages and building system modeling tools.

Dr. Jianli Chen is devoted to improving the building and urban sustainability and resilience for the future smart city. His research focus on building energy and airflow modeling, application of Artificial Intelligence and information technology for improved building and infrastructure smartness, building energy efficiency, occupant behavior, comfort, and health. 

Dr. is a Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP) in Applied Mathematics, member of GIDP in Statistics and Data Science, and (affiliate) professor of Computer Science at the UArizona. His area of focus at UArizona is integration of data science disciplines (e.g. machine learning and AI) into applied mathematics to resolve challenges in natural sciences and engineering. 

Michael Hoffman is a facilities and energy management professional focused on energy management strategies for the built environment, including building commissioning for new construction and existing facilities, measurement and verification studies, energy auditing, energy management practices, data analysis and efficiency and maintainability reviews. 

Dr. Vitaly Ford joined the faculty of Arcadia University in Fall 2017 as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Dr. Ford's primary research areas include the Internet of Things security and privacy, cybersecurity education, machine learning/data science, network security and assurance, fraud detection, and cloud computing. He is highly interested in anything that is tech related. 

Dr. Jin Wen is Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Associate Dean for Faculty Advancement, and Interim Associate Dean for Research. Her research interests are Building Energy Efficiency, Building-Grid Integration, Building Control and Operation, Fault Detection and Diagnosis, Human-Building Interactions, Dynamic Building System Simulation, Big Data

Dr. Robert B. Fleischman is a Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Arizona, where he has been recognized by the Civil Engineering Department as Teacher of the Year eight times.  Dr. Fleischman has been awarded over $6 million in Federal Research Grants in Earthquake Engineering, and results of his research were adopted in the 2015 US Building Code.  He is the winner of seven National Research Awards for work in Earthquake Engineering.