Participate!

Andy Dong

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Oregon State University

Andy Dong is the school head for the Oregon State University School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering. His research addresses strategy in the design and innovation of engineered products and systems. His background in artificial intelligence in design created opportunities for collaborative research in behavioral economics, cognition, and computational fabrication. Prior to joining Oregon State, he was the professor and chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and the inaugural Warren Center Chair for Engineering Innovation at the University of Sydney.

Jonathan Bean

ORGANIZER

The University of Arizona

Jonathan Bean, PhD, CPHC is associate professor of architecture, sustainable built environments, architectural engineering, and marketing at the University of Arizona, a joint appointee at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the director of the University’s Institute for Energy Solutions. He has served as faculty lead to thirteen Solar Decathlon Design Challenge finalist teams, including the 2022 Commercial Grand Prize winning team, which proposed an affordable housing building capable of providing zero-carbon cooling energy to 280 surrounding homes. Trained at Berkeley as an architect and social scientist, Bean sees buildings as central to decarbonization and market transformation.

Chrissi Antonopoulos

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Chrissi Antonopoulos is a Senior Building Scientist in the residential group focusing her work on the advancement of energy- and carbon-neutral buildings. Dr. Antonopoulos' research is primarily focused on residential buildings, where she supports projects focused on occupant-centric study, indoor air quality, and non-energy impacts of decarbonization. Dr. Antonopoulos also leads may technical projects, focused on electrification of residential buildings, carbon accounting for building construction, and field studies to quantify performance of installed decarbonization technologies.

Paul Boadu Asamoah

The George Washington University

Paul Boadu Asamoah is a Master's student in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at George Washington University. His research focuses on optimizing energy systems through artificial intelligence, predictive learning, and sustainable practices. Driven by a passion for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, Paul aims to advance sustainable energy solutions and contribute to a greener, mor resilient future.

Rahman Azari

Pennsylvania State University

Rahman Azari, PhD, CPHC, is an associate professor and director of graduate professional programs in architecture at Pennsylvania State University. Azari also leads the Resource and Energy Efficiency (RE2) Lab at Penn State. Supported by funds from private and government sectors, Azari's research centers on estimating and mitigating the multi-dimensional enviromental impacts of buildings and cities.

Ermias T. Beyene

Northeastern University

Ermias T. Beyene is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Design and Media at Northeastern University, specializing in sustainable design and passive strategies aimed at building resilience and improving quality of life for vulnerable communities. His current research focuses on utilizing the thermal mass of earth construction to improve climate adaptability in warming regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, Ermias was involved in a rural urbanization initiative in Ethiopia, where he worked with local farmers to plan and develop small towns in their vicinity. His research interests include sustainable design, urban climate resilience, thermal comfort, appropriate building technologies, and building energy modeling. 

Hsin-I Chang

The University of Arizona

Hsin-I Chang, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, and Director of Center for Applied Hydroclimate Sciences at the University of Arizona. Trained as a climate scientist and specializing in regional climate modeling, her research focuses on the critical weather and climate issues under the influence of changing climate across different spatial and temporal resolutions. She is the core member of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment North America that produced climate projection ensembles for North America. One of the CAHS main missions is to deliver actionable climate-related information for climate resiliency. CAHS collaborates with energy and mining sectors have created tailored climate assessment workflow for risk assessment and decision-making.

Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez

Oregon State University

Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez is a Professor and Associate School Head in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) at Oregon State University. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont. His grid integration work spans from rural minigrid distributed energy resources to transmission level renewable generation. His technical contributions are focused on power system modeling, resilience, and security. These interests spire into several other research areas such as nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, smart grids, microgrids, and wide-area power system data.

Kit Elsworth

KieranTimberlake

Kit Elsworth is an Associate and Building Performance Specialist within KieranTimberlake's transdisciplinary research group. He uses his building science and building performance modeling expertise to deploy a range of technical analyses in topics of carbon modeling, occupant comfort, envelope performance, and post-occupancy evaluation. A key aspect of his role is to Interpret research and analysis to both generate actionable design decisions for firm projects and elevate the architectural industry through publications and speaking. Kit volunteers with ILFI's Energy + Carbon Technical Advisor Group (TAG) and the AIA 2030 Commitment Working Group. Before working at KieranTimberlake, Kit received his Master's in Building Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dorothy Gerring

Pennsylvania College of Technology

Professor Dorothy Gerring, RA, LEEE AP BD+C, CPHC & CPHB, is a registered architect with over 30 years of professional experience teaching sustainability. She authored the book "Renewable Energy Systems for Building Designers: Fundamentals of Net Zero and High Performance Design". Prof. Gerring has been faculty advisor for multiple DOE Solar Decathlon Design Challenge teams (and predecessor design contests) and served on the National Green Building Standard 2021 revision for Chapter 7, Energy Efficiency. She has presented to a variety of groups, developed degrees focusing on sustainability and energy, and appeared in green media programs: she is a passionate supporter of the environment, equity, and empowerment through education.

Rebecca Grekin

Stanford University

Rebecca Grekin is a current Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering (ESE) at Stanford University who is passionate about using real world data to develop tools to quantify and mitigate emissions. Her current research focuses on finding low-cost opportunities for existing commercial buildings with limited HVAC controls to reduce HVAC related emissions by explicitly considering indoor and outdoor humidity.

Ganesh Hegde

Princeton University

Ganesh is a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, specializing in power systems engineering and energy transition research. His current work explores the intersection of climate change, energy system decarbonization, and their socio-economic implications. His research interests include net-zero energy transition, energy system modeling, energy inequality, and understanding the socio-economic and political linkages of energy transition. Ganesh holds a master's degree in Power and Energy Systems Engineering and a Ph.D. from IIT Bombay.

Katy Janda

University of Oxford & University of Minnesota

Kathryn (Katy) Janda is an international academic (dual US/UK citizen) with appointments at the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota.  Her work has focused primarily on the adoption (and rejection) of sociotechnical energy innovations and practices, as well as the role of expertise and literacy in energy and buildings. Her work explore the role of building professionals in driving “middle-out” change; implications of ownership in the commercial real estate industry (including green leasing); and energy management practices and policies in work locations: universities, offices, stores, churches, theaters, and small businesses. She has worked at Berkeley Lab, served as a AAAS Science and Policy Fellow for the EPA, been a professor of environmental studies at Oberlin College, and held visiting appointments in India, Sweden, and Mexico. She holds an MS and PhD in Energy & Resources from UC Berkeley, and undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and English literature from Brown University. 

Erick Jones

The University of Texas, Arlington

Erick C. Jones Jr., an assistant professor in Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, investigates how organizations can allocate their limited resources to maximize desired outcomes sustainably, efficiently, and resiliently. He seeks to advance the clean energy transition by developing technologies, mathematical models, and decision-making tools for Energy Systems; Buildings, Mobility, and Infrastructure; Critical Supply Chains; and Industrial Production Operations.  He has a Chemical Engineering undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and was an Energy and Climate-Tech Innovation Policy Participant, NSF NRT, GEM, Mickey Leland Energy, and Faculty-Applied Clean Energy Sciences (FACES) Fellow.

Kyle Konis

The University of Southern California

Kyle Konis, PhD, AIA is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California and Director of the Chase L. Leavitt Graduate Building Science Program. Prof. Konis' research centers on improving the feedback loop between design intent and the performance of buildings in use, with an emphasis on the experience of building occupants. He seeks to develop novel performance metrics, participatory evaluation techniques, data-driven design support tools, and lessons learned from the study of existing buildings and their occupants. These outputs are produced with the goal of building a body of evidence to support innovative design practices that more closely align project performance with human needs and sustainability objectives.

Andrea Mammoli

Sandia National Laboratories

Andrea Mammoli is a Principal Member of Technical Staff in the Renewable Energy and Distributed Systems Integration program at Sandia National Laboratories, where he has worked since 2022. At Sandia, Andrea leads projects to study optimal location of EV chargers, to study charge management strategies, and to optimize design of microgrids to increase resilience at the community level. Prior to Sandia, Andrea was a faculty member at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and built a teaching and research program centered around optimization of design and operations of energy systems in buildings and microgrids, in his role as Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies. In 2019, Andrea joined the Electric Power Research Institute, where he led projects revolving around demand flexibility in residential, commercial, and industrial systems. At EPRI, Andrea also worked on development of innovative heat pump concepts involving natural refrigerants such as carbon dioxide and ammonia. Andrea authored over 150 journal and conference papers and edited several books. He works from his home office on the Northern California coast.

Dan Matisoff

Georgia Institute of Technology

Daniel Matisoff is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Public Policy where he directs the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management Masters Degree program. He has authored over 30 journal articles and is the author of the book: Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation with Cambridge University Press, which was awarded the World Citizen's Prize for Environmental Performance from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the Best Book Award from the Organizations and Natural Environment section at the Academy of Management. He is a fellow with the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and the Energy Policy and Innovation Center and serves on the advisory board for Georgia Tech's Strategic Energy Institute. He has participated in over $6 million of sponsored research through the National Science Foundation and other public and private sector organizations. His research currently focuses on the adoption and diffusion of innovative energy technologies and facilitating market transformation for decarbonization in the areas of Green Buildings and Sustainable Aviation Fuel. 

Kieren McCord

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

Kieren McCord, Ph.D. is a research scientist at Pacific northwest National Laboratory, where she conducts research at the intersection of the human experience and the built environment. She has a Ph.D. from Arizona State University where she focused on augmented and virtual reality technologies for teaching and training within the architecture, engineering, and construction disciplines, an M.S. in architectural engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied the relationships between indoor environmental parameters and K-12 student achievement, and a bachelor's degree in music (audio engineering) with minors in physics and math from Brigham Young University. Her work at PNNL involves building life cycle assessment and indoor environmental quality

Sinoun Phoung

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

Sinoun Phoung, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Communities and Urban Science Research Group at NREL. She recently completed her PhD in Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she focused on understanding how human behavior impacts energy demand. She also worked on incorporating behavioral and socio-demographic characteristics into ResStock's occupancy model to address equity-focused building energy models. Prior to her Ph.D., she earned a Bachelor of Science concentrating in Energy Management and Design. During this time, she also worked as an Energy Efficiency Analyst to evaluate energy conservation and efficiency measures for building implementations. Her experiences include analysis, building science, community program coordination, event planning, and supporting disadvantaged communities and first-generation college students.

Nicole Rosner

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

Nicole Rosner is a Sociocultural Anthropologist and Social Science Researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). At NREL, her research is concerned with developing a just and equitable path for energy transitions, from co-developing community-grounding transitions to 100% renewable energy to piloting sociotechnical methodologies that localize energy transition models. Her overarching research examines the social and political dimensions of the built environment, technology, and risk in urban Latin America, particularly in Brazil, and more recently in Latinx communities in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley with a designation emphasis in Global Metropoloitan Studies, a MSc in City Design and Social Sciences from the London School of Economics, and an A.B. in Visual & Environmental Studies from Harvard University.

Maryam Singery

The University of Texas at San Antonio 

Maryam Singery, PhD, SD Pro is an accomplished architect and associate professor in practice at the University of Texas at San Antonio, specializing in sustainable design, historic preservation, and advanced building science. With over two decades of national and international experience, she leads innovative, award-winning projects that exemplify environmental stewardship ad community enhancement. A published author, she actively engages in various global initiatives, including the World Renewable Energy Congress and the Committee on the Environment in Texas, advocating for unity in transforming architectural education. Her practical approach bridges macro perspectives with micor solutions, equipping students and industry stakeholders to tackle future challenges in the evolving building landscape.

Katelyn Stenger

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Katelyn Stenger, PhD, is a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory specializing in applying behavioral science for clean energy systems. Katelyn seeks to understand and design for complexity to realize a society where joy, love, and wellbeing are regular outcomes for everyone. Katelyn holds a PhD from the University of Virginia in Civil Engineering, withing the Behavioral Science for Sustainable Systems program, and a Bachelor of Science from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on sustainability. 

Margaret Taylor

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Daniel Villa

Sandia National Laboratories

Daniel Villa has more than 23 years of experience at Sandia National Labs as a mechanical engineer, applied mathematician, systems scientist, and software developer. His early work was hand-on in nuclear weapons, radar systems, and space satellites. He moved on to analysis and mathematical modeling of nonlinear structural mechanics, transient atmospheric effects of explosions, and system dynamics modeling of energy, food, water, and migration issues. The last decade of his research has focused on energy and buildings. He is also the author of "Tiered Energy in Buildings" that calculates tiered demand loads for microgrid analyses in Puerto Rico. Some of his latest work has returned to hands on energy audits of buildings for disadvantaged communities.