People

Professor Zuo is currently on leave at CU Boulder since he joins Penn State University in January 2022. For updated information, visit his new page at Penn State. Research/Specialization With degrees in three majors (Automation, Computational Engineering, Mechanical Engineering) from three countries (China, Germany, U.S.), Dr. Zuo's research is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative. His current research focuses on smart, sustainable and resilient buildings, communities and cities. He has contributed to...

Katy has joinned Penn State University in January 2022. For updated information, please visit her new page at Penn State. Education Background Katy received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Denver in 2013, where she also played for the university’s D1 women’s soccer program. At DU, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with departmental distinction, was elected into the Phi Beta Kappa society for excellence in the...

Education Background Before joining the SBS lab, Cary received his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in May 2019. At Purdue University he performed research studying collisions of non-spherical particles in granular flows using the Discrete Element Method. Part of this research was done as a participant in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at Purdue, which sponsored his full time research during the Summer of 2018. This...

Education Background Yingli received her Bachelor’s Degree in Construction Management from Chongqing University, China in 2016. Afterward, she continued her Master's study at Chongqing University to get her degrees in Management Science and Engineering. Her research at Chongqing University focuses on the low-carbon city. In August 2019, she became a Ph.D. student in Architectural Engineering in the Sustainable Buildings and Societies Laboratory. Research Interests Building Energy Performance Evaluation; Large-scale Building...

Education and Professional Background Jake received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2016. Upon Graduation he started working for the Ford Motor Company, as well as night classes at the University of Michigan-Dearborn where he received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019. He gained experience in a variety of engineering roles through the Ford College Graduate rotational program, focusing on the application of...

Education Background Mingzhe Liu is an Architectural Engineering Ph.D. student in the Sustainable Buildings and Societies Laboratory. Mingzhe received his bachelor’s degree in Building Environment and Facilities Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 2014. He then received his master's and doctoral degree in HVAC engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2020. His master's and doctoral research mainly focus on the utilization of renewable energy and heat pumps...

Education Background Saranya received her bachelor’s in Architecture in 2015 and a Master’s in Building Energy Performance (Building Science) in 2019 from CEPT University, India. She has a two-years experience in architectural practice and after completing her master's study she worked as a research associate at Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE). Her major focus of work was on low-energy cooling systems and development of control...

Nasim is a graduate research assistant at the Sustainable Buildings and Societies Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder where she pursues her Ph.D. degree in Architectural Engineering. She is currently working on HVAC system modeling and control and is conducting data analysis on human-building interaction studies. Nasim obtained her M.S. degree in Energy Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, with a concentration in power production from renewables. She holds...

Education Background Chengnan Shi is an Architectural Engineering Ph.D. student in the Sustainable Buildings and Societies Laboratory. Chengnan received his Bachelor’s degree in Building Environmental and Energy Application Engineering from Xi’an Jiao Tong University, China in 2017. He then received his Master’s degree in Architecture Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2020. His master’s research mainly focused on the development of hygroscopic material to passively modify the indoor humidity...

Education Background Yizhi acquired her M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with concentration in Energy Systems at Columbia University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Building Environment and Energy Applied Engineering from the Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2019. At WUST, she researched in concentrating solar power and performed as team leader in the research project design and experimental test of a new solar concentrating system. Research Interest Smart...

Research/Specialization Thomas Sevilla received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in 2015 from the University of Miami. Since then, he has worked as an embedded systems engineer designing state of the art instrumentation for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA). Consequently, he joined the Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, in 2016. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate and is under the advising of...

Research/Specialization Analysis of multisystem interdependence and sustainability benefits in the Hotel Systems Platform. The research concentrates on the development and modeling of a water source heat pump air conditioning plant coupled with domestic water preheat boiler plant for a 280 guestroom hotel in The City of Surfside. The modeling by the use of Modelica studies, the critical points of available domestic water preheat cycles and open loop condenser water reheat...

Education Background David received his B.S. in Architecture from the University of Maryland – College Park in 2020. As an undergrad at UMD he conducted research under Prof. Ming Hu in the areas of net zero energy feasibility, indoor environmental analysis, and public health in the built environment. David worked as a research assistant on three separate funded and published projects: a meta-analysis of net zero feasibility in the US,...

Research/Specialization Chloe Snellgrove is a Junior at the University of Colorado studying Civil Engineering. She is a member of the Engineering Honors Program, as well as clubs such as CU Hyperloop, the Society of Women Engineers, and the Associated General Contractors of America. At SBS Lab, she contributes towards the NSF-Smart Connected Communities project. In addition to her work at the SBS Lab, she has done research in the Applied...

Ph.D. Thesis “ Occupant-Centric Modeling and Control For Low-Carbon And Resilient Communities ” (2021) Nominee of 2021 College of Engineering & Applied Science Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (One nominee per department) First Job After Graduation Postdoctoral Researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) Education Background Jing received her B.E. degree in Built Environment and Equipment Engineering from Tongji University, China in 2013. Afterwards...

Ph.D. Thesis " Holistic Optimization of Data Center Cooling Systems and Airflow Management " (2020) First Job After Graduation Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University Research/Specialization Dr. Xu Han received his bachelor’s degree from Harbin Institute of Technology with the award of “Outstanding Graduate” in 2011, master’s degree from Tianjin University with the award of “Outstanding Graduate” in 2014 and received his PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2020...

Ph.D. Thesis " Modeling and Control for Grid-interactive Efficient Data Centers " (2020) First Employer After Graduation Texas A&M University Research/Specialization Dr. Yangyang Fu obtained his Ph.D. degree at University of Colorado Boulder in 2020. During his study at CU Boulder, his research interests included the application of data mining and machine learning techniques in the building energy area, optimal design and operation of the chiller plant system, discrete-event and...

Ph.D. Thesis " Standardized Computational Framework for Prototypical Building Energy Model Creation and Building Energy Analyses. " (2019) Nominee of 2019 College of Engineering & Applied Science Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (One nominee per department) First Job After Graduation Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Research/Specialization Dr. Yunyang Ye graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Building Environment and Facilities Engineering from...

Ph.D. Thesis: " Coupled Simulation of Indoor Airflow, HVAC, Control, and Building Envelope " (2017) 2017 Outstanding Ph.D. Research Award by College of Engineering First Job After Graduation: Research Engineer at Schneider Electric Awards: Outstanding Graduate Award. Department of Civil, Architecture and Environmental Engineering, University of Miami. 2017. ASHRAE Grant-in-Aid Award. ASHRAE, $10,000. 2017. Outstanding Ph.D. Research Award. College of Engineering, University of Miami. 2017. NSF Travel Award for attending...

Ph.D Thesis: " Model Based Technologies for Enhancing Building Operation " (2016) First Job After Graduation: Scientist at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Publications: Book Chpaters: S. Huang , T. Sevilla, W. Zuo 2019, Chapter 19 “Modeling in Building-to-Grid Integration” in Building Performance Simulation for Design and Operation (Edition 2), Edited by J.L.M. Hensen and R. Lamberts, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 9781138392199. Journal Papers: J. Wang, S...

M.S. Project Report "Modeling of a Zero Energy, Cold-climate Residential Building Design" (2020) Research/Specialization Angelique received her master's degree in Architectural Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder. Her Master project was in conjunction with work related to the Sustainable Buildings and Societies Laboratory in modeling a zero energy, residential building in Colorado. In May 2018, she received her Bachelor's degree from University of Colorado at Boulder, majoring in Architectural Engineering...

M.Eng. Thesis "Implementation and Evaluation of Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks for Fast Indoor Airflow Prediction" (2021) Research / Specialization Dominik studied mechanical engineering in conjunction with Valeo Thermal Systems GmbH and received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Coburg, Germany. He was awarded the Medal of Merit in 2018 for his volunteer work at the Institute for Sensor and Actuator Technology (ISAT) in Coburg,...