Vittoria Di Palma’s new book, Wasteland, A History, has just been published by Yale University Press. 

Dr. David Gerber of the USC School of Architecture chaired SimAUD 2014 an international conference on topics of simulation in architecture and urban design. Dr. Gerber is co-chairing this years’ ACADIA 2014 Design Agency conference hosted at the Unviersity of Southern California School of Architecture. Dr. Gerber is the first multiple recipient of the IDEA studio research grant from Autodesk Inc. and also received a second National Science Foundation grant award to support undergraduate student involvement in research. 

The study “Evidence-based model of building facade features using data mining for assessment of building performance” by Ph.D. Candidate Andrea Martinez and Assistant Professor Joon-Ho Choi is being presented (by Professor Choi) at the Indoor Air 2014 – ISIAQ Conference in Hong Kong. 

Neil Leach recently contributed to the new PhD program in Digital Design at the European Graduate School in Switzerland as a Professor of Digital Design, and is currently on a 3 week lecture tour of India and China. His latest publication, an issue of Architectural Design, Space Architecture: The New Frontier for Design Research, will be published in the Fall, along with Swarm Intelligence: Architectures of Multi-Agent Systems, a volume that he has co-edited with Roland Snooks.

Professor James Steele is leading the first Foreign Studies Program which is based in Sao Paulo Brazil, with study trips to Ouro Preto, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janerio. It also includes travel to Buenos Aires, Lima, Peru, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Iberoamericana University in Mexico City (doing an urban planning project with Mexican students there) Merida and Yucatan, studying Mayan ruins.

Joon-Ho Choi, Assistant Professor of Building Science attend the International Society of Indoor Air Quality held in Hong Kong in July 2014, and presented two of his researches, “Evidence-based model of building façade features using data mining for assessment of building performance”, and “Visual environmental quality control using human physiological signal in an office workplace.” He was also selected as a recipient of the New Investigator Award in 2014-2015 by the Architectural Research Centers Consortium, based on his “Human-Building Integration” research.

Dr. Travis Longcore (Associate Professor (Research) of Spatial Sciences and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture) is overhauling and offering the undergraduate course Ecological Factors in Design for the first time in over a decade.  The course is required in the newly re-launched undergraduate minor in Landscape Architecture and is an elective in the undergraduate B.S. degree in GeoDesign, a new major that is a collaborative venture between the School of Architecture, Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Karen M. Kensek collaborated with students to have four papers presented in San Francisco at ASES/ Solar 2014 in July and new alumni Alejandro Gamas and Elham Motevalian received travel scholarships to attend: 

  • Gamas, Alejandro, Kyle Konis, and Karen Kensek. “A Parametric Fenestration Design Approach for Optimizing Thermal and Daylighting Performance in Complex Urban Settings.”
  • Motevalian, Elham, Douglas Noble, Marc Schiler, and Karen Kensek. “Performance of Double Skin Façades: Effects on Daylight and Visual Comfort in Office Spaces.”
  • Tucker, Tyler, Karen Kensek, and Kyle Konis. “Performative Shading Design: Parametric Based Study of Shading System Configuration Effectiveness and Trends.”
  • Qian, Chenchuan (Trent), Karen Kensek, and Paul Ronney. “Thermal Mass and Time Lag: Calculating Heating and Cooling Energy from a Building Roof/wall.”

 

Kensek also had two papers chosen for presentation at 2014 ASHRAE/IBPSA-USA, Building Simulation Conference:

  • Sehrawat, Praveen and Karen Kensek. “Urban Energy Modeling: GIS as an Alternative to BIM.” 
  • Singh, Sukreet and Karen Kensek. “Early Design Analysis Using Optimization Techniques in Design/Practice.”