MAE Department - PG Seminar - Toward a Better Building: Comfortable, Healthy, Efficient, and Safe - Case studies from fundamentals to applications
This talk provides a quick overview on some primary research interests and projects of Dr. Zhai in the past 20 years. It is organized into three categories: indoor environment, envelope, and urban environment. Both passive and active building systems such as natural ventilation, displacement ventilation, thermal storage wall, building-integrated PVT system, etc. are discussed with experience and lessons shared. The presentation topics range from micro-scale virus movement in mission-critical spaces such as aircraft cabin and hospital operating room, to urban-scale pollution impact analysis and energy demand prediction. Examples are provided to stimulate discussions on proper approaches for improving research and application in each category.
Dr. Zhiqiang John Zhai is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) at University of Colorado at Boulder (CUB), and the site director of the US NSF Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST) Center. He has a unique and integrated background in both Architecture and Engineering with a Dr. Eng. degree in Mechanics (Tsinghua University, 1999) and a Ph.D. degree in Architecture (MIT, 2003). Dr. Zhai’s research and teaching interests and expertise include: integrated building systems; indoor and outdoor environmental quality; sustainable building and urban. Dr. Zhai is the Fulbright Scholar of the US Department of State and the Global Leader Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand. Dr. Zhai is a Fellow of The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), The International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), and The International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). Dr. Zhai is a PI/Co-PI for over 50 projects and published over 200 technical papers and was ranked as World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford university.