Director
Prof. Marianne Touchie, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Associate Professor
Jointly appointed in Civil Engineering and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Email: marianne.touchie@utoronto.ca
Post Doctoral Fellows
Jamie Fine (MIE)
Jamie Fine received his PhD from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University in August 2018. His thesis focused on the development and optimization of a heating system that utilized hybrid solar collectors coupled with heat pumps. He focused heavily on simulation model development, along with experimental work. After completing his PhD, he joined the BEIE lab in September 2018.
Jamie’s current research focuses on improving the performance of buildings. His main project investigates the integration of crowd-sourced occupant data with post-war apartment buildings to improve occupant comfort and reduce energy consumption.
PhD Students
Helen Stopps (MIE)
Helen Stopps graduated from the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto in 2015. After graduating, she worked at the Independent Electricity System Operator supporting electricity generation and demand management programs. Prior to graduation, Helen worked in a variety of industries including oil and gas, cellular communications, and automotive manufacturing.
Helen is assessing the potential impact of smart thermostat use on energy use and GHG emissions in the multi-unit residential building sector.
Maedot Andargie (CIV)
Maedot received her B.Sc. from New York University in Civil Engineering in 2015. After graduating, she continued to do her M.Sc. in Sustainable Critical Infrastructure at the Masdar Institute. During her master’s studies, she conducted research on improving the performance of buildings with regards to occupant comfort through post-occupancy evaluation.
Maedot’s current research focuses on evaluating acoustic conditions in multi-unit residential buildings and assessing how noise affects occupants’ comfort and their daily activities.
Miguel Alonso Garcia (CIV)
Miguel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Tecnológico Nacional de México (National Technological Institute of Mexico). After graduation, he was awarded a scholarship from the CONACYT (the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology) to study at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), where earned his MSc in Sustainable Architecture Studies. During his Master’s degree studies, his research focused on sustainable construction materials and on developing architectural projects with multiple passive and active sustainable design techniques to improve energy performance in buildings.
With over five years of experience in the architectural practice and in the building services sector and two years of higher education teaching experience in Mexico, Miguel is currently developing his doctoral research with a focus on sustainable retrofitting and building performance assessment for multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) by taking into account multiple factors such as materials and LCA, passive design strategies and occupant comfort.
Yuan Cao (CIV)
Yuan Cao received her B.Sc. (Hons.) degree from the Department of Building at the National University of Singapore in 2018. After graduating, she joined the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto for master’s study. Her master’s research focused on the application of building information modeling in automated code compliance checking process.
Yuan’s current research explores the impact of indoor environmental quality and controls on occupant behavior and wellbeing in multi-unit residential buildings by integrating the pre-occupancy and post-occupancy evaluation with IEQ monitoring.
Justin Berquist (MIE)
Justin Berquist received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSc) from Queen’s University in 2014. Following his undergraduate degree he worked as a mechanical designer, where he completed design drawings for HVAC, plumbing and fire protection systems, performed heating/cooling load calculations and selected equipment for various projects. After one year as a mechanical designer, he began a Master of Applied Science (MASc) at Carleton University which focused on the efficiency of mechanical systems in buildings. His graduate research was spent developing a model-based fault detection and diagnostics system in Matlab to gain insight on inefficient design strategies and influence future system design. Since his graduation from Carleton in 2017, Justin has worked as an assistant research officer at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). His work at NRC has concentrated on three main areas: the performance of building systems in the Arctic, the performance of radon mitigation systems in residential homes, and the measurement of infiltration and ventilation rates in commercial buildings.
Justin’s current research focuses on developing energy efficient and robust ventilation system design and control solutions for both existing and new multi-unit residential buildings which can operate reliably at the suite level under a wide range of exterior conditions (e.g., wildfire and low ambient temperatures) and are insensitive to different inter-zonal conditions (e.g., window operation).
MASc Students
Jia Zhe (Joey) Liu (CIV)
Jia Zhe received his Bachelor degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Manitoba in 2016. After graduating, he worked as an inside sales representative at an industrial master distributor of electrical distribution and emergency power generator in Winnipeg for two years.
His research focuses on how the changing climate will impact the performance of buildings at U of T and identifying retrofit strategies for these buildings to improve climate resilience.
Yufeng Deng (CIV)
Yufeng Deng received a dual bachelor’s degree in Built Environment & Energy Engineering and Engineering Management at Jilin Jianzhu University. During his undergraduate, he participated in the project of post-occupancy evaluation on green buildings. He also conducted experimental tests on thermal conductivities of a novel heat pipe. His undergraduate thesis was about data mining and analysis of building energy consumption data.
Yufeng’s research is focused on the impact of occupant behavior on building energy conservation by using machine learning methods.
Kelsey Eakin (CIV)
Kelsey received her Honours BSc in Physics from Queen’s University. Her passion lies in applying her physics knowledge to minimizing the negative impact buildings have on the environment. Kelsey’s undergraduate thesis was in astrophysics, and focused on using her coding, statistics and analytical skills for data manipulation and analysis. She has also conducted research as a summer research student at Sunnybrook hospital, where she studied diabetes and coronary artery disease. During her time at Sunnybrook Kelsey contributed to two papers (one first authorship) and won the D+H Sunnybrook Research Institute Summer Student Award.
Her current research focuses on how the changing climate will impact the performance of window-wall multi-unit residential buildings. As well as, developing in-situ retrofit measures to improve how these buildings age in a changing climate.
Noah Cassidy (CIV)
Noah Cassidy received his BASc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto. As an undergraduate student, he held the role first as project manager, then as president of CECA U of T, a building energy design team. The team won second two years in a row in the international Electri Green Energy Challenge. He has experience programming, including with the AutoCAD API built in visual lisp.
Noah’s research examines natural ventilation solutions in the context of First Nations communities in Canada.
Samantha Chum (CIV)
Samantha received her B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2020. Her co-op experience in building enclosure and sustainability consulting, diagnostic engineering, and project management roles led her to work on a variety of building projects, including forensic investigations, repair and retrofits, new constructions, and research.
Samantha’s current research focuses on developing an acoustic test method for quantifying interzonal air leakage in multi-unit residential buildings.
MEng Students
Undergraduate Students
Annual Group Photo
Class of 2019-2020
Alumni
- Shengbo Zhang, MASc (MIE), 2020
- Cindy Li, (MIE), 2020
- Mostafa Abolila, M.Eng., (MIE), 2020
- Lia Cordington, B.A.Sc., (EngSci), 2020
- Claire (Cheng) Li, M.Eng. (CIV), 2020
- Xinxiu Tian, MASc (MIE), 2020
- Anna McCormack, MASc (MIE), 2019
- Joseph Ng, MASc (Civ), 2019
- Mitchelle Macalinao, M.Eng. (MIE), 2018
- Jason Gray, M.A.Sc (CIV), 2018
- Marina VeraZambrano, M.A.Sc. (CIV), 2018
- Wei-Chih (Jeff) Huang, M.A.Sc. (CIV), 2018
- Cara Lozinsky, M.A.Sc. (CIV), 2017
- Chia (Derek) Chang, M.Eng. (MIE), 2017
- Mechanical EIT, WalterFedy
- Matt Carlsson, M.A.Sc. (Ryerson), 2017
- Building Science Consultant, Morrison Hershfield
- Christina Ismailos, B.A.Sc. (CIV), 2017
- Building Science Engineer (EIT), RDH Building Science Inc.
- Kunyuan (Claire) Zhang, B.A.Sc. (CIV), 2017
- MEngCEM Candidate, University of Toronto