Archives: Faculties

Jules Bruck

Jules Bruck

School of Landscape Architecture and Planning
Director, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning; Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture
(352) 294-3859
AH 431A
jbruck@ufl.edu
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Dr. Jules Bruck, RLA, joined the University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning on July 1, 2022, as director of the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. She came to DCP from the University of Delaware, where she was professor and founding director of the landscape architecture program. In those roles, she taught capstone and design process studios and courses in creativity, field sketching and ecological planting design. She is a registered landscape architect and a SITES Accredited Professional (AP).

In April 2018, she co-founded the Coastal Resilience Design Studio (CRDS). This Delaware Sea Grant-funded collaboration brings together educators, students, scientists, citizen-scientists, engineers, designers, artists and other academic institutions in Delaware to study and respond to issues affecting the state’s coastlines and coastal communities. CRDS work focuses on coastal challenges that stem from historical decisions, human settlement, sea-level rise and necessary compliance with water quality mandates. The goal of CRDS is to team community members with interdisciplinary experts and students to develop new strategies and manage special cases that threaten coastal communities. Ultimately, the studio hopes to drive policy to benefit coastal communities through more sustainable land use, planning and education.

The CRDS was honored as the 2021 Coastal Estuarine Research Federation’s student contest winner. Their project, Carbon in the Tidewater, focused on Hampton, Virginia, which has a low elevation, high rate of land subsidence and intense storm surge risk. Students explored the use of the Global Carbon Market to finance self-regenerating nature-based coastal infrastructure. This project also received an honor award from the Pennsylvania-Delaware chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

In the fall of 2021, Bruck became the co-director of UD’s Gerard J. Mangone Climate Science and Policy Hub. Over the past year, the Climate Change Hub developed the capacity of UD faculty and students to research and enhance courses with science-based climate change content by providing competitive awards for scholarship and teaching.

Her research interests are coastal resilience, green infrastructure and public perception of sustainable landscape practices. She is the principal investigator for a collaborative project called Developing Engineering Practices using Ecosystem Design Solutions for Future Army (DEEDS). This four-year project will allow her diverse team to research shellfish-based living shoreline solutions. Bruck has a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.

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Maria Watson

Maria Watson

M.E. Rinker, Sr, School of Construction Management, Shimberg Center for Housing Studies
Assistant Professor
RINKER 203
maria.watson@ufl.edu

Maria Watson is an Assistant Professor in the M.E. Rinker, Sr, School of Construction Management and affiliated researcher with the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. Before coming to the University of Florida, she was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Hazard Reduction Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. She has degrees in Urban Planning from The Ohio State University and Texas A&M University.

Dr. Watson’s research focuses on the factors impacting community recovery after disaster events, particularly interdependencies between infrastructure, housing, and businesses. She is particularly interested in the effectiveness of disaster programs and how these programs can be structured to better meet recovery needs. Watson has been a part of multiple interdisciplinary disaster recovery research efforts in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina after Hurricanes Ike, Harvey, Matthew, Florence, Laura, and Delta. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Federal Emergency Management Agency for her research.

Dr. Watson has taught courses in quantitative methods, local government, and urban planning. She is currently co-teaching BCN-6585 Principles of Sustainable Development and Construction at the Rinker School.

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Chaofeng Wang

Chaofeng Wang

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Assistant Professor
352-273-0562
RINKER 342
chaofeng.wang@ufl.edu
http://charles-wang.me/

Dr. Wang joined the Rinker School as an Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence. Before that, he earned degrees in Engineering Mechanics and Civil Engineering from Central South University and Clemson University and worked as a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Berkeley.

Affiliation:

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering

Research:

Dr. Wang has broad interests in the intelligent automation of design, construction and management of next generation infrastructure systems, leveraging his expertise in computational mechanics, uncertainty and risk quantification, and AI. He focuses on developing advanced construction materials and pioneering autonomous construction technologies to revolutionize the construction industry. He also develops cyber infrastructure that leverages stochastic physics-based simulation, AI and data mining techniques for multi-scale modeling of the built and natural environment under chronic and acute stressors, which leads to informed decision-makings.

Publications:

Google Scholar

Teaching:

Advanced Construction Technology
Additive Construction
Construction Mechanics
AI in Built Environment

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Karla Saldaña Ochoa

Karla Saldaña Ochoa

School of Architecture
Assistant Professor
(352) 294-1453
AH 252
ksaldanaochoa@ufl.edu
https://www.ai-share-lab.com/

Karla is an Ecuadorian architect; with a Master of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture from ETH Zurich. In June 2021, she finished her Ph.D. at ETH Zurich, which investigated the integration of Artificial and Human Intelligence to have a precise and agile response to natural disasters. Since August 2021, Karla is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Florida; her teaching and research focus on investigating the interplay of Artificial and Human Intelligence in architectural practices at building and urban scale. Karla is the leading researcher at SHARE Lab; a research group focused on developing human-centered AI projects focused on design practices.

Please visit SHARE Lab website if you want to know more or if you want to collaborate

www.ai-share-lab.com

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Luis Mejia-Puig

Luis Mejia-Puig

Department of Interior Design
Assistant Professor
(352) 294-1431
AH 136
luismejiapuig@ufl.edu

Areas of Research

The idea of delineating curricular advances in design education practices guides my research. I am interested in exploring how new digital media tools can positively affect the design process. The design process is an excellent example of creative thinking used to solve wicked problems present in all Social Sciences. Since the 1960s, research has focused on how the design process unfolds and the influence that traditional design tools have in that process. Physical manipulations through sketching and model making are critical elements in moving the design process forward. However, new digital tools are displacing these practices, and current design students are shifting their approach. This shift opens a gap, and the way we teach design must adapt to this new reality. To address this gap, I have focused my research on cognitive load theory. Through the combination of psychometric and physiological tools, I can analyze cognitive demand and cognitive workload quantitatively. Moreover, this approach transcends the boundaries of the design discipline and opens opportunities for multidisciplinary research.

What I Teach

I believe learning is a never-ending process, and as individuals, we should continue to learn for our whole lives. Like learning, design activity is a never-ending process where a designer’s final idea will be the starting point for another design. In my class, students will develop design proposals through collaborative teamwork. This approach allows students to experience firsthand the iterative aspect of design, the relevance of team collaboration, and understand design solutions as live outcomes to reimagine repeatedly. My teaching expertise of more than fifteen years with undergraduate design students relies on studio techniques. I believe design students learn through direct manipulation and master-apprentice guidance. At UF, I intend to enlighten students through my studio courses and mixed reality digital tools. Moreover, I hope my expertise in product development and background as an industrial designer can give Interior Design students a different approach to the design process.

My Educational Background

Originally from Colombia, I am an Industrial Designer with a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University in Design, Housing and Merchandising, and a master’s degree in Design and Product Development in Barcelona, Spain. I have broad teaching experience with undergraduate|graduate design students, and over ten of those years, I was Head for the Industrial Design Program at a Colombian university. To fulfill my education and widen my professional development, I have moved from Colombia in South America to Spain in Europe and now to the United States. I believe my international background has been critical to developing my aesthetic sensibility and multicultural understanding. Like any discipline with high symbolic and interpretative attributes, design discipline is about exploring perspectives and re-shaping the world.

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Cleary Larkin

Cleary Larkin

Historic Preservation
Director, Historic Preservation // Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
(352) 294-1438
AH 148
HPinfo@dcp.ufl.edu

Cleary Larkin (clarkin@ufl.edu) is a licensed architect with specialized practice experience in historic preservation and community planning. She holds a professional degree in Architecture from the University of Arkansas, a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. with a concentration in Urban Planning from the University of Florida.

She has worked as an architect and a preservation planner at Frazier Associates in Staunton, Virginia; Beyer Blinder Belle in New York City and for the City of Gainesville, Florida. Her practitioner experience includes adaptive re-use, restoration and rehabilitation; design and project management of architectural projects from programming through construction; research and writing for Historic Structure Reports, National Register nominations, rehabilitation tax credits, and design guidelines; design review in historic districts; new design within historic contexts; and use of fiscal incentives for redevelopment.

Dr. Larkin’s dissertation, Expanding the Historic Preservation Narrative: The intersections of planning, preservation and social context in the Vieux Carré Historic District designation, explored the collaboration between architects, preservation activists and planner Harland Bartholomew to create the New Orleans’ first Comprehensive Plan in 1929 and first legislation for the French Quarter historic district in 1925 and 1937, respectively.

Prior to her role as Acting Director of UF’s Historic Preservation program, Dr. Larkin was Program Coordinator for the newly formed Florida Resilient Cities (FRC) program at UF’s Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER). The first FRC project focused on sustainable recovery and growth of Port St. Joe, a historic mill town in the Florida panhandle, damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018.

Dr. Larkin’s research interests include the intersections of architecture, preservation and planning, both in historical and contemporary practice; historic land-use decisions as a source of inequity in communities; and historic preservation as a social justice practice. She currently teaches Intro to History and Theory of Historic Preservation at the Graduate and Undergraduate levels, and two courses in the summer field course at Preservation Institute Nantucket (PIN): World Heritage Research and Stewardship, and Preservation Policy and Current Topics.

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David Rifkind

David Rifkind

Architecture
Professor
rifkind.david@ufl.edu

David Rifkind joined the UF faculty July 1, 2021, as Director of the School of Architecture after 14 years at Florida International University. His term as director ended on June 30, 2024. Trained as an architect and as an architectural historian, Rifkind studies urbanism and architecture in Ethiopia from the late nineteenth century to the present. His current book project, Modern Ethiopia: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Building of a Nation, incorporates field research in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti with archival research in Ethiopia, Europe and the United States. His work in Ethiopia has been supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation and a residency at the American Academy in Rome as the inaugural Wolfsonian-FIU Affiliated Fellow.

Rifkind’s doctoral dissertation, Quadrante and the Politicization of Architectural Discourse in Fascist Italy, examined the complex interrelationships of modern architecture and state politics in Fascist Italy. The dissertation won the 2011 James Ackerman Prize for Architectural History from the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio in Vicenza, and was subsequently published as The Battle for Modernism in 2012 by the CISA Palladio and Marsilio Editori.

He has also won best article awards for essays published in the two flagship journals in architectural education and history, the Journal of Architectural Education (“Misprision of Precedent: Design as Creative Misreading”) and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (“Gondar. Architecture and Urbanism for Italy’s Fascist Empire”). He curated the 2012 exhibition, Metropole/Colony: Africa and Italy, in the Wolfsonian-FIU Teaching Gallery at the Frost Art Museum, and in 2016 developed an exhibition with Professor Dawit Benti (EiABC), Contemporary Architecture in Ethiopia, which opened in Addis Ababa, Miami, and in the gallery of Jonathan and Melanie Antevy Hall at UF. In 2014, Ashgate published A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture, which he co-edited with Elie G. Haddad.

A practicing designer, Rifkind has worked to make environmental stewardship and community development the central focus of architectural practice in South Florida. In 2012 he completed a house in South Miami which served as a model of sustainable construction and environmental stewardship. He is currently working on two net-zero energy projects.

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Erik Finlay

Erik Finlay

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Assistant Scholar, GeoPlan Center
352-392-8686
AH 131
erik3621@ufl.edu

Erik Finlay is an Assistant Scholar at the University of Florida GeoPlan Center. As an experienced geospatial professional, Erik supports research, teaching, and service at the Center. His research focuses on geospatial analysis, data management, and the development of decision-support tools for projects related to public health, transportation, and environmental and urban planning. 

Erik completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography and Master of Public Health degree at the University of Florida, as well as a Certificate in Spatial Analysis for Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. With his background in GIS and public health, Erik serves as a key team member on health-related geospatial projects at the Center. This work has led to several successful collaborations with UF faculty in the health sciences.

Erik is also an instructor and program advisor for the Online Graduate Certificate in GIS for Urban and Regional Planners at the University of Florida. As lead instructor for URP6278: Web Mapping and Visualization, Erik teaches concepts, techniques, and software for sharing and displaying geographic information on the web. He is also guest instructor for URP6275: Intermediate Planning Information Systems, and earned a “UF 2019 Exemplary Online Award” for his contribution to the course. 

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Sam Palmer

Sam Palmer

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Assistant Scholar, GeoPlan Center
352-392-3246
AH 131
sam@geoplan.ufl.edu

It is with great pleasure that we introduce Sam Palmer, an Assistant Scholar and full time faculty since 2017, at the University of Florida – GeoPlan Center. Sam joined the Center as a research assistant in 2000, then became a full time employee in 2003. He earned a BS in Environmental Science in 1999 then MA in Urban and Regional Planning in 2003, both degrees from the University of Florida. 

Sam is an experienced geospatial professional that supports research, teaching, and service at the Center. He assists the Center’s Principal Investigators in management of funded research projects using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He works closely with faculty, researchers, project sponsors, and external organizations to identify and assess geospatial problems, develop solutions, and present recommendations for resolution. 

Sam’s work at the Center spans a variety of topics, such as:

  • Geospatial data development, quality assurance/quality control of geospatial data, schema development, optimization of database performance, import and backup of data, and creation of database code to facilitate work flows within the database.
  • Administration and maintenance of enterprise geospatial databases to support funded research projects.
  • Collection, organization, and analysis of demographic data from the United States Census Bureau.
  • Assisting with administration of the ESRI Campus Site License for the University GIS community, including communication with campus GIS users (faculty, staff, and students).
  • Develop curriculum and teach courses for the Online Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems
  • Coordinate with public health researchers across campus to add demographic and geospatial expertise to their research projects.
  • Serve on the board for Florida Urban and Regional Information Systems (FLURISA) to coordinate and promote GIS activities around the State.

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Adam Smith

Adam Smith

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Fire and Emergency Services Instructional Assistant Professor
352-273-1149
RINKER 336
fyrewlker@ufl.edu

Lecturer Adam A. Smith holds a BS and MS in Fire and Emergency Service Management from the University of Florida.  He began his educational journey obtaining a Fire Science Diploma at TiftArea Technical College before moving on to obtain his AAS in Fire Science Technology from Chattahoochee Technical College.  Adam holds national certifications as a Firefighter, Fire Officer, Paramedic, Hazardous Materials Technician, Public Safety Diver, and Instructor.  He holds State of Florida certification as a Paramedic, State of Georgia First Class Firefighter certification, State of Georgia certification as a Paramedic, and is a State of Georgia Smoke Diver.  Adam’s goal is to start working on his PhD in 2021.

Adam has worked in Fire and Emergency Service since 1986 until retiring in July of 2020 as a Lieutenant with Lumpkin County (GA) Emergency Services.  He began his career at the University of Florida as a Fire and Emergency Service (FES) Management Adjunct Lecturer, January of 2020.  He accepted a FES Management Lecturer position with UF, August of 2020.  Adam’s experience as a firefighter, paramedic, and Fire Officer allows him to pair his extensive real-life experience with the desire to instruct and inspire others in the FES career field as well as FES students at the University of Florida.

Lecturer Smith teaches the following FES Management courses at the Rinker School of Construction Management: Principles of FES Management, Community Risk Reduction, FES Administration, Personnel Management for Emergency Services, Public Information and Community Relations, Current Issues in FES, and Analytical Approaches to Fire Protection.  Adam guides the Emergency Management Internship program.  Adam is also tasked with helping guide students with submitting FES Undergraduate Honors Papers.

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