Archives: Faculties

Sherry Ahrentzen

Sherry Ahrentzen

M.E. Rinker, Sr, School of Construction Management, Shimberg Center for Housing Studies
Professor Emeritus
ahrentzen@dcp.ufl.edu
http://www.shimberg.ufl.edu

B.A., Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 1977
M.A., PhD, Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, 1982, 1980

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Special Fields: Housing/Residential: Building Performance for Occupant Health, Post-Occupancy Evaluation, Community/Neighborhood Development, Sustainability, Special Populations (elderly, disability) Employers: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Arizona State University, University of Florida Publications: Over 60 published articles, chapters and reports, including publication in Journal of Housing for the Elderly, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, Harvard Design Magazine, Journal of Social Issues, Planning, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, and Progressive Architecture, among others. Co-edited book, New Households, New Housing, with Karen Franck. Member: AIA Housing and Design Research Consortium American Institute of Architects American Association of University Women Environmental Design Research Association Planners Network Awards: ACSA Distinguished Professor Award EDRA Career Award ARCC James Haecker Distinguished Leadership in Architectural Research Award

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Jason Alread

Jason Alread

School of Architecture
Professor
352-294-1455
ARCH 144
jalread@ufl.edu
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Areas of Focus:
Sustainability ( Building Materials, Built Environment Resilience, Sustainable Architecture and Design, Sustainable Construction, Sustainable Technology)
Primarily focused on high performance materials and assemblies, embodied energy, sustainable decision making in professional practice, building flexibility/longevity, and sustainability in construction.

Bio:
Jason Alread, AIA, LEED AP is a Professor and the former Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Florida. He was educated at the University of Florida and Yale University, and has been a registered architect in professional practice for over 25 years. He was a founding partner in Substance Architecture and an Associate at HLKB Architecture, the 2001 AIA National Firm of the Year.

He is the author of Design-Tech: An Integrated Approach to Building Science and Technology with Thomas Leslie and Rob Whitehead and A Century of Iowa Architecture. Professor Alread has been recognized with over 40 design awards, including two National AIA Design Honor Awards, an AIA National Education Honor Award and two IIDA International Design Awards. The ACSA has honored him with New Faculty Teaching, Faculty Design and Creative Achievement Awards. In 2014 Design Intelligence named him as one of the 30 Most Admired Design Educators in North American Schools.

Professor Alread’s teaching and research focus on the integration of craft and technology, building performance, design methodologies and critical practice. He teaches beginning design and graduate comprehensive studios, methods and materials of construction, detailing and design history. He also coordinates the summer Design Exploration Program for high school students with Professor Emeritus, Martin Gundersen.

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Abhinav Alakshendra

Abhinav Alakshendra

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Professor and Director, Center for International Design and Planning
(352) 294-1488
ARCH 448
alakshendra@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Economics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 2012
M.A., Economics, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India, 2005

Areas of Focus: Sustainability  Bio: Dr. Alakshendra’s research interests are mainly focused around the areas of urbanization, international development, and applied microeconomics in Southeast Asia. He is a trained Development Economist who uses cutting edge empirical research methods to understand complex socioeconomic problems. He is a recipient of many prestigious research grants including UKAID, Land and Housing Institute, Korea, and Florida Department of Transportation.

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Aladdin Alwisy

Aladdin Alwisy

M.E. Rinker, Sr, School of Construction Management
Assistant Professor
352-273-1157
RINKER 311
aalwisy@dcp.ufl.edu
https://sites.google.com/view/smart-idc-lab/home
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Please visit https://sites.google.com/view/smart-idc-lab/home for an in-depth look at Professor Alwisy’s Robotics Lab

  • Current research interests
    • Dr. Alwisy’s research interests lie in developing and assessing sustainable practices that capture the future of intelligent design and manufacturing systems by establishing the scientific and technological foundations for uncertain, human-centric processes in industrialized construction. His research will take advantage of recent advances in Robotics, Sensing Technologies, Machine Learning (ML),  Augmented/Virtual/Mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), Simulation, and Lean Manufacturing to promote the shift towards industrialized construction by reducing the expense of the design, manufacturing process, and system control. Dr. Alwisy has largely contributed to construction automation by the development of the first-in-the-nation Robotic Station for the framing and installation of industrialized construction that utilizes patented robotic systems and methods. Additionally, Dr. Alwisy developed innovative BIM technologies, such as BIM- and knowledge-based drafting and design for manufacturing, performance-based target cost modeling system, and computational energy-based generative design framework.
  • Research Lab
    • The main research interests of this lab lie in the Digitization of the Multidisciplinary Design & Construction Processes of Industrialized Projects (Modular & Panelized Construction) in order to develop and assess sustainable practices in the construction industry that dynamically and interactively improve the performance metrics of buildings while seeking to reduce the overall lifecycle cost.

To achieve a true shift towards the industrialization of construction projects, we plan to develop innovative frameworks and paradigms that bridge the gap between the state-of-art and state-of-practice with regard to leading construction management techniques, specifically Industry 4.0 technologies. As such, the pursuit of the digitization of the design & construction processes is expected to continually promote the adaptation of new concepts by introducing automated and semi-automated tools that simplify the implementation process for construction practitioners.

To view Research Gallery photos, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/smart-idc-lab/home

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Chimay Anumba

Chimay Anumba

College of Design, Construction and Planning
Dean and Professor
(352) 294-1405
ARCH 331A
anumba@ufl.edu

B.Sc. Building (1st Class Honours), University of Jos, Nigeria
Ph.D. Civil Engineering, The University of Leeds, UK
D.Sc. (Higher Doctorate), Loughborough University, UK

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Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Building Energy, Built Environment Resilience, Smart Buildings/Cities, Sustainable Construction)

Bio:

Dean Chimay Anumba graduated at 18 with a First Class Honours degree in Building and worked as a Project Engineer and Design Engineer before studying for his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (specializing in Computer-Aided Design) at the University of Leeds, UK. He then worked in industry on a wide range of building and civil infrastructure projects, becoming a Chartered/Professional Engineer in 1993. This was followed by academic appointments at a number of UK academic institutions. More recently, he was Professor and Head, Department of Architectural Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University from January 2008 to July 2016.

Dr. Anumba’s research interests are in the fields of construction engineering and management, advanced engineering informatics (AI, CPS, KBS, etc.), concurrent engineering, knowledge management, distributed collaboration, high performance buildings, and sustainable construction. He has over 500 scientific publications, including 21 books and over 200 archival journal papers, in these fields. His work has received over $150m in support from various sources – the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, UK), and a variety of international agencies. He has also supervised 56 doctoral candidates to completion, mentored over 25 postdoctoral scholars, and advised numerous masters’ students.

He has won several awards for his work and has held Visiting Professor/Scholar appointments at more than 10 universities in N. America, Europe, Asia and Africa – including MIT, Stanford and Tsinghua. In recognition of his substantial and sustained original contributions to the field of Construction Engineering and Informatics, Dr. Anumba was awarded the higher doctorate degree of Doctor of Science, D.Sc., by Loughborough University in July 2006. In January 2007, he was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Dr.h.c.) by Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands for outstanding scientific contributions to Building and Construction Engineering. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (the United Kingdom’s National Academy of Engineering) in July 2012. He also holds Fellowships of the following professional institutions: The Institution of Civil Engineers, The Institution of Structural Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the recipient of the 2018 ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Construction.

Dr. Anumba is also Editor-in-Chief of the Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management journal, Co-Editor of the Journal of Information Technology in Construction, and Specialty Editor of the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. He sits on the editorial boards of numerous other journals.

Dr. Anumba joined the University of Florida on August 1, 2016 as Dean of the College of Design, Construction and Planning.

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Bahar Armaghani

Bahar Armaghani

Sustainability and the Built Environment
Director and Instructional Associate Professor; Director, UF Green Building Learning Collaborative (GBLC)
352-294-1428
RINKER 322
barmagh@ufl.edu

M.S. in Civil Engineering and B.S. in Environmental Engineering

Bahar Armaghani is the Director of the Sustainability and the Built Environment (SBE) Program and Lecturer at the College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP) at the University of Florida (UF).  She is also the Director of UF Green Building Learning Collaborative (GBLC). She developed and teaches courses on energy, greening the build environment, and Leadership. In 2014 she established and teaches LEED Lab at University of Florida bridging the gap between education and operation arms of the university utilizing university as a laboratory for hands-on learning focusing on the skills needed in the green building industry.  LEED Lab students delivered LEED V4.1 EB: O+M Gold certification for on campus building, the first certified building by students in Florida and the eleventh internationally. Bahar established UF’s Green Building Program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and served as director for thirteen years. She has managed and administered over 135 LEED BD+C, ID+C, Schools, Retail, and Homes Projects at UF and outside including 13 LEED Platinum certified buildings and first platinum project in the state of Florida. Under her leadership, UF was one of the leading universities in building green. Her role in administering university’s LEED projects saved the university over $6 million since the LEED program establishment. In addition, Bahar served as an Assistant Director and major Project Manager at University of Florida’s Planning, Design and Construction Division for over a decade completing over 35 projects with a total budget of $350 million. She also, initiated and directed UF’s rebate and 179D programs generating additional funding to the university. Bahar is one the first three LEED Fellows in the state of Florida. She has been active with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) locally, nationally and internationally. She served as USGBC LEED Faculty for over a decade, established USGBC Heart of Florida Chapter and served as president for four years, and served on the board of directors for USGBC Central Florida chapter and USGBC Florida and the Caribbean Region. She also served on task forces for LEED Advisory Committee, Education and Events committee, a subject matter expert, and a Pro- Reviewer for USGBC education courses. Currently, Bahar is serving on FL USGBC Market Leadership Advisory Board, ACG Certification Council, Chamber of Commerce International Council board, and director of Sister City program Gainesville/ Duhok. Bahar has served as an international advisor, and introduced green buildings and LEED rating system to the public and private sectors in Jordan, Republic of Georgia, and Iraq (Kurdistan). She has delivered green building design, construction, and operation workshops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sweden, and Singapore. She played a leading role in establishing the Jordan Green Building Council. Most recently, she established Kurdistan Green Building Interest group. She presents in International and National conferences Bahar is a University of Florida graduate with a MS in Civil Engineering and BS in Environmental Engineering.

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Hassan Azad

Hassan Azad

School of Architecture
Assistant Professor
352-294-1452
ARCH 230
h.azad@ufl.edu
https://eaarlab.com/

Education:
PhD in Design, Construction, and Planning | University of Florida
MSc in Low Energy Architecture | University of Tehran
BSc in Architectural Engineering | Iran University of Science and Technology

Areas of Focus:

Hassan Azad, an assistant professor at the University of Florida’ School of Architecture, is a scholar known for his research, teaching, and practice in the areas of architectural science, building technology, and particularly architectural and environmental acoustics. Dr. Azad is the director at EAAR Lab where with his team they conduct research projects that encompass a variety of topics including Technology Integration with Architectural Design, Computer Programming and Simulation for Architectural and Acoustical Applications, and Smart and Connected Built Environment.

Smart & Connected Communities – He is also interested in smart technologies in building and urban scales that elevate acoustic comfort. In addition, he studies the environmental effect of unwanted sound on public health.

Sustainability – Using sustainable acoustic materials for sound insulation and absorption.

Bio:
Hassan Azad is a LEED AP BD + C and an AIA Associate. He is also a member of Noise Control Engineering (INCE-USA), International Building Performance Simulation Association, USA Chapter (IBPSA-USA), Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE), Building Technology Educators Society (BTES), Acoustical Society of America (ASA), and Audio Engineering Society (AES). He serves as a member for the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Technical Committee (TC) on Architectural Acoustics, and Technical Specialty Group (TSG) on Computational Acoustics. Dr. Azad has received many awards, scholarships and grants and is a recipient of Robert Bradford Newman Medal for Excellence in Architectural Acoustics.

At the School of Architecture, Professor Azad teaches several undergraduate and graduate courses. He is also a University of Florida’s Doctoral Research Faculty and supervises doctoral and master’s degree seeking students. He teaches Environmental Technology I & II and graduate seminars on topics of Architectural and Environmental Acoustics.

Hassan Azad holds a B.Sc. in Architectural Engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology and a M.Sc. in Low Energy Architecture from the University of Tehran. He graduated with a Ph.D. in design, construction, and planning from the School of Architecture of the University of Florida in 2018. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Azad worked as an acoustical consultant in the San Francisco bay area for a year.

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Vandana Baweja

Vandana Baweja

School of Architecture
Associate Professor
352-294-1465
ARCH 242
vbaweja@ufl.edu

Ph.D. History and Theory of Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
M.Sc. History and Theory of Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
M.A. Histories and Theories of Architecture, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK.
Five Year Undergraduate Diploma in Architecture, Sushant School of Art and Architecture, India.

Vandana Baweja is an associate professor the School of Architecture and the Sustainability Program at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She got her PhD in architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. She was trained as an architect in New Delhi, India, and got a master’s in architecture at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London, UK. Baweja’s areas of research are – global histories of Tropical Architecture, histories of Sustainable Architecture, and their representation in film and photography. She is the Co-Editor, of Arris: The Journal of The Southeast Chapter of The Society of Architectural Historians, published by UNC press. At the moment she is working on a book manuscript on Sustainable Architecture and editing a book project titled Narratives of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster: Reconsidering (sub)Tropical Architecture and Urbanism with Dr Deborah van der Plaat (The University of Queensland),) and Professor Tom Avermaete (ETH Zurich). The book project investigates histories of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster in the field of tropical architecture – a mid-twentieth century global architectural movement that was predicated upon the emerging relationship between architecture and climatology.

Through her publications on Tropical Architecture, she has investigated how ideas about the relationship between architecture and climate were forged in the mid-twentieth century and circulated globally along the networks of the British Empire. She is a recipient of grants from the Florida Humanities Council and the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC). She has produced peer reviewed teaching materials and curriculum for the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC), which is a pedagogical professional society out of MIT.  Vandana Baweja is a member of the governing board of the Undergraduate Sustainability Major offered by the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida. She is member of the Membership and Diversity Committees of the American Society of Environmental History. She has served on the UF Quest 1 curriculum committee at UF and is a member of the DCP diversity committee.

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Ilir Bejleri

Ilir Bejleri

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Professor
(352) 294-1489
ARCH 454
ilir@ufl.edu

Ph.D.,Architecture and Design, Polytechnic University, Tirana, Albania, 1994
B.A., Architecture, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania, 1987

Areas of Experitise
  • Geospatial Information Systems and Analysis
  • Urban Design
Research Interests
  • Urban Design
  • 3D Visual Urban Simulation
  • Planning & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

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Stephen Bender

Stephen Bender

School of Architecture, CityLab-Orlando
Instructional Associate Professor + Program Director of CityLab Orlando
352-294-6876
CLO 516
sbender@ufl.edu

Education
M.Arch. Architecture, Harvard University, 1996
B.Des. Architecture, University of Florida, 1993

Stephen Bender is Acting Director of CityLab-Orlando, an off-campus market-rate program of the University of Florida Graduate School of Architecture, offering Master in Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture Studies.

The education of architects should enable artful resolution of competing forces to solve the open, complex, dynamic, and networked problems of our world, including building design. Bender aims to create environments for active learning, structured by project-based courses that enable motivated, self-directed, enriched, and ethical development of students. This includes collaboration with industry professionals and UF peers to develop the concentration in Themed Environments Integration (MSAS-TEI). Create knowledge together.

As a licensed architect, Bender has focused his professional architecture practice, bndr, llc, on projects with the opportunity to explore sustainability and prefabrication in housing and small business. This critical practice is synergistic to his academic developments, course enhancement/creation, and research collaborations at UF. He is Co-PI for the HUD funded Project Re-envision, and the HUD-RD funded Advanced Technologies for Rapid Manufacturing of Post-Disaster Housing, both with interdisciplinary teams. These projects evidence innovation in sustainability practices, prefabrication technology, and partnerships and policy, all focused on housing.

Bender earned a Bachelor of Design from University of Florida, and a Master in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

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