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GSD Students and Alumni Win International Building Simulation Competitions

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC) had a strong presence at the Building Simulation 2017 conference in San Francisco, California, August 7-9 2017. At least 26 Harvard affiliates, including faculty, researchers, and past and present students, participated (several pictured below).

The conference acts as the biennial meeting of the International Building Performance Simulation Association and it’s the premier opportunity for researchers, simulation practitioners, and building industry professionals from around the world to meet and share information about exciting developments in the field of building performance simulation and advanced building systems. The event included a program of peer-reviewed presentations and papers, and sessions covered both research and advanced practice in the areas of energy simulation, airflow and natural ventilation, thermal comfort, lighting and daylighting, acoustics, and more.




Front Row (left to right)
:  Esteban Estrella Guill
én, Ching Che Huang, Liuwei Zhao, Rufei Wang, Alejandra Menchaca
Middle Row (left to right): Arta Yazdanseta, Tai-Hsin Hsu, Jung Min (Ellie) Han, Christine Vöhringer, Holly Samuelson, Carlos Cerezo, Kanika Arora, Nari Yoon, Aman Singhvi, Nada Tarkhan, Tarek Rakha, Elliot Glassman, Jianxiang Huang
Back Row: Timur Dogan
Missing from photo:  Christine Tiffin, Alstan Jakubiec, Bin Yan, Jon Sargent, Yujiao Chen, Zheming Tong, Huishan He


Harvard GSD students and alumni were victorious in both the student and practitioner design competitions. Students from the GSD’s Master of Design in Energy and Environments program won first place in the student design competition which challenged student teams to redesign a mixed-use laboratory building using building performance simulation to help improve its environmental performance and overall design. The GSD team’s design focused mainly on passive, architectural solutions. Members 
included Esteban Estrella Guillén, Jung Min (Ellie) Han, Tai-Hsin Hsu, Ching Che Huan, and Christine Vöhringer. Holly Samuelson, a CGBC affiliate faculty member, acted as Faculty Adviser. For the first time, this year’s conference also included a practitioner competition, a modified version of the student competition, which drew interest from over 40 professional firms.  The winning entry, from team AECOM, was presented by team member Aman Singhvi, a 2016 graduate of the GSD Master of Design in Energy and Environments program.


Shown in photo (left to right): Jung Min (Ellie) Han, Christine Vöhringer, Holly Samuelson (Faculty Adviser), Esteban Estrella Guillén, Ching Che Huang, and Tai-Hsin Hsu.