Welcome to CIRCLE Lab!
CIRCLE stands for Circular Innovations for Resilient Communities and Livable Environments. We combine sustainability science, building design, urban planning and policy, environmental justice, and engineering methods to work on solutions for circular, sustainable, equitable, and resilient built environments.
Leadership

Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Drexel University
Dr. Cruz Rios is a built environment scientist who is fascinated by complex systems, convergence research, and sustainability. Her background in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering gives her a unique perspective of the complex challenges of buildings and cities. Her main research interests are circular economy, sustainable buildings and cities, design for circularity and resilience, and diversity and inclusion. Her team uses a variety of research methods, ranging from life cycle assessment, spatial analysis, machine learning, and surveys and interviews with stakeholders. Above all, Dr. Cruz Rios strives to understand and include the “human in the equation” in engineering problems and contribute to sustainable, resilient, and equitable built environments.
Research Areas

Circular Cities
We investigate circular economy strategies in neighborhoods and cities and the complex and interdisciplinary systems needed to advance urban sustainability and resilience.

Life cycle assessment and circular economy
We perform social and environmental life cycle assessment of closed-looped systems to uncover benefits and burdens of circular economy and the tradeoffs with other sustainability goals.

Circular building design and deconstruction
We analyze circular design strategies in buildings, their social and environmental impacts, the decision-making process in circular building design, and gaps in industry and education.
CIRCLE Team

Cagla Keles, PhD Candidate
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Drexel University
Cagla is a PhD student in the Architectural Engineering program at Drexel University. She’s completing her PhD project at the CIRCLE lab. Cagla’s interests include sustainability, climate resilience, building energy optimization, life cycle assessment, and circular building design.

Jie Dong, undergraduate research assistant
Architectural Engineering
Jie is a senior undergraduate student studying Architectural Engineering at Drexel University. Jie is interested in 3D modeling, sustainability, and information technology in construction and design.

Enzo Fetter-Garcia, undergraduate research assistant
Mechanical Engineering
Enzo is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at Drexel University and a Drexel Global Scholar. He also volunteers at Engineering Without Borders, where he aims to bring sustainable solutions to real-world problems happening in the Philadelphia community. Enzo is interested in sustainability, smart cities and digital solutions.

Audrey Ling, undergraduate research assistant
Architecture
Audrey is an undergraduate Architecture student at Drexel University. Audrey is interested in sustainability, urban design, and vernacular architecture.