Author: Fernanda Cruz Rios
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AE 444 students create infographics on passive cooling strategies
Another infographic round, this one for passive cooling strategies! Architectural engineering students at Drexel University School of Engineering read the recent article Cooling People, Not Spaces (available below) and each created an infographic on one of the cooling strategies illustrated in the article. Passive heating and cooling strategies are increasingly important to create sustainable, resilient…
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AE 444 students create infographics on innovative smart materials for building envelopes
In our Building Envelope Systems course for architectural engineering students, we read an article about innovative smart materials for the building envelope. Each student then conducted additional research on a specific type of smart material and created a graphical abstract or infographic on the topic, targeting a general audience. These are a few examples of…
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CIRCLE lab receives NSF award to enable design for circularity in buildings
We’re super excited to announce that the CIRCLE lab, in partnership with the ARVIN lab, received an NSF award to combine life cycle assessment (LCA), machine learning, and generative AI to enable design for circular economy in early design stages! See the project abstract below. Buildings account for a significant portion of global material use…
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CIRCLE and ARVIN labs launch RECLAIM project
Nondestructive evaluation meets material reuse! Today we had the first session of our RECLAIM project at Drexel University College of Engineering – Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Drexel University. RECLAIM stands for Robotic Evaluation for Circular Lifecycle Assessment of Infrastructure Materials. In this project, born from a collaboration between myself and Arvin Ebrahimkhanlou, PhD,…
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CIRCLE Lab representing Drexel at AEESP 2025
First time at an AEESP conference and I loved it!Highlights:— I cannot get over how beautiful Duke’s campus is;— The sense of community, support, and solidarity was overwhelming;— The leadership talks were inspiring and got me teary-eyed. Our work matters! And our colleagues inspire us.— There was an excellent session on Climate education for engineering!—…
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ENVE 571 students learn from LCA practitioner and industry alumni
Shannon Belfield , Senior Project Manager at Sustainable Solutions and an alumna of the Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, gave an engaging guest lecture to our ENVE 571 students earlier this week. She shared insights on a Life Cycle Assessment her company did for a circular economy program. Students appreciated learning from…
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AE 444 Students use AI-generated images to design the world’s WORST building envelope!
For the first week of my Architectural Engineering course about Building Envelope Systems, we talked about functions and performance aspects of the building envelope, from technical to environmental and sociocultural design considerations. We had a lot of fun with a 15-min class activity where I asked students to use AI to design the world’s worst…
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AE 444 Students visit a LEED Platinum building
Field trip day!! Had the pleasure to take my Building Envelope Systems students on a field trip to University Place 3.0, the first certified WELL Platinum and LEED Platinum lab building in the US! Thank you Marelisa Gibson, Chloe Bendistis, AIA, LEED AP, and the rest of the team at UPA | University Place Associates…
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Dr. Cruz Rios implements innovative double dice game to improve classroom engagement, learning, and creativity!
I feel energized! Today I tested an innovative teaching strategy I learned at Drexel’s Teaching and Learning Center in my Building Envelope Systems class at Drexel University College of Engineering. Here’s how it works: each team gets a double dice and a dry erase board (to keep score). A double dice has one number inside…
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Dr. Cruz Rios and Dr. Carneiro Marques awarded Longsview Fellowship
Happy to share that Amanda Carneiro Marques, Ph.D. and I were awarded a Longsview Fellowship for our research project in circular water strategies, flood mitigation, and climate resilience! Thankful to Drexel University College of Engineering for the support to get this exciting project started. We needed this bump of confidence lately! And of course especially…