Architectural Engineering
Architectural Engineering (ArchE) deals with integrated design, construction and operation of buildings. It includes all engineering aspects related to the built environment: building envelope, mechanical systems (HVAC), electrical systems, lighting systems, construction, indoor environmental quality and human comfort- and is therefore related to multi-disciplinary research and education.
Buildings in the U.S. account for more than one third of the total energy use and associated Greenhouse Gas Emissions. With increasing concern about climate change and energy prices, Architectural Engineers have a critical task for the following decades. In Civil Engineering's Architectural Engineering area of emphasis, students have the opportunity to study the integration of different building systems and to learn how to design for sustainability and energy efficiency. The area of emphasis provides flexibility and offers several courses on energy and buildings, design of electrical/mechanical systems, lighting systems, as well as on building envelope, building controls, renewable energy sources, indoor air quality and energy modeling. A minor in Architectural Engineering is also available to all students in the College of Engineering except students in the School of Civil Engineering.
The faculty members of Architectural Engineering are dedicated to research and teaching, with focus on Building Science and design/operation of energy-efficient buildings. Specific topics of research include: thermal and visual comfort, indoor air quality and ventilation, innovative building envelopes, daylighting and electric lighting design & control, energy-efficient equipment, HVAC system design and control, smart buildings, passive/active solar energy technologies, building energy modeling and simulation, and sustainable/green building design.
Architectural Engineering faculty are associated with the Ray W. Herrick Labs. Together with the HVAC Group in ME, we have one of the largest teams in the US conducting research related to the built environment.
The Architectural Engineering group has unique, state-of-the-art facilities to study building performance in terms of energy and indoor environmental quality. These include several room-scale facilities at the Architectural Engineering Laboratories, located at the Bowen Lab, as well as whole building-scale facilities at the Center for High Performance Buildings, located in Herrick Labs.
Spotlights
March 5, 2019
Brandon Boor, Assistant Professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research into the formation, growth, and phase state of organic nanoaerosols in indoor environments.
November 19, 2018
Professor Panagiota Karava has been appointed as the Jack and Kay Hockema Associate Professor in Civil Engineering. This is the first "Rising Star" professorship designed to recognize faculty members in the early stages of their career.
October 21, 2018
Somebody has turned up the conference room thermostat, again. And a co-worker wears a blanket at her desk. Sound familiar? It is more than annoying. In a recent survey of more than 1,000 office workers, 46 percent reported that their office was too hot or too cold. In fact, building occupants affect up to 30 percent of its energy usage. The building sector in the U.S. accounts for about 40 percent of primary energy usage, 71 percent of electricity usage and 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Panagiota Karava, the Jack and Kay Hockema Associate Professor in Civil Engineering, wants to help change that.
September 7, 2018
Iason Konstantzos (Ph.D. ’16) started as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Aug. 13, 2018.
May 3, 2018
Civil Engineering Ph.D. student Tianren Wu was recently named recipient of the prestigious ASHRAE Grant-in-Aid Award for 2018-2019. This $10,000 award is given to the most outstanding graduate students performing research in the High Performance Buildings or HVAC fields. The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers considers applications from all over the world.
January 10, 2018
When babies crawl, their movement across floors, especially carpeted surfaces, kicks up high levels of dirt, skin cells, bacteria, pollen, and fungal spores, a new study has found. The infants inhale a dose of bio bits in their lungs that is four times (per kilogram of body mass) what an adult would breathe walking across the same floor. As alarming as that sounds, lead researcher Brandon Boor of Purdue University is quick to add that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
October 12, 2017
NSF announces $3.6M to a multidisciplinary Purdue team as one of the first-ever awards through the Smart & Connected Communities program seeking to address transportation, infrastructure, health and other rural and urban challenges.
August 29, 2017
PhD student Seungjae Lee was recently named recipient of the prestigious American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Grant-in-Aid Award for 2017-2018. This $10,000 award is given to the most outstanding graduate students performing research in the High Performance Buildings or HVAC fields.
July 7, 2016
As the world swelters toward a third straight year of record-breaking heat, experts in air conditioning and refrigeration are chilling out during three international conferences this month at Purdue University.
July 7, 2016
CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, visited Purdue's Herrick Labs in April to film a segment about the indoor air quality of bedding materials with Assistant Professor Brandon Boor.
September 1, 2015
Associate Professor Panagiota Karava is leading a multi-disciplinary Purdue team that has been awarded a $1.2M National Science Foundation grant for their project "CyberSEES -Type 2: Human-centered systems for cyber-enabled sustainable buildings."
May 1, 2015
Grissom Controls, which offers a software solution to optimize controls for highly complex heating, cooling and ventilation systems in buildings, took top honors and $5,000 at the fifth Schurz Innovation Challenge at Purdue on Thursday (April 30). Andrew Martin, the sole member of Grissom Controls, is a student in Purdue's Lyles School of Civil Engineering.
March 25, 2015
Civil Engineering PhD students Iason Konstantzos (advised by Thanos Tzempelikos) and Jaewan Joe (advised by Panagiota Karava) were named recipients of the prestigious ASHRAE Grant-in-Aid Award for 2015.
October 27, 2014
Siwei Li, a recent Ph.D. graduate in civil engineering, has been awarded the 2014 Chorafas Foundation Award in recognition of her work titled "Modeling of Photovoltaic Thermal Systems with Transpired Solar Collectors Integrated in Building Operation Simulations." performed under the supervision of Panagiota Karava, assistant professor of civil engineering and construction engineering management.
August 25, 2014
Ph.D. student Seyed Amir Sadeghi and his co-authors (including Panagiota Karava, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and CEM) received the first prize in the Student Best Paper Award Competition at the 3rd International High Performance Buildings Conference at Purdue.
April 30, 2014
The 2014 Herrick conferences, organized by Herrick Labs and Architectural Engineering Faculty, will take place on July 14-17 at Purdue University. The three recognized international conferences (Compressors, Refrigeration/Air-Conditioning, and High Performance Buildings) will run in parallel and will again lead the way to exchanging ideas, information and cutting-edge research in these areas.
December 12, 2013
Professors Thanos Tzempelikos, Panagiota Karava and Jim Braun from CE, together with Prof. Patricia Davies (ME) and Prof. Robert Proctor (PSYCH) formed a Purdue team that received one of the six grants awarded from the new Pillars of Sustainable Education program.
August 16, 2013
Assistant Professor Ming Qu served on the solar application jury at the Solar Decathlon China, co-hosted by the National Energy Administration of China and U.S. Department of Energy.
June 13, 2013
Panagiota Karava, assistant professor of civil engineering, is among the Purdue researchers exploring ways to significantly reduce energy consumption by incorporating innovative strategies into the design and operation of new buildings, optimally linked with smart grids.
February 13, 2013
Congratulations to Prof. Karava for receiving the 2013 New Investigator Award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
