Research under the Agentic Spaces theme explores explores a holistic design and operation philosophy where the built environment, in concert with intelligent agents, enables people with varying sensory profiles to engage, learn, or work effectively. Much of today’s AI operates with limited awareness of physical grounding and environmental affordances (i.e., the actionable possibilities that space offers to different people under different conditions). Without embodied grounding, AI systems cannot meaningfully interpret or adapt to these affordances, limiting their ability to satisfactorily support how individuals and groups live, work, and move in real spaces. We advance new technical foundations that center AI around physical embodiment in human-inhabited spaces.
Enabling Technologies
Human-Centric Monitoring and Control of Physical Spaces
Personalized Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption Models
Human Embodied Automated Thermostats
Lightweight and Adaptive Building Simulation (LABS)
Publications (Click to Expand)
Deng, M., Wang, X., Li, D., Fu, B., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2024). “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Based Human Centric Activity Based Workspaces.” Proceedings of the 2023 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE). (pp. 141-149). doi:10.1061/9780784485224.018.
Deng, M., Fu. B., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2023). “Learning-Based Personal Models for Joint Optimization of Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption in Flexible Workplaces.” Energy and Buildings. Elsevier. DOI:10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113438.
Deng, M., Wang, X., and Menassa, C. (2022). “Investigating the effect of wearing masks on office work in indoor environments during a pandemic using physiological sensing.” Building and Environment. Elsevier. 221, 109346: 1-14.
Deng, M., Wang, X., Li, D. and Menassa, C. (2022). “Digital ID Framework for Human-Centric Monitoring and Control of Smart Buildings.” Building Simulation. Springer. 15. 1709–1728.
Deng, M., Wang, X., and Menassa, C. (2021). “Measurement and Prediction of Task Engagement under Different Indoor Lighting Conditions using Physiological Sensing.” Building and Environment. Elsevier. 203, October 2021, 108098: 1-13. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108098
Xu, L., Lin, S.Y., Hlynka, A., Lu, H., Kamat, V., Menassa, C., El-Tawil, S., Prakash, A., Spence, S. and McCormick, J. (2021). “Distributed Simulation Platforms and Data Passing Tools for Natural Hazards Engineering: Reviews, Limitations, and Recommendations.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. Springer. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-021-00361-7.
Tverskoi, D., Xu, X., Nelson, H., Menassa, C., Gavrilets, S. and Chen, C. (2021). “Energy saving at work: Understanding the roles of normative values, and perceived benefits and costs in distinct building context.” Energy Research and Social Science. Elsevier. September 2021, 102173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102173.
Deng, M., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2021). "From BIM to digital twins: a systematic review of the evolution of intelligent building representations in the AEC-FM industry." Journal of Information Technology in Construction, ITcon. 26, March 2021, Pages 58-83. http://www.itcon.org/2021/5.
Deng, M., Fu, B. and Menassa, C. (2021). "Achieving Thermal Comfort Through Smart and Flexible Allocation of Spaces in Office Buildings." Proceedings of the 2021 Winter Simulation Conference. Phoenix, AZ. https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/wsc/wsc2021_program/views/includes/files/inv197s3-file1.pdf
Li, D., Menassa, C., Kamat, V. and Byon, E. (2020). "HEAT: Human Embodied Autonomous Thermostat." Building and Environment, Elsevier. 178, July 2020, 106879: 1-14.
Xu, X., Chen, C.F., Li, D. and Menassa, C. (2020). “Energy Saving at Work: Exploring the Role of Social Norms, Perceived Control and Ascribed Responsibility in Different Office Layout." Frontiers in Built Environment, Elsevier. February 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2020.00016. 6 (16). Pages 1-12.
Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). “Robust non-intrusive interpretation of occupant thermal comfort in built environments with low-cost networked thermal cameras.” Applied Energy, Elsevier. 251, October 2019, 113336: 1-16.
Wang, X., Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). "Investigating the effect of indoor thermal environment on occupants' mental workload and task performance using electroencephalogram." Building and Environment, Elsevier. 158, July 2019, Pages 120-132.
Lin, S. Y., Chuang, W. C., Xu, L., El-Tawil, S., Spence, S., Kamat, V., Menassa, C. and McCormick, J. (2019). “A Framework for Modeling Interdependent Effects in Natural Disasters: Application to Wind Engineering.” Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE. 145(5): 04019025, 1-12.
Li, D., Xu, X., Chen, C.F. and Menassa, C. (2019). “Understanding energy-saving behaviors in the American workplace: A unified theory of Motivation, Opportunity and Ability." Energy Research and Social Science, Elsevier. 51, May 2019, 198-209.
Wang, X., Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). “Can Infrared Facial Thermography Disclose Mental Workload Demand in Different Indoor Thermal Environments?” The 1st ACM International Workshop On Urban Building Energy Sensing, Controls, Big Data Analysis, And Visualization (UrbSys '19), New York City, NY, USA. 87-96.
Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). “Thermal Sensor Fusion and RGB-D for Human Thermal Comfort Assessment.” Proceedings of the 2019 CIB World Building Congress, International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, Hong Kong. 1-10.
Wang, X., Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). “Investigating the Neurophysiological Effect of Thermal Environment on Individuals' Performance Using Electroencephalogram.” Proceedings of the 2019 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE), Atlanta, GA, USA. 598-605.
Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2019). “Feasibility of low-cost infrared thermal imaging to assess occupants’ thermal comfort.” Proceedings of the 2019 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE), Atlanta, GA, USA. 58-65.
Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2018). “Non-intrusive interpretation of human thermal comfort through analysis of facial infrared thermography.” Energy and Buildings, Elsevier. 176, October 2018, 246-261.
Mantha, B., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2018). "Robotic Data Collection and Simulation for Evaluation of Building Retrofit Performance." Automation in Construction, Elsevier. Volume 92, August 2018, 88-102.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2018). "A Systems Simulation Framework to Realize Net-Zero Building Energy Retrofits." Sustainable Cities and Society, Elsevier. Volume 41, August 2018, Pages 405-420.
Bortoluzzi, B. Carey, D. McArthur, J. and Menassa, C. (2018). “Measurements of Workplace Productivity in the Office Context: A Systematic Review and Current Industry Insights.” Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Emerald. 20 (4), 281-301.
Talele, S., Traylor, C., Arpan, L., Curley, C., Chen, C., Day, J., Feiock, R., Hadzikadic, M., Ingman, S., Karaguzel, O.T., Lam, K.P., Menassa, C., Pevnitskaya, S., Spiegelhalter, T., Tolone, W.J., Yan, W., Yeatts, D., Zhu, Y. and Tao, Y. (2018). “Energy Modeling and Data Structure Framework for Sustainable Human-Building Ecosystems (SHBE) - A Review.” Frontiers in Energy, Springer. 12 (2), 314-332.
Li, D., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2017). “Personalized Human Comfort in Indoor Building Environments under Diverse Conditioning Modes.” Building and Environment, Elsevier. Volume 126, December 2017, Pages 304-317.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2017). "Lightweight and Adaptive Building Simulation (LABS) Framework for Integrated Building Energy and Thermal Comfort Analysis." Building Simulation - An International Journal, Springer. Volume 10, December 2017, Pages 1023-1044.
Mantha, B., Menassa, C., and Kamat, V. (2017). "Task Allocation and Route Planning for Robotic Service Networks in Indoor Building Environments." Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. 31 (5), 04017038, 1-16.
Li, D., and Menassa, C. and Karatas, A.* (2017). "Energy Use Behaviors in Buildings: Towards an Integrated Conceptual Framework." Energy Research and Social Science, Elsevier. 23 (January 2017), 97-112.
Li, D., Menassa, C., and Kamat, V. (2017). "A Personalized HVAC Control Smartphone Application Framework for Improved Human Health and Well-Being." International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering (IWCCE 2017), ASCE, Seattle, WA. 82-90.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2016). “A System Dynamics Simulation Framework to Study the Effect of Material Performance on a Building's Life Cycle Energy Requirements.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. 30 (6), 04016034, 1-15. Editor’s Choice.
Karatas, A., Stoiko, A. and Menassa, C. (2016). "A Framework for Selecting Occupancy Focused Energy Interventions in Buildings." Building Research and Information, Special Issue: Building governance and climate change: regulation and related policies, Taylor and Francis. 44 (5-6), 535-551.
Mantha, B., Menassa, C., and Kamat V. (2016). "A taxonomy of data types and data collection methods for building energy monitoring and performance simulation." Advances in Building Energy Research, Taylor and Francis. 10 (2), 263-293.
Azar, E. and Menassa, C. (2016). “Optimizing the Performance of Energy-Intensive Commercial Buildings: An Occupancy-Focused Data Collection and Analysis Approach.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. 30 (5), C4015002: 1–11.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C., Kamat, V. (2016). ‘Distributed Simulation Framework to Analyze the Energy Effects of Adaptive Thermal Comfort Behavior of Building Occupants." Winter Simulation Conference (WSC 2016), Washington, D. C. 3225-3236. (Invited Paper)
Mantha, B., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2016). "Ambient Data Collection in Indoor Building Environments Using Mobile Robots." 33rd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2016), Auburn, Alabama. 428-436. Overall Conference Best Paper Award.
Thomas, A., Mantha, B. and Menassa, C. (2016). “A Framework to Evaluate Life Cycle Costs and Environmental Impacts of Water Pipelines.” 2016 ASCE Pipelines Conference. Kansas City, Missouri. 1152-1163.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2016). “An LCM Framework to Couple Spatially Distributed Energy Simulation and Occupancy Models for Optimizing Building Energy Consumption.” 2016 Construction Research Congress (CRC), San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1071-1080.
Azar, E. and Menassa, C. (2015). “Evaluating the Impact of Extreme Energy Use Behavior on Occupancy Interventions in Commercial Buildings.” Energy and Buildings, Elsevier. 97 (June 2015), 205-218.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2015). “A Framework to Understand Effect of Building Systems Deterioration on Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprint.” Procedia Engineering, Elsevier. Special Issue on Papers accepted to the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction - ICSDEC 2015, Chicago, IL. 118, 507-514.
Karatas, A., Menassa, C. and Allisandra Stoiko* (2015). “A Framework for Delivering Targeted Occupancy Interventions to Reduce Energy Usage in Buildings.” Procedia Engineering, Elsevier. Special Issue on Papers accepted to the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction - ICSDEC 2015, Chicago, IL. 118, 752-759.
Behzadan, A., Menassa, C. and Pradhan, A. (2015). “Enabling Real Time Simulation of Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management (AEC/FM) Systems: A Review of Formalism, Model Architecture, and Data Representation.” Journal of Information Technology in Construction. ITcon. 20 (January 2015), 1-23.
Stephan, K. and Menassa, C. (2015). “Modeling Effect of Building Stakeholder Interactions on Value Perception of Sustainable Retrofits.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. 29 (04), B4014006: 1-16.
Thomas, A., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2015). “Coupled Simulation Framework to Assess Life-Cycle Energy Requirements in Buildings.” 2015 International Conference on Mantha, B., Feng, C., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2015). “Real-time Building Energy and Comfort Parameter Data Collection Using Mobile Indoor Robots.” 32nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2015), Oulu, Finland. 639-647.
Media (Click to Expand)
“HEAT’ uses cameras to detect facial temperatures and keep the room cool” Reported by Tech Briefs, June 2020.
“The HVAC system of the future swaps thermostats for thermal cameras” Reported by Popular Mechanics, June 2020.
“Autonomous HVAC system could provide more comfort with less energy” Reported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Research News, June 2020.
“Turning faces into thermostats: Autonomous HVAC system could provide more comfort with less energy” Reported by 7th Space; TechXplore; and Science Daily, June 2020.
“Turning faces into thermostats” Reported by The Michigan Engineering News Center, June 2020.
“Is There a Better Way to Control Room Temperature?” Reported by American Scientist, May 2020.
“Robotic data collection and simulation for evaluation of building retrofit performance” Reported by Advances in Engineering, May 2019, https://advanceseng.com/robotic-data-collection-simulation-evaluation-building-retrofit-performance/
“Offices are Too Hot or Too Cold – Is There a Better Way to Control Room Temperature?” Article published in The Conversation, January 2019, https://theconversation.com/offices-are-too-hot-or-too-cold-is-there-a-better-way-to-control-room-temperature-108982