Building Technologies to Empower the Unseen: A Retrofitting Revolution

By: Dr. Tarek Rakha—Associate Professor, Director, High Performance Building Lab, Georgia Tech School of Architecture

Climate change is the greatest threat in human history to our survival on Earth, and marginalized communities are the most vulnerable to its dire risks. This talk will demonstrate how to inform climate-responsive and resilient building design decisions that advance racially and socially just solutions. Dr. Tarek Rakha’s leadership of the High Performance Building Lab at Georgia Tech has enabled his team to develop, validate, and deploy novel environmental robotic, sensing, and computing applications, coupled with advanced performance simulation technologies to empower frontline communities. In this talk, Dr. Rakha will demonstrate deep dives in 3 topics: 1) Aerial Analytics: Envelope Vulnerability Diagnostics using Computer-Vision Drones, 2) Underrepresentation Informatics and Urban/Building Energy Modeling (U/BEM) and 3) Simulation for Comfortable, Walkable and Bikeable Neighborhoods. The talk will also illustrate Dr. Rakha’s co-founded venture: Lamarr.AI, which is commercializing the computer vision drone technology developed through funded research between Georgia Tech, MIT, and Syracuse University.