This project aims to overcome barriers to mainstreaming personal comfort devices in commercial buildings to improve comfort, save energy, and provide resilience.
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CIEE CITRIS Projects
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Building Measurable Impact: Research Update from 2025 Art Rosenfeld Award Winner Aoyu Zou
Since receiving the 2025 Art Rosenfeld Award, CBE PhD student Aoyu Zou has continued developing standardized retrofit frameworks alongside new methods for measuring and verifying building performance.

Emilio Camacho Joins CIEE
Emilio Camacho joins the California Institute for Energy and Environment as a Research Analyst, where he will support the institute’s research projects.

The Thermostat that Talks: How Dr. Isabel Méndez is Humanizing Smart Technology
CIEE postdoctoral researcher and Fulbright scholar Dr. Isabel Méndez is working with Dr. Therese Peffer to develop AI-powered thermostats that use language and empathy to make smart energy technology more intuitive and human-centered.

Labs, Lessons, and Lived Environments: Inside the BEST Center’s Fourteenth Building Automation Systems Workshop
The BEST Center hosted its fourteenth Building Automation Systems workshop in Milwaukee, bringing instructors from across the country together for five days of training, peer collaboration, and ideation for the future of energy-efficient building design.

Dr. Phillippe Phanivong on EcoBlock and Our Environmental Future
CIEE postdoctoral scholar Phillippe Phanivong reflects on his two years spent with the Oakland EcoBlock project, sharing lessons on advancing California’s decarbonization efforts through technical innovation and community collaboration.
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I’m inspired by collaborative, human-centered research that turns complex energy choices into user-friendly actions.
Juana Isabel Méndez Garduño, Postdoctoral Researcher

