All general enquires please email sbrc@uow.edu.au
Sustainable Buildings Research Centre
Our people
Executive
Research interests:
- Sustainable buildings
- Engineering Education Research
- Design of Steel Structures
- Conceptual Design
- Information Modelling
- Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design
- Integrated Design Systems
- Information and knowledge management in Construction
- Computer Aided Design
- Performance based multi-criterion optimization
- Ecologically sustainable Structural Design
- Mooring design for floating offshore structures
Deputy Director
Sustainable Buildings Research Centre
zhenjun@uow.edu.au
02 4221 4143
Research interests:
- Optimal and robust control of building energy systems
- Phase change materials and their applications in buildings
- Low energy technologies and zero-emission buildings
- Dynamic modelling and simulation of building energy systems
- HVAC and BMS system fault detection and diagnosis
- Solar photovoltaic thermal systems and advanced solar-driven air-conditioning systems
- Ground source heat pumps
Technical Director of Australian Power Quality and Reliability Centre
School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering
duane@uow.edu.au
02 4221 4530
Research interests:
- Energy efficiency in networks and at point of utilisation
- Monitoring building performance for energy efficiency
- Microgrids, renewables and distributed generation
- Power quality and mitigation techniques
Academics
- Senior Professor Paul Cooper
- Associate Professor Georgios Kokogiannakis
- Dr Emma Heffernan
- Dr Aziz Ahmed
- Dr Daniel Daly
- Dr Leela Kempton
- Dr Matthew Daly
- Dr Alan Green
- Dr Weyne Lin
- Mr Clayton McDowell
- Mr Steven Beltrame
- Dr Tillmann Boehme
Research interests:
- Ventilation, pollution control and energy conservation in buildings
- Renewable Energy Technologies
Research interests:
- Building energy modelling and monitoring
- Energy-efficient building design
- Renewable energy systems
- Healthy building environments
- Smart ventilation systems
- Green roofs and living walls
- Experimental and inter-model comparison validation techniques
- Modelling of phase change materials
- Energy and carbon ratings
- Building energy performance regulations
Research interests:
- Energy-efficient design in residential buildings
- Sustainable communities
- Sustainable construction
- Building energy modelling
- Climate change adaptation
Research interests:
- Cold-formed Steel Structures
- Structural Dynamics
- Ice-structure interaction
- Fracture mechanics
- Marine Structural Steel Connections
- High-rise concrete structures
- Earthquake Engineering
- FRP based Structural Retrofit
Research interests:
- Energy-efficient building design
- Existing building retrofit strategies
- Building energy modelling
- Human factors in building sustainability
- Building energy rating schemes
Research interests:
- Sustainable and renewable materials in the built environment
- Life cycle analysis
- Building energy efficiencies
- Facades
- Analysis of indoor environment quality (IEQ) & the effect upon mould
- Dynamic modelling of buildings and building HVAC systems
Research interests:
- Collaborative housing communities and sustainability (cohousing, ecovillages, eco-communities etc)
- Sustainable consumption, energy efficiency and changing practices
- Energy-efficient design in residential buildings
- Community-led approaches to sustainability and resilience
Research interests:
- Fluid dynamics
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Technologies for improved building thermal performance
- Building resilience to bushfire
- Experimental assessment of building element thermos-physical properties
Research interests:
- Solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems
- Sustainable and renewable energy technologies in the built environment
- Thermal energy storage (TES) using phase change materials (PCMs) in buildings
- Building energy efficiency
- Novel heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
- Design optimization of building HVAC systems
- Distributed energy generation systems
- Analysis of indoor environment quality (IEQ) using data mining technologies
- Dynamic modelling of buildings and building HVAC systems
- Heat pump dehumidification systems
- Mechanical vapour re-compression (MVR) systems for waste heat recovery
Research interests:
- Energy-efficient building design
- Healthy building environments
- Building retrofits for improved energy efficiency, comfort and wellbeing
- Residential building design for vulnerable communities
- Building Information Modelling (BIM) systems for future design
- Work integrated learning streams for job readiness outcomes.
Associate Research Fellow
sb152@uowmail.edu.au
Research Interests
- Thermal bridging of building elements
- Building energy modelling and monitoring
- Thermal comfort and occupant behaviour
- Thermal energy storage technologies
- Building façade technologies
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law
tbohme@uow.edu.au
Research Interests
- Applied supply chain (systems) researcher working on field based projects that result in high/ meaningful impact
- Construction supply chain maturity assessment following an internationally renown protocol and benchmarking tool
- identify where cost-effective investments will streamline workflows, improve productivity and access new market opportunities.
- The application of Toyota Production System to alternate industries such as construction
- Prefabrication solution, application of manufacturing principles to construction and innovative eco-system design and implementation including the application of industry 4.0 technology
- Investigation of existing processes working in collaboration with government (e.g. BASIX approval process)
- Assessments and investigation of new government initiatives and the impact/ spill-over along the construction supply chain.
Professional Staff and Collaborators
All general enquires please email sbrc@uow.edu.au
Dr Craig McLauchlan, Research Facilities Manager | craig_mclauchlan@uow.edu.au | +61 2 4221 5280
Robyn Dawson, Administration Manager | robyn_dawson@uow.edu.au | +61 2 4239 2198
Michael Tibbs, Research Fellow | michael_tibbs@uow.edu.au
Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS)
Cultural Research for Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation
Associate Professor Muhammad Hadi
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Sustainable Structural Design and Construction
Dr Prabuono Buyung Kosasih
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering
Wind energy, building-integrated wind systems, computational fluid dynamics
Professor Timothy McCarthy
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Sustainable construction, alternative construction materials, project management, etc.
Associate Professor Kashem Muttaqi
School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering
Electrical power systems, renewable energy, smart grids, etc
Dr Long Nghiem
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Water systems, solar water treatment, green roofs
Professor David Officer
Intelligent Polymers Research Institute
Organic photovoltaics systems, artificial photosynthesis, etc
Associate Professor Sarath Perera
School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering
Electrical power systems, effect of wind energy on grid, renewables, smart grids, etc
Professor Sharon Robinson
School of Biological Sciences
Green roofs and walls
Dr Neaz Sheikh
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Construction, building information modelling, earthquake, climate adaptions
Associate Professor Muttucumaru Sivakumar
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Water treatment, hydrogen production, waste treatment
Dr Vic Smith
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering
Electrical power systems, power quality, renewables, smart grids, etc
Dr Brad Stappenbelt
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering
Energy in buildings, alternative energy systems
Professor Danny Sutanto
School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering
Electrical power systems, renewables, fuel cells, smart grids, etc
Dr Lip Teh
School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering
Construction techniques, lightweight steel structures, Energy in Buildings
Dr Ross Gordon
Centre for Health Initiatives (CHI)
Marketing principles and communications, social marketing, critical marketing teaching and research
Professor Gordon Waitt
Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS)
Social/Culture Geography cultures of natures
Visiting and Honorary Fellows
- Dr Federico Tartarini
- Scott Beazley
- Alberto Escribano
- Dr Massimo Fiorentini
- Mark Jones
- Stephen Choi
- Lance Jeffery
- Michael Bradburn
- Yale Carden
- Previous visiting researchers
Research interests:
- Thermal comfort and Indoor Environmental Quality;
- Renewable energy technologies;
- HVAC and BMS system fault detection and diagnosis
Senior Research Fellow
sbeazley@uow.edu.au
Research interests:
- BIM (Building Information Modelling)
- Building design collaboration
- Sustainable Building Design
- Digital model checking and validation
- Linking 3D models with 4D(time) and 5D(cost)
- Building data exchanges: IFC: Industry Foundation Classes, IDM: Information Delivery Manuals
- Interoperability of building design and analysis software
Research Fellow
albertoe@uow.edu.au
Research interests:
- TQM strategies and tactics in construction industry
- Manufacturing principles applied to building processes
- Modular construction
- New approaches of supply chain strategy
Research interests:
- Renewable Energy Technologies
- Energy Management and Model Predictive Control
- Modelling of Building Energy Systems
- Intelligent Ventilation Systems
Professional experience:
Mark Jones is founding director of Edmiston Jones, a growing architectural practice established in 1980. He and his team had an active role in the Illawarra Flame house that won the Solar Decathlon China 2013 competition. Mark is the current chair of the Illawarra Division of the Property Council of Australia. In this role he strives for Wollongong to be truly a 'university city' with the Uni and community connected and cooperating. As a Director of Healthy Cities Illawarra (part of the global Healthy Cities movement founded by the World Health Organisation) Mark works to promote and improve the health, physical environment and quality of life of the people of the Illawarra.
Vice-Chair of the Board
Living Future Institute of Australia
stephenc@living-future.org.au
Professional experience:
Stephen Choi is a UK-qualified Project Architect and Project Manager. He has led sustainable design teams at small and large practices before founding a not-for-profit environmental building consultancy and becoming Vice-Chair of the Board at the Living Future Institute of Australia. Stephen’s work has included the development of global environmental assessment methods, designing and managing building retrofits, use of the Passivhaus approach, and embedding sustainable development into educational curriculum. Several of his projects – both private and public sector – have been recognised in the industry for progressing “green building”.
Project Manager
Retrofitting for Resilient and Sustainable Buildings (RRSB) program
Hyve Projects
Professional experience:
Lance is a registered professional engineer and is a Project Manager at UOW's Innovation Campus. He is responsible for the project management of the design and construction of the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) and the new facilities at TAFE NSW. Before joining UOW in 2009, he was a Project Manager for the design anf construction of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic venues in Vancouver, Canada. He has practised civil Engineering and project management for over 20 years and has been employed as a design consultant, construction manager and owner's project manager. He has a focus on, and passion for sustainability, and will provide ongoing project management support to a wide variety of SBRC projects.
Project Architect
Cox Architecture
Michael.Bradburn@cox.com.au
Professional experience:
Michael has been a project architect with Cox since 2005 and has a diverse range of experience, developing particular expertise in Broadcast and Education building typologies. His work with The Adelaide Studios, Channel 9 and The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) demonstrates Michael’s ability to balance the detailed acoustic, technical and functional requirements of production, post-production and screening facilities. These projects also address the complex synergies between the broadcast facilities, office and front of house spaces including the creation of social interface zones for the exchange of ideas. Michael was Project Architect for the recently completed University of Wollongong’s SBRC which achieved a 6 Star Green Star rating and the, even more, stringent Living Building Challenge rating. This building won the coveted Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter Awards in 2015.
Founder and Managing Director
GeoExchange Australia
A range of expertise across numerous environmental science / engineering disciplines in roles ranging from academic to researcher to consultant to entrepreneur.
Specialties: - Application of geoexchange / geothermal heating and cooling systems, especially in the Asia Pacific region.
- Understanding clean technology trends and drivers.
- Assessment of best fit environmental solutions.
- Business / industry development
Professor Feng Xu
Feng Xu is a Professor and Vice Dean from School of Architecture, Hunan University, China. He is also Vice chairman of Hunan Green Building Council, Member of Hunan Institute of Architects, Member of Academic Committee of Hunan University. As a Principal Investigator, he has been responsible for more than 10 research projects, including 1 project of the National Science & Technology Support Major Program of the 11th Five-year Plan, 2 sub-projects of the National Science & Technology Major Program of the 12th Five-year Plan. His research interests mostly lies at Design Method and Appraisal of Green Building, Integrated Design on Rural Residential Building and Multidisciplinary Approach to Curriculum Development in Sustainable Built Environment.
Associate Professor Jin Zhou
Jin Zhou is an associate Professor from College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, China, Vice secretary-general of Hunan Green Building Council. He received his PhD degree in Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2005. Before joining SBRC as a visiting research fellow, he has worked for 11 years in Hunan University. His research interests mostly lies on assessment and improvement of building thermal environment, analysis and optimization of GCHP system, and Green Building assessment.