Seed Grants
Since 2019 interdisciplinary research at Penn State has been catalyzed through Global Building Network-related seed grants administered by the Penn State Institutes of Energy & the Environment (IEE) Seed Grant Program.
Through these Global Building Network-related seed grants, over $44.8 million in external grants have been submitted and $900k in grant funding secured, resulting in a 1.8+ to 1 return on investment to date. Awardees have submitted external grants to highly competitive programs, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the MacArthur Foundation, and the RK Mellon Foundation.
For additional information, including up-to-date details on upcoming Seed Grant calls for proposals, please see the Institutes of Energy & the Environment (IEE) Seed Grant Program webpage.
2022 GBN-Related Seed Grant Projects
Urban green infrastructure and the day-night “humid-heat islands” of the Northeast U.S.
Principal Investigator
- Meetpal Kukal | Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Shirley Clark | Penn State Harrisburg
- Kenneth Davis | Meteorology & Atmospheric Science
- Suat Irmak | Agricultural & Biological Engineering
- Lauren McPhillips | Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Hong Wu | Landscape Architecture
Research Themes
URB-EC: Urban Embodied Carbon - Impacts of urbanization on embodied carbon performance of the building sector in cities
Principal Investigator
- Rahman Azari | Architecture
Co-Principal Investigators
- Lisa Iulo | Architecture
- Mehrdad Mahdavi | Computer Science & Engineering
- Mostafa Sabbaghi | Business
Research Themes
Developing tools to study urban lighting systems that support healthier circadian cycles
Principal Investigator
- Anne-Marie Chang | Biobehavioral Health
Co-Principal Investigators
- Dorukalp Durmus | Architectural Engineering
- Jeffrey Mundinger | Architectural Engineering
- David Reichenberger | Biobehavioral Health
Research Themes
Promoting Solutions to Climate Change and Health Challenges through Science-Policy Communications
Principal Investigator
- Elizabeth Long | Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (PRC)
Co-Principal Investigators
- Rebecca Bascom | Medicine & Public Health Sciences
- Max Crowley | Human Development & Family Studies
- Omrana Pasha | Medicine
- Taylor Bishop Scott | Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (PRC)
Research Themes
A Data Science Approach for Scaling Synergistic, “One-Touch” Building Retrofit Solutions
Principal Investigator
- Saurabh Basu | Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Soundar Kumara | Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Heather Ligler | Architecture
- Esther Obonyo | Global Building Network
- Kristin Sznajder | Public Health Sciences
Research Themes
2021 GBN-Related Seed Grant Projects
Urban Microclimate, Outdoor Thermal Comfort, and Socio-Economic Mapping: A Case Study of Two High-Density Cities
Principal Investigator
- Ute Poerschke | Architecture
Co-Principal Investigators
- Guangqing Chi | Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education
- Farzad Hashemi | Architecture
- Lisa Iulo | Architecture
Research Themes
Energy Retrofit Policy and Programs in Low-Income Housing Markets: Implications for Energy Equity in Cleveland, Ohio
Principal Investigator
- Emily Rosenman | Geography
Co-Principal Investigators
- Esther Obonyo | Global Building Network
Research Themes
2020 GBN-Related Seed Grant Projects
Building Energy Savings by Tuning Indoor Lighting
Principal Investigator
- Julian Wang | Architectural Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Jacob Benfield | Psychology, Penn State Abington
- Anne-Marie Chang | Biobehavioral Health
- Javad Khazaei | Electrical Engineering, Penn State Harrisburg
- Ying-Ling Jao | Nursing
- Houtan Jebelli | Architetural Engineering
- Richard Mistrick | Architectural Engineering
- Gregory Pavlak | Architectural Engineering
- Zihan Zhou | Information Sciences & Technology
Research Themes
Penn State Law Collaboration with the Global Building Network
Project #1 | Collaboration with Center for Energy Law & Policy
Coordinating & Enhancing Access to Low-Income Energy Efficiency Programs: Virtual Workshop with Experts from Energy Efficiency Organizations
Project #2 | Collaboration with American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
51 US state & DC fact sheets for health policy experts to support energy efficiency upgrades with health dollars
Principal Investigator
- Hannah Wiseman | Penn State Law
Research Themes
Liaison with AIA and Schools of Architecture in the US and Ireland
High Performance Buildings and Psychological/Mental Health Collaboration
PennTAP Collaboration with the Global Building Network
Penn State Housing - East Halls Charrette
2019 GBN-Related Seed Grant Projects
Searchable Performance Database for Design of Ultra High Performance Envelope (UPHE) Buildings in Varied Climatic Conditions
Principal Investigator
- Aly Said | Architectural Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Somayeh Asadi | Architectural Engineering
- James Freihaut | Architectural Engineering
- John Yen | Information Science & Technology
Research Themes
Quantifying Enhanced Performance of Passive House (PH) over Conventional Buildings
Principal Investigator
- Lisa Iulo | Architecture
Co-Principal Investigators
- William Bahnfleth | Architectural Engineering
- James Freihaut | Architectural Engineering
- Corey Griffin | Penn State Altoona
- Ute Poerschke | Architecture
- Donghyun Rim | Architectural Engineering
Research Themes
Developing integrated low-cost sensors for improving building environmental performance
Principal Investigator
- Donghyun Rim | Architectural Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- James Freihaut | Architectural Engineering
- Dongwon Lee | Information Science & Technology
Research Themes
Practical Photovoltaic Daylighting
Principal Investigator
- Noel Christopher Giebink | Electrical Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Kevin Houser | Architectural Engineering
- Ute Poerschke | Architecture
- Christopher Rahn | College of Engineering
Research Themes
Uncertainty-Aware Transactive Building Controls
Principal Investigator
- Gregory Pavlak | Architectural Engineering
Co-Principal Investigators
- Uday V. Shanbhag | Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
- Mort Webster | Energy & Mineral Engineering
Research Themes
Resilient and Energy Efficient Envelopes for Passive House Standard Buildings
Principal Investigator
- Corey Griffin | Penn State Altoona
Co-Principal Investigators
- Lisa Iulo | Architecture
- Ali Memari | Pennsylvania Housing Research Center
Research Themes