Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
The University of Oklahoma’s Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture hosted the inaugural Oklahoma Housing Supply Accelerator Coalition event on November 13, 2025, a day-long gathering dedicated to addressing the state’s growing housing challenges and exploring solutions to expand the supply of attainable homes.
Dr. Lee Fithian, Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of OU Online MS in Sustainable Architecture at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Architecture, recently contributed to the new book Teaching Carbon Neutral Design in North America: Twenty Award-Winning Architectural Design Studio Methodologies, edited by Robin Puttock and published by Routledge.
OU Gibbs College of Architecture associate professor, Dr. Andrés Cavieres received a 2-year $497,750 grant from the Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) for the development of innovative solutions to streamline the deployment of ground mount photovoltaic systems, with a special focus in the area of Agrivoltaics.
Interior Design assistant professor, Dr. Negar Matin, has published a study that advanced the application of data-driven design for minimizing discomfort glare in high-performance sustainable buildings.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, an assistant professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design, has published an Open Access textbook titled “Green Cities and Transportation” in collaboration with scholars from the University of Texas at Arlington. This comprehensive guide explores the intersection of urban planning and transportation to advance sustainable mobility, mitigate climate change, and promote transportation equity for low-income communities.
OU Construction Science assistant professor and principal investigator of the Construction Innovation and Analytics Lab (CInnaLAB), Dr. Kofi Asare, has published two studies that advance the application of data-driven analytics and Digital Twins for predictive maintenance in buildings. His research highlights the potential of predictive maintenance to save 8% to 40% in maintenance costs, reduce operational inefficiencies and optimize energy consumption in buildings.
An interdisciplinary team of OU students from the Gibbs College of Architecture, Gallogly College of Engineering and Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication was recently selected as a finalist for the 2024 Solar Decathlon Competition. The team is competing in this year’s Design Challenge in the Single-Family Housing Category.
James Collard, professor of Regional and City Planning and director of planning and economic development for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, was invited to speak at the “Making Global Goals a Local Affair” webinar. The event took place on Aug. 10 and was hosted by the International Economic Development Council.
The OU Eco-Sooners received an award at the final competition of the 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. The team of Gibbs students won the Best Name of the Year award for their well-selected team name. According to the judges, the name strongly reflected the team’s design ideas and innovative strategies.
Dr. Lee Fithian, an Associate Professor of Architecture, was recently issued a patent for her building façade system that she has spent years developing. The double skin façade system evacuates polluted air from the streetscape, providing better air quality for people in urban environments and improving human health. The system can be included in new buildings but can also be retrofitted to existing ones.
Youngjin Hwang, Assistant Professor of Architecture, recently presented research at the 2022 Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild hosted by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the International Building Performance Simulation Association USA Regional Division (IBPSA-USA).
Dr. Wenwen Cheng, assistant professor of Landscape Architecture, was recently awarded funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to support her project titled “A Spatial Decision Support System for Identifying Heat Vulnerability Based on a Comprehensive Energy Budget Model and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Oklahoma City, OK,” with an amount of $149,163.
