Erica Cochran

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Erica Cochran Hameen: A Half Dozen Students Can Lead a Revolution The assistant professor and Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture's inaugural director of diversity, equity, and inclusion is emboldened by her students and research to achieve equitable outcomes for everyone.

Title: 'Cool’ roofs, cooler designs as the building industry embraces energy sustainability Description: Despite the U.S. sector’s still-big carbon footprint, advocates think it could reach a net-zero-emissions future within a generation Dr. Cochran Hameen provides her expert opinion on advanced retrofit and building upgrade design strategies and technologies.

Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen is the Incoming Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Co-Director of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD), Track Chair of the Doctor of Professional Practice program, and the Architecture, Engineering & Construction Management (AECM) PhD program and an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Prior to joining CMU, Dr. Cochran Hameen served as a Designer for over 50 educational, media and broadcast, residential, community, and transportation facilities. She holds multiple honors including the Pittsburgh Courier Women of Excellence Award, and an AIA award for Diversity Recognition for the UDream program at CMU. Erica holds a B.Arch from Virginia Tech, a MS in Sustainable Design and a Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics from CMU. Dr. Cochran Hameen leads national efforts focused on sustainability, occupant health and productivity, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), energy policy, energy efficiency, and design equity. Her building energy expertise outside of her professional Architecture and Construction Management projects includes teaching over 35 undergraduate and graduate level courses, advising over 100 built environment Masters and PhD theses, over 70 publications, multiple team project recognitions by the White House during the Obama Administration, a multitude of invited lectures, spearheaded or directed both architecture and diversity focused programs and fundraising initiatives valued at almost $2 million, and served as the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator for over $1 million in research from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense focused on energy efficiency and sustainability measures. She serves as Treasurer for the Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance Board of Directors and Vice Chair for the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Board of Trustees.

CoTE Measures for Design Excellence Education Series – Session 2 “Place” Description: The AIA Pittsburgh Committee on the Environment (CoTE) is excited to launch the 2021 Measures for Design Excellence Education Series! The Framework for Design Excellence represents the defining principles of good design in the 21st century. Comprised of 10 principles and accompanied by searching questions, the Framework seeks to inform progress toward a zero carbon, equitable, resilient, and healthy built environment. These are to be thoughtfully considered by designer and client at the initiation of every project and incorporated into the work as appropriate to the project scope. The Framework is intended to be accessible and relevant for every architect, every client, and every project, regardless of size, typology, or aspiration.

January Design Lecture: Making the Case for Advancing the Sustainability and Performance of Buildings and Communities The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a global leader of in sustainability and serves as an innovation hub for new collaborative and interdisciplinary methods and frameworks, to push forward the case for sustainability of the built environment. Over the years, the CBPD has added tremendous value to the practice of Architecture, Sustainable Design, Public Policy and occupant health and well-being. As Co-director of the CBPD, Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen has lead research focused on improving Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), energy and data analytics, and the formation of new sustainability policy and tools. Dr. Cochran Hameen’s interdisciplinary work incorporates occupant comfort, health, and productivity feedback metrics, advanced data analytics, sensors and controls, building system design specifications, and environmental conditions. The session will highlight research on energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and occupant productivity and review innovative quantitative and qualitative tools and methods that have been utilized in ongoing and recent research projects. The session will also highlight the multiple social, health, economic, and environmental benefits these research findings have provided for individuals, households, organizations, and communities both nationally and globally.

Title: The 2021 Anti-Racist School of Architecture Virtual Symposium Description: A discussion on "Justice & the Creator God". The Anti-Racist School of Architecture Symposium 2021 will shine a spotlight on the intersection of architecture, race, and education. The Symposium aims to address the following topics: Injustices Black, Indigenous, and People of Color face in the architecture and design education system Antiracism by design discussions on social justice and our roles as design students and professionals The global perspective of Architecture, Race, and Education Explore what an anti-racism university looks like to students and professionals across the world Symposium Goals: To create better understanding and communication about race within our design community of students, alumni, and working professionals Explore how we can create an anti-racist environment in schools and workplaces that help us become more inclusive and equitable architects, designers, planners, and future built environment professionals The symposium will be a full day of interactive and engaging keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and networking. The symposium has grown out of conversations in 2020 by governments, companies, and individuals discussing racial justice – also an issue faced by schools of architecture around the country and world. Many schools wrote open letters to their administrations in a quest to tackle these concerns head on. These open letters were the springboard to discuss the intersection of architecture, race, and education in a free virtual symposium, open to the public.

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Multiple Benefits of Energy Reduction Interventions: Evidence to Inform Policy and Practice session at Green Building United. ABOUT THIS SESSION According to the International Energy Agency’s 2019 Tracking Clean Energy Progress report, emissions from buildings have peaked above their 2013 levels. The contributing factors include climate change-related spikes in heating and cooling loads and the low uptake of Energy Reduction Interventions (ERI). Widespread use of less-efficient technologies, a lack of effective policies and insufficient investment in sustainable buildings compounds the problem. The required decarbonization efforts must occur at a transformative scale. Achieving targets for high performance building and increasing deep energy efficiency of existing stocks will require a robust understanding of the multiple benefits of ERI and development tools/strategies for decision making to ensure that all stakeholders know what to do and are incentivized to act. This session will focus on strategies and tools identified by subject matter experts to enhance data collection for co-benefits of ERI to inform policy makers and other actors. Learning Level: 300: Application/Implementation

Intersections of Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy, and Policy research seminar.

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Beyond the Built Environment: SAY IT LOUD - Pennsylvania Exhibitor Beyond the Built Environment uniquely address the inequitable disparities in architecture by providing a holistic platform aimed to support numerous stages of the architecture pipeline. We promote agency among diverse audiences and advocate for equity in the built environment through our approach which utilizes a method I termed "the triple E, C". The triple E, C method is a strategy to: Engage, Elevate, Educate, and Collaborate. We engage diverse audiences through programming promoting intellectual discourse and exchange to better achieve a just and equitable built environment. We elevate the identities and contributions of minority architects and designers through exhibitions, curated lectures, and documentaries that testify to the provided value of their built work and its spatial impact. We educate the masses through formal and informal learning opportunities that introduce architecture as a bridge to fill the gaps of inequity. We collaborate with community stakeholders and organizations to crowdsource information and amplify opportunities to advocate for equitable and reflectively diverse environments. Featured Project Description: UDream (Urban Design Regional Employment Action for Minorities) advances & diversifies the architecture & urban design professions by providing recent minority graduates with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and design skills during an intense 18 week study and work experience. Through a competitive process, 10 participants were selected annually from across the US. UDream has increased diversity more than tenfold in Pittsburgh’s design firms changing the face of the profession locally.

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Title: next-UP Panel presentation and discussion Description: A conversation on architectural careers with SoA Alumni. The event features a panel discussion on the diversity of career trajectories possible following the powerful experience and foundation of an architectural education. The event will begin with presentations from each of our alumni panelists on their work, followed by a moderated panel discussion. The panel explores the experience and perspectives of our panelists, how they leveraged their education to get to where they are today, and how their professional career, work, and research were informed by their education in the School of Architecture. The panelists will share their experiences in practice, education, and other related ventures. CMU School of Architecture & CMU Career and Professional Development Center.

Treasurer on Board of Directors

2030 Districts BIOPHILIC DESIGN SUMMIT Experience Join us for this immersive learning workshop with thought-provoking talks and meaningful exercises led by some of the leading practitioners in biophilic design. Stay after for continued networking and discussion, co-hosted by the Pittsburgh Living Future Collaborative. Harvard biologist and environmentalist Edward O. Wilson coined the term biophilia – “love of life or living systems” – to describe humanity’s innate connection with the natural world. Wilson worked with thought-leaders like Stephen R. Kellert to further develop the theories and research around biophilia, which led to the emerging field of biophilic design. Biophilic design promotes improved human health and wellbeing by creating connections between people and nature in the built environment. As we continue to spend approximately 90% of our time indoors, integrating biophilic design in the places where we live, work, learn, play, worship, and convene together is integral to advancing health, happiness, productivity, and overall wellbeing. Dr. Cochran Hameen served as a speaker.

Beyond Energy Efficiency: How Big Data Can Lead to Socially Responsible Design Abstract: Every day we collect billions of data points to track energy consumption, air quality, occupancy levels and much more. Now that we have all this data, what’s next? How can we utilize data to implement not just energy efficient building solutions, but socially responsible design? Results from data analytics can guide decision makers towards solutions to improve energy efficiency; enhance Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ); streamline building retrofit decision making; address public policy and privacy concerns; and improve occupant comfort, health, and productivity. The presentation identifies examples where utilizing “big data” beyond conventional methods can facilitate opportunities for researchers to quantify the impact physical attributes such as building enclosure strategies and HVAC systems have on energy consumption and occupant health and productivity. Furthermore, results of such analytics can lead to solutions to improve the most important building feature: the occupant.