University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science | 2025 Dean's Report - Flipbook - Page 8
PROFESSOR WORKS TO IMPROVE ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN EXISTING BUILDINGS
“HAVING A LOCAL IMPACT IS REALLY
IMPORTANT TO ME. EVERY PROJECT I’VE
DONE AT UC HAS HAD SOME KIND OF
LOCAL COMPONENT TO IT.”
- AMANDA WEBB
6
DEAN’S REPORT
Amanda Webb, associate professor of
methods and ensuring the bene昀椀ts are distrib-
NSF is funding two of Webb’s projects
to distribute the game to local public schools
architectural engineering, is making strides
uted equitably. The DOE is funding a Building
for the next several years. Including a
and encourage students to become inspired by
to help the city of Cincinnati achieve its goal
Performance Standards (BPS) project. BPS are
Strengthening American Infrastructure
energy ef昀椀ciency and the prospect of making
of carbon neutrality by the year 2050. With
policies that place limitations on the amount
project, the heart of which is a new software
a difference in the community. On campus,
grants from the National Science Foundation
of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions
platform that will help people understand
she is the faculty advisor for the UC student
and the Department of Energy, she has
in existing buildings. By focusing on existing
equitable decarbonization. This three-stage
branch of ASHRAE, a global society of heating,
received more than $3M in funding to
buildings, a more immediate impact on decar-
project is a collaboration between Webb and
refrigerating, and air-conditioning engineers.
support various projects working on reducing
bonization can be made, since this makes up
several interdisciplinary partners, including
She led a team of students through an
carbon emissions and improving energy
most of the building stock.
two other UC professors.
implementation project that was one of nine
ef昀椀ciency of existing buildings.
projects chosen nationwide to receive a
The DOE Resilient and Ef昀椀cient Codes
NSF also honored Webb with the NSF CAREER
one-year grant for Young Engineers in
“I’m interested in using the surrounding city
Implementation award will support Webb’s
award, a 昀椀ve-year grant given to early-career
ASHRAE. This project was a partnership
and region as a testbed for the work that I
collaboration to create standards that meet
faculty making a substantial impact in their
between the UC students and a historic
do,” Webb said. “Having a local impact is
the needs of Ohio and its cities. This project
昀椀eld. This project focuses on modeling
Cincinnati church to implement localized
really important to me. Every project I’ve
includes retro昀椀tting a small number of large
decarbonization and educating K-12 students
heating to improve their energy usage.
done at UC has had some kind of local com-
inef昀椀cient buildings to get a large amount
through games. One of these games will be
After testing and measuring the new heating
ponent to it.” Broadly, her research objective
of savings in a small number of buildings, as
a virtual game in which players must work
mechanism, pew heaters, the group saw
is equitable decarbonization, a process that
well as ensuring all neighborhoods, especially
together to reduce carbon emissions in a city,
signi昀椀cant improvement in the building’s
involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions
those that have been historically disinvested,
featuring real-world challenges. Webb plans
energy use.
from existing buildings through various
reap the bene昀椀ts.
