BCIT

Environmental Quality Integrated Systems Laboratory

Human-Centered / Climate-Responsive

Rodrigo Mora, PhD, P.Eng.

Keywords: Environmental Planning and Design, Building Environmental Quality, Building Systems Integration, Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality

Rodrigo is a Faculty of Building Environmental Systems at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. His areas of expertise are: building environment and systems, building environmental modeling, thermal comfort, and air quality. Over the years Rodrigo has been contributing to professional organizations such as ASHRAE and ASCE, and participating in international initiatives focused on research on healthy and occupant-responsive, low-energy buildings. His current research interest is on environment and occupant sensing and monitoring integral to buildings, building environmental data analytics, and smart building environmental systems.

Rodrigo’s goal is to investigate novel building and urban synergistic environmental systems that are responsive to the needs of people, and in harmony with the environment. Rodrigo’s research focuses on improving the knowledge on modelling and measuring techniques for predicting the performance of environmental systems and their effects on the built environment, and how these affect human health and improve the human experiences. Rodrigo and his team are investigating human and environment adaptive environmental systems to changing patterns of environmental loads, that smoothen the building environmental fluctuations to climate variations, and eliminate or minimize the need for energy-intensive solutions. A central question is: how to design environmental systems to be simple and smart, naturally matching human needs and environmental affordances, while also being robust and resilient to the extreme environmental loads of climate change?

Current Research Projects:

  • Environment and occupant sensing and monitoring integral to buildings
  • Building environmental data analytics
  • Smart building environmental systems

Background Affiliations:

  • ASHRAE SSPC-55: Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, voting member, http://sspc55.ashraepcs.org/
  • ASHRAE SSPC-170: Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, 55-170 liaison
  • ASHRAE T-TAC-TC04.10: Indoor Environmental Modelling, corresponding member
  • IEA-EBC ANNEX 69: EBC Annex 69 Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings, participant
  • TECA (Thermal Environmental Comfort Association of BC): Quality 1st Certified in Ventilation, Forced-Air, and Hydronics Design

Course Development and Teaching at BCIT

  • BSCI 9000 Building Science 1 (2011- ), course created, Building Science Master’s Degree, BCIT
  • BSCI 9100 Building Environment and Climate (2011- ), course created, Building Science Master’s Degree, BCIT
  • BSCI 9170 Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality (2011- ), course created, Building Science Master’s Degree, BCIT
  • BSCI 9050 Research Methods (2013- 2014), course created, Building Science Master’s Degree, BCIT

Book contributions:

Hellwig R.T., Teli D., Schweiker M., Choi J-H, Lee M-C, Mora R., Rawal R., Wang Z., Al-Atrash F. (2022), Design of Adaptive Opportunities for People in Buildings. In Routledge Handbook of Resilient Thermal Comfort, Nicol F., Rijal H-B and Roaf S. (Eds.) Roudledge International Handbooks.

   

Recent Publications (last 10 years)

Published Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal Articles

  1. Norouzi P., Maalej S., and Mora R. (2023). Applicability of Deep Learning Algorithms for Predicting Indoor Temperatures: Towards the Development of Digital Twin HVAC Systems, Buildings Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 6, MDPI.
  2. Gauthier S., Bourikas L., Al-Atrash F., Bae C., Chun C., de Dear R., Hellwig R., Kim J., Kwon S., Mora R., Pandya H., Rawal R., Tartarini F., Upadhyay R., and Wagner A. (2020). The colours of comfort: From thermal sensation to person-centric thermal zones for adaptive building strategies, Energy and Buildings, Elsevier, In Press.
  3. Upadhyay R., Mora R., Jean M.A., Koupriyanov M. (2020). Experimental Study on the Performance Evaluation of Active Chilled Beams in Heating and Cooling Operation Under Varied Boundary Conditions, Journal of Science and Technology of the Built Environment, Taylor & Francis.
  4. Runa T. Hellwig, Despoina Teli, Marcel Schweiker, Joon-Ho Choi, Meng-Chieh, (Jeffrey) Lee, Rodrigo Mora, Rajan Rawal, Zhaojun Wang, Farah Al-Atrash (2019). A framework for adopting adaptive thermal comfort principles in design and operation of buildings, Energy and Buildings, Elsevier, Vol, 205.
  5. Ellis J, Schwartz J, Mora R (2017). Study of Natural Ventilation Effectiveness for an Active Net-Zero Energy House, Intl. Journal of Ventilation, Vol. 16, Issue 2. VEETECH, UK
  6. Romero D, James J, Mora R, Hays C (2013). Study on the mechanical and environmental properties of concrete containing cathode ray tube glass aggregate, Journal of Waste Management, Pergamon, Vol. 33, Issue 7, pp. 1659-1666.
  7. Mora R, Bitsuamlak G, Horvat M (2011). Integrated life-cycle design of building enclosures, Building and Environment, Elsevier, Vol. 46, Issue 7, pp. 1469-1479.

Published Peer-Reviewed Industry Articles

  1. Mora R., Meteyer M. (2019). Thermal comfort in health care settings. ASHRAE Journal, July, 2019.
  2. Mora R. (2019). Designing thermally comfortable low-energy homes. BCBEC Elements Magazine, Spring/Summer 2019. (not peer-reviewed)
  3. Mora R. and Bean R (2018). Thermal comfort and energy analyses of a window retrofit with dynamic glazing. ASHRAE Journal, December 2018.
  4. Bean R and Mora R (2018). Prioritizing thermal comfort for home: a case study in using Standard 55 for a residential building. ASHRAE Journal, September 2018.
  5. Mora R, Bean R (2018). Thermal comfort: designing for people. ASHRAE Journal, February 2018.
  6. Yan D., Mora R. (2016). Condensation risk assessment of window-wall facades under the effect of various heating systems, BCBEC Elements Magazine, Fall/Winter 2016. (not peer-reviewed)

Peer-Reviewed Conference Articles

  1. Hunter, A. and Mora, R. (2020). Knowledge-based Analysis of Residential Air Quality.In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence – Volume 2: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-395-7, pages 801-805. DOI: 10.5220/0009102908010805
  2. Despoina Teli, Runa T. Hellwig, Marcel Schweiker, Joon-Ho Choi, M.C. Jeffrey Lee, Rodrigo Mora, Rajan Rawal, Zhaojun Wang, Farah Al-Atrash (2020).  Teaching the Concept of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Building Design Education, Indoor Air, November 2020, Seoul, Korea.
  3. Hellwig, R. T., Despoina, T., Schweiker, M., Choi, J-H., Lee, J. M. C., Mora, R., Rawal, R., Wang, Z. & Al-Atrash, F. (2020). Guidelines to bridge the gap between adaptive thermal comfort theory and building design and operation practice, Proceedings of Windsor Conference: Resilient Comfort, Eds. Roaf S., Nicol F., and Finlaysin W., Windsor, UK.
  4. Jean M-A, Upadhyay R, Flood C, Mora R. (2019). Assessment of Natural Ventilation using a Whole-Building Simulation Model: A Case Study of a Landmark Building.  IAQVEC 2019 Conference, Bari, Italy, September 2019.
  5. Jean M-A, Upadhyay R, Koupriyanov M, Mora R. (2019). Experimental Study on the Performance Evaluation of Active Chilled Beams (ACB) in Cooling Operation under Varied Boundary Conditions. IAQVEC 2019 Conference, Bari, Italy, September 2019.
  6. Hellwig, R. T., Despoina, T., Schweiker, M., Choi, J-H., Lee, J. M. C., Mora, R., Rawal, R., Wang, Z. & Al-Atrash, F., (2019). Applying adaptive principles: Developing guidance for planning practice S. Roaf and W. Finlayson, eds., Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy and Climate (CATE). [online] Dubai. Ecohouse Initiative Ltd., p. 262-276 14 p.
  7. Upadhyay R., Mora R. (2019). Performance Evaluation of Active Chilled Beam (ACB) in Real Office Conditions in a High-Performance Building, ASHRAE Winter Conference, Atlanta, January 2019.
  8. Cheng L.J., Singh R., Upadhyay R., Mora R. (2018). Indoor Air Quality Study in the Carpentry Workshop at School of Construction and Environment at BCIT. Indoor Air Conference 2018, Philadelphia, USA.
  9. Mora R, Meteyer M (2018). Using thermal comfort models in health care settings. ASHRAE Transactions, Houston, TX, USA.
  10. Martins de Barros F, Mora R, Flood C (2018). Assessment of natural ventilation using a whole building simulation model in a case-study building, accepted for the Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild co-organized by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, Chicago, IL, USA, September 26-28, 2018.
  11. Martins de Barros F, Mora R, Flood C (2018). Assessment of natural ventilation in a case-study building using the adaptive comfort model, eSim conference in Montreal, Quebec, May 9-10, 2018.
  12. Mottaghi A, Mora R (2018). Model-based coupling of air and hydronic systems operation in a typical classroom of a high-performance academic building, Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild co-organized by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, Chicago, IL, USA, September 26-28, 2018.
  13. Yan D, Mora R (2014). Condensation risk assessment of window‐wall facades under the effect of different heating systems using 2‐D Finite Element and CFD simulations, proc. 14th Canadian Conf. of Bldg. Science and Tech., Toronto, On, Canada
  14. Atwal L, Mora R and Mustapha G (2013). Sensitive Homes: Remote Sensing and Monitoring Integral to Homes. In Proceedings from 17th ASHRAE IAQ Conference, 2013, pp: 341-351, Vancouver, BC
  15. Mora R, Croft D (2013). Building Science Integrated Systems – Methodological Framework, Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) Conference, April 3-5, ASCE, Penn State University, USA.
  16. Romero D, Mora R, James J, Hays C (2013). Evaluating the use of Potentially Hazardous Secondary Aggregates in Concrete based on Life-Cycle Effects on Water Pollution, The 28th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Philadelphia, PA U.S.A, March 10-13, 2013

Students supervised

Non-refereed contributions

  1. Ventilation Effectiveness for Satisfactory Indoor Air Quality in Multi-unit Residential Buildings (2023). Report submitted to BC Housing.
  2. Performance study report 10 (2022). Connected blue-green roof systems in the marine northwest coast climate of North America. Submitted to Clean BC and to the City of Vancouver.
  3. Performance study report 9 (2022). Ventilation effectiveness for satisfactory indoor air quality in multi-unit residential buildings, with case studies from MEng and MASc students acknowledged. Submitted to BC Housing and under review by industry professionals.
  4. Performance study report 8. (2020). Field study on the impact of exterior blinds on overheating in case-study south-west facing offices at BCIT. By Rohan Warisa and Rodrigo Mora. Submitted to the energy management department at BCIT.
  5. Performance study report 7. (2020). Modeling open office retrofits for low-energy thermal comfort. By Desmond Wan and Rodrigo Mora. Submitted to the energy management department at BCIT.
  6. Performance study report 6. (2018). Window retrofit study of dynamic glazing in south‐facing offices to avoid the need for mechanical cooling at the departments of mathematics and statistics in Simon Frazer University (SFU). By: Rodrigo Mora and Rohit Upadhyay. Submitted to the SFU facilities department.
  7. Performance study report 5. (2018). A Demand-Side Analysis of Ground Source Heat Pump System at BCIT’s SW-01 Gateway Building. By Behzad Zargar, Rodrigo Mora, and Rohit Upadhyay. Submitted to the facilities department at BCIT.
  8. Performance study report 4. (2018). A Source-Side Analysis of Ground Source Heat Pump System at BCIT’s SW-01 Gateway Building. By Nafe Chaudhry, Rodrigo Mora, and Rohit Upadhyay. Submitted to the facilities department at BCIT.
  9. Performance study report 3. (2017). Using Building Analytics for Fault Detection & Diagnosis: A Case Study on an Educational Building at BCIT. Abbas Rangwala and Rodrigo Mora. Submitted to the facilities department at BCIT.
  10. Performance study report 2. (2017). Pilot study investigation of the performance gap in high-performance buildings. Van Dusen Botanical Gardens Visitors Centre: Observations of performance issues and identification of research opportunities. By: Rodrigo Mora and Rohit Upadhyay. Submitted to the City of Vancouver and the facilities department. Ongoing phase II of the study.
  11. Performance study report 1 (2017). Pilot study investigation of the performance gap in high-performance buildings. Vancouver Island University Cowichan Campus: Observations of performance issues and identification of research opportunities. By: Rodrigo Mora and Rohit Upadhyay. Submitted to the facilities department of VIU. Ongoing phase II of the study.