Modelling social and environmental sustainability in human-building interaction
Professor Andrew Sonta
School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 10 a.m.
SF1009, Sandford Fleming Building
REGISTER IN ADVANCE – FREE TO ATTEND
Abstract
The built environment has a dual set of responsibilities. On one hand, given buildings’ outsized impact on the environment, it is imperative to improve sustainability of construction and efficiency of operation. On the other hand, our buildings serve a fundamentally human purpose: they should support our human-centric goals such as well-being and productivity. To advance our understanding of holistic building performance and potential, we must take a research perspective that integrates these two sets of responsibilities. This talk will cover research at EPFL’s ETHOS Lab that works toward this integration. Using data from sensors and open sources enables the development of empirical, scalable, and socially aware methods that computationally analyze human-building interactions to improve built environment design and operation. The research presented works toward a vision where explicit modeling and analysis of human systems can help us transform the way we design and manage our built environment to support our social and environmental goals.
Bio
Andrew Sonta is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He directs the ETHOS Lab: Engineering and Technology for Human Oriented Sustainability. His research leverages data-driven tools to better understand human behavior in the built environment and to integrate this understanding into tools that promote both social and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining EPFL, he received his PhD from Stanford University’s Sustainable Design and Construction program, studying human-building interaction in commercial buildings. He was then a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute, working in the smart cities focus area. He has also taught in the architecture program at the University of San Francisco. His work spans engineering, design, social science, and data science and aims to address urban sustainability challenges through a multidisciplinary lens.