Yingli Lou, Ph.D.

Education Background

Dr. Lou received her Bachelor’s Degree in Construction Management from Chongqing University, China in 2016. Afterward, she continued her Master’s study at Chongqing University to get her degrees in Management Science and Engineering. In August 2019, she started her Ph.D. study at SBS lab in Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and received the degree in August 2022. After that, she moved to Penn State with our lab and worked as PostDoctoral Scholar. She investigated the interconnections among energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic impacts for sustainable buildings in her Ph.D. thesis.

Ph.D. Dissertation

• Y. Lou 2022. ”Interconnections among Energy Consumption, Carbon Emissions, and Economic Impacts for Sustainable Buildings.” Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder.

Research Interests

• Building Decarbonization
• Incentives for Sustainable Buildings
• Building Energy Modeling
• Urban Scale Modeling
• Building energy equity
• Building-to-grid integration

Research Projects

• 09/2021 – 08/2024: NSF – U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership: Intelligent Data Harvesting for Multi-Scale Building Stock Classification and Energy Performance PredictionU.S.-Ireland (Collaborating with Ulster University, University College Dublin, & Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) 
• 11/2020 – 08/2021: DOE – OpenStudio Software Testing Methodologies Through Building Science Modeling and Analysis (Collaborating with National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
• 07/2020 – 06/2023: NSF/DOS – Modernizing Cities via Smart Garden Alleys with Application in Makassar City (Collaborating with Virginia Tech, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Institut Teknologi Bandung, & City of Makassar)
• 02/2020 – 09/2020: DOE – Building Energy Modeling – OpenStudio SDK Development and Management (Collaborating with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
• 07/2019 – 03/2022: ASHRAE – TRP-1771: Energy Modelling of Typical Commercial Buildings in Support of ASHRAE Building Energy Quotient Rating Programs (Collaborating with University of Miami)

Major Awards

• Solo Nominee for College of Engineering & Applied Science’s Outstanding Dissertation Award, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
• Student Scholarship to the 2022 ASHRAE & IBPSA-USA BPAC and SimBuild Conference, IBPSA-USA
• ASHRAE Rocky Mountain Chapter Student Scholarship, 2021
• ASHRAE Student Travel Grant, 2020
• Dean’s Graduate Fellowship, 2019

Journal Papers

• Y. Lou, Y. Ye, Y. Yang, W. Zuo, G. Wang. 2024. “Energy Modeling of Typical Commercial Buildings in Support of ASHRAE Building Energy Quotient Energy Rating Program (ASHRAE RP-1771).” Science and Technology for the Built Environment.
• Y. Yang, Y. Lou, C. Payne, Y. Ye, W.Zuo. 2023. “Long-term carbon intensity reduction potential of K-12 school buildings in the United States.” Energy and Building.  282, pp. 112802.
• Y. Lou, Y. Ye, Y. Yang, W. Zuo, G. Wang, M. Strong, S. Upadhyaya, C. Payne. 2022. “Individualized Empirical Baselines for Evaluating the Energy Performance of Existing Buildings,” Science and Technology for the Built Environment, pp. 1-15.
• N. Ildiri, H. Bazille, Y. Lou, K. Hinkelman, W. A. Gray, W. Zuo. 2022. “Impact of WELL Certification on Occupant Satisfaction and Perceived Health, Well-being, and Productivity: A Multi-office Pre- versus Post-occupancy Evaluation,” Building and Environment, 224, pp. 109539. 
• Y. Lou, Y. Yang, Y. Ye, C. He, W. Zuo. 2022. “The Economic Impacts of Carbon Emission Trading Scheme on Building Retrofits: A Case Study with US Medium Office Buildings,” Building and Environment, 221, pp. 109311.
• C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini, Y. Lou, W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn. 2022. “Tradeoffs Among Indoor Air Quality, Financial Costs, and CO2 Emissions for HVAC Operation Strategies to Mitigate Indoor Virus in U.S. Office Buildings,” Building and Environment, 221, pp. 109282.
• Y. Ye, M. Strong, Y. Lou, C. A. Faulkner, W. Zuo, S. Upadhyaya. 2022. “EvaluatingPerformance of Different Generative Adversarial Networks for Large-ScaleBuilding Power Demand Prediction,” Energy and Buildings, 269, pp. 112247.
• C. Tian, Y. Ye, Y. Lou, W. Zuo, G. Zhang, C. Li 2022. “Daily Power Demand Prediction for Buildings at a Large Scale Using a Hybrid of Physics-based Model and Generative Adversarial Network,” Building Simulation, 15, pp. 1685-1701.
• Y. Lou, Y. Ye, Y. Yang, W. Zuo 2022. “Long-term Carbon Emission Reduction Potential of Building Retrofits with Dynamically Changing Electricity Emission Factors.” Building and Environment, 210, pp. 108683.
• Y. Lou, Y. Yang, Y. Ye, W. Zuo, J. Wang 2021. “The Effect of Building Retrofit Measures on CO2 Emissions Reduction – A Case Study with U.S. Medium Office Buildings.” Energy and Buildings, 253, pp. 111514.
• Y. Ye, K. Hinkelman, Y. Lou, W. Zuo, G. Wang, G., J. Zhang 2021. “Evaluating the Energy Impact Potential of Energy Efficiency Measures for Retrofit Applications: A Case Study with US Medium Office Buildings.” Building Simulation, 14 (5), pp. 1377-1393.
• Y. Ye, Y. Lou, W. Zuo, E. Franconi, G. Wang 2020. “How Do Electricity Pricing Programs Impact the Selection of Energy Efficiency Measures? – A Case Study with U.S. Medium Office Buildings.” Energy and Buildings, 224, pp. 110267.
• Y. Ye, Y. Lou, M. Strong, S. Upadhyaya, W. Zuo, G. Wang 2020. “Development of New Baseline Models for U.S. Medium Office Buildings Based on Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey Data.” Science and Technology for the Built Environment, pp. 1-19.

Conference Papers

•  Y. Yang, Y. Lou, Y. Ye, W. Zuo 2023. “Regional Carbon Emission Reduction Prediction via Retrofits of Commercial Buildings with a Case Study of US School Buildings in Hot Climates.” The 18th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association (Building Simulation 2023). September 4-6, Shanghai, China
• Y. Lou, Y. Yang, Y. Ye, W. Zuo 2023. “Pathways To Decarbonize the U.S. Medium-Sized Office Buildings in Cold Climates.” 2023 HVAC Cold Climate Conference. March 6-8, Anchorage, AK.
• C. A. Faulkner, J. E. Castellini Jr., Y. Lou, W. Zuo, D. M. Lorenzetti, M. D. Sohn 2022. “Tradeoffs Between Indoor Air Quality and Sustainability for Indoor Virus Mitigation Strategies in Office Buildings.” American Modelica Conference 2022. October 26-28, Dallas, TX.
• Y. Lou, Y. Ye, W. Zuo, Y. Yang 2022. “Realistic Estimation of CO2 Emission Reductions Due to Building Retrofit.” 2022 Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild. September 14-16, Chicago, IL.
• Y. Lou, Y. Ye, W. Zuo, J. Zhang 2021. “Energy Prediction Impact of the Space Level Occupancy Schedule for a Primary School.” Proceeding of the 17th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association (Building Simulation 2021), September 1-3, Bruges, Belgium.

Presentation

• Y. Lou 2021 “Energy Prediction Impact of the Space Level Occupancy Schedule for a Primary School“, Building Simulation 2021 Conference, September.

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