Dr. Laura M. Arpan is the Theodore Clevenger Professor of Communication and Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Communication at Florida State University. Dr. Arpan’s research examines risk perceptions, human motivation and responses to pro-environmental messages, interventions, and related technologies. Her projects focus on the effectiveness of promotional messages and outreach efforts designed to encourage sustainable behaviors such as energy conservation and efficiency. Recent work has examined Americans’ attitudes toward energy conservation and sustainability, factors enhancing the effectiveness of information campaign messages promoting energy-use-reduction and sustainability
Dr. Laura M. Arpan is the Theodore Clevenger Professor of Communication and Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Communication at Florida State University. Dr. Arpan’s research examines risk perceptions, human motivation and responses to pro-environmental messages, interventions, and related technologies. Her projects focus on the effectiveness of promotional messages and outreach efforts designed to encourage sustainable behaviors such as energy conservation and efficiency. Recent work has examined Americans’ attitudes toward energy conservation and sustainability, factors enhancing the effectiveness of information campaign messages promoting energy-use-reduction and sustainability
Collaborative Projects in Progress:
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Collaboration among engineers, computer scientists and social scientists: Chien-fei Chen (University of Tennessee) will visit Fei Teng (Imperial College London, UK), Jianzhong Wu (Cardiff University, UK) and Evangelos Pournaras (ETH, Switzerland) during April 14-20th, 2018 and discuss research collaboration and the challenges of integrating social science, engineering and computing methods. This could lead to a potential workshop and book chapter ideas.
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Tianzheng Hong from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL)is the chair for American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Multi-disciplinary Task Group on Occupant Behavior in Buildings (MTG.OBB). This MTG was officially approved by ASHARE at the January 2016 Orlando Winter Conference. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the MTG.OBB focuses on the tasks of developing data, methods, tools and case studies to improve understanding of occupant behavior and their impacts on building design and operation, as well as meeting individual needs of indoor environmental quality (IAQ, thermal, visual and acoustic comfort), health and productivity. Tianzheng and others are prosing this MTG to a formal technical committee (TC) at ASHRAE in June 2018, which will focus on ways to improve occupant interactions with building energy and control systems to reduce energy use, as well as ways of influencing occupant comfort. The MTG.OBB has been active in three areas: (1) seminars: proposing and sponsoring a series of seminars on occupant behavior in buildings, (2) research: developing research proposals, and (3) publications: contribution to Chapter 19 of 2017 Fundamentals Handbook, Chapter 13 Smart Building Systems for the Green Guide 4 th Edition, and a new chapter was proposed and approved for the 2019 HVAC Applications Handbook. Chien-fei Chen also serves as one of the key members for this MTG.
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Chien-fei Chen and Tianzhen Hong have been leading an international occupant behavioral survey across seven countries since 2017. The data collection was completed in December 2017 and are in the process of cleaning and analyzed. Our members, Amy Kim from University of Washington (UW), Yu Wang from Iowa State University (ISU) and Yimin Zhu from Louisiana State University (LSU), are also part of the team.
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Carol Menassa and Da Li (PH.D. student) from University of Michigan (UM), and Xiaojing Xu (post-doc of UTK) and Chien-fei Chen are working on a paper about energy behaviors in commercial buildings among 1500 employees using integrated theoretical framework.
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Yohei Yamaguchi from Osaka University in Japan and Chien-fei Chen are collaborating a project using the integrated modeling approach of combining social science survey data and demand response modeling (using 3 data sources).
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Andrea Mammoli from University of New Mexico (UNM) and Xiaojing Xu and Chien-fei Chen are analyzing a data regarding demand response, energy behaviors, and social dilemma during extreme events.
Research Proposals
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Donatello Materassi from UTK and Chen-fei Chen submitted a proposal to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) program of Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP) on March 7th . The proposal has a cool title: The Unbearable Brittleness of Being (Connected): A common modeling framework for systemic risk within and across infrastructures. Along with three other collaborators, Donatello and Chien-fei also submitted a second NSF proposal on February 28th to the program of smart connected community (SCC) entitled, “FREEBIE - Flexible Resource Exchange by Behavior Intervention and Exploration” with other three collaborators on the topic of buildings and power grid.
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Carol Menassa (UM), Chien-fei Chen (UTK) and other three collaborators submitted a proposal to the NSF smart connected community (SCC) program on February 28th: Enabling Independent Mobility in People with Physical Disabilities by Advancing Technological, Human and Social Integration in Urban Communities.