Project Progress

September 2024
Paige Ambord’s paper, “Moving the Needle on Home Health: Reconceptualizing Social Problems in a Multi-Stakeholder System” was accepted at Indoor Environments. Paige (now at UNC Asheville) took a couple of years to look at home health with a social-problems lens. 

August 2024
We welcomed Graduate Student Daniel Rodriguez as part of the Diagnostic sub-team. He is currently evaluating how pressures in different parts of the home indicate the influence of wind and human behavior. Before CSU, Daniel investigated air quality impacts from large industrial facilities and benefits from decarbonizing industry, with a particular focus on environmental justice communities.

August 2024
We welcomed Naomi Chang as a Post-Doctoral Researcher. Naomi is an environmental engineer with interests in air quality and public health. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where her research focused on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the indoor environment. Naomi is working on understanding how people interact with and maintain air quality interventions in their homes, how behavior leads to system effectiveness, and ultimately how to recommend systemic intervention.

August 2024
The Healthy Housing Coalition held its August 2024 meeting at the Powerhouse Energy Campus on CSU campus. The event brought together a diverse group, including county health departments from Adams, Boulder, La Plata, Weld, and Larimer, and organizations like the American Lung Association, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Colorado Energy Office. This rich blend of perspectives fueled a dynamic exchange of insights and solutions.

August 2024
Miranda Trujillo joined us for the Summer as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student and presented her findings at the REU Poster Showcase. Her research explored whether filters were effective at removing smoke, compared with the usual test particles made of salt.

August 2024
Congratulations to Dominic Bledsoe, who successfully defended his thesis and earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. Dom’s thesis was entitled “Diurnal and Seasonal Predictability of Envelope Pressures Driving Natural Infiltration in Residential Buildings.”

August 2024
We welcomed Ganesh Pai Mangalore as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Human Systems Lab. He is part of the human-technical team and has a background in user studies and product development. Previously, he worked in the Human Performance Lab at UMass Amherst, focusing on user behavior with complex systems. His research involves using VR headsets, eye-trackers, and high-fidelity simulators. Pai’s work will focus on how occupants interpret and respond to information provided by systems in their homes.

July 2024
Graduate student Dominic Bledsoe presented the results of the team’s innovative “delta-P” measurement method at the Indoor Air conference in July 2024. Dom has been working on interpreting real-time pressure, temperature, and weather measurements in our field home sites.

Fall 2023 – Winter 2024
Engagement with the EPIC Homes project continued throughout the Fall and Winter. We observed pressures and environmental conditions in seven homes over periods lasting 4 to 6 weeks. During this time, we gathered approximately 9,000 hours of data with 1-minute resolution. This new data set builds on the 8,000 hours of data we previously collected from a single pilot home. This detailed data set allows us to explore the physical behavior of himes with high time resolution.

September 4, 2023
Jordan Rice started as an undergraduate assistant. Jordan will be working on the House of Pressure – a mock house for testing and demonstrating ventilation concepts.

August 29, 2023
First install in real homes! We added high-resolution measurements in homes that already have indoor air-quality measurements through the City of Fort Collins EPIC Homes project. This work will be ongoing through Fall 2023.

August 28, 2023
Misa Soto joined the team as a Research Associate. Misa has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Arizona and interests in community health. Misa will maintain functionality in the laboratory and assist with time-intensive field work.

May 26, 2023
Paige Ambord talks about “Moving the Needle” on residential environmental quality from a social-problems perspective. A paper in the works and another glimpse into team weekly meetings.

May 15, 2023
Mason Martinez started as an undergraduate research assistant for the summer. Working with Paul Francisco on the Protection team, he refined the filter testing apparatus and did a lot of tests!

May 15, 2023
Carsen Hobson started as an undergraduate research assistant for the summer. He is working with Christian L’Orange on the Anticipation team, developing algorithms to anticipate increases in indoor air concentrations.

April 14, 2023
Integration! The SAPPHIRES team met with Emily Fischer’s wildfires team to lay some groundwork for communicating between air-quality risk outdoors and indoor exposure.

March 20, 2023
We met with City of Fort Collins folks to formalize our collaboration. Fort Collins has both energy efficiency and Healthy Homes programs. It’s a forward-thinking government.

March 3, 2023
We kicked off our fabulous CSU-Internal advisory board. Sheryl Magzamen represents epidemiology; Delphine Farmer represents indoor air chemistry; Elicia Rataczyk represents regional sustainability. Learn more about our affiliates

February 10, 2023
“Systemic intervention” is the name of the game. Tami Bond presents this idea to a SAPPHIRES group meeting. Click the video for a window into our weekly meetings.

January 30, 2023
Research Associate Will Clagett joined the Diagnostic team to help manage SAPPHIRES interface with an ongoing project, EPIC homes. Will travels all over Colorado working to improve air quality in residences, schools and commercial buildings.

January 17, 2023
Program Manager Taylor Kennedy Frenchi joined the Bond group to help manage complex projects like SAPPHIRES.

December 21, 2022
We started measuring in our first test home. High-resolution pressure measurements are a key part of our data-driven strategy. We record observations every 10 seconds to 5 minutes over weeks and months. Photo from Energy Conservatory

December 19, 2022
Convergence! SAPPHIRES folks met with the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. team to talk about how a deep understanding of building operation can connect with projections of societal transitions.

November 30, 2022
We presented the project to Colorado’s Healthy Housing Coalition – a group of state, local, and academic stakeholders that meets monthly to discuss health in all aspects of housing. Colorado is a hotbed of work on health, housing, and environment – just one reason SAPPHIRES will blossom here! We meet a lot of collaborators through this group.

October 13, 2022
Paige Ambord started meeting with weatherization organizations in Western states. We are working with state agencies that deliver energy efficiency to learn about motivations and limitations for change in homes.

September 1, 2022
Dominic Bledsoe started as a Graduate Research Assistant on the Diagnostics team with Tami Bond. Dom will be developing a data-driven model for residential building infiltration.

August 15, 2022
Karia del Toro Garza joined the team as an undergraduate researcher. Karia is working toward a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She started as a student in a summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates, and works on testing air-cleaning filters in various configurations. The photo shows her presenting her summer’s work.

August 18, 2022
We were formally notified that SAPPHIRES was funded. It was a very good day. We had been working on the home – health – integration concept for several years through the SPHERE coalition. Framing continues, but let’s get to the finish work too.