Interview with Burcin Becerik-Gerber: "Building Intelligent Environments"

Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber holds the Stephen Schrank Early Career Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and is Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Dr. Becerik-Gerber’s research focuses on human-building interaction and building science, with a focus on building responsive and adaptive intelligent environments.

“I would like to see buildings with personalities, and buildings that work with you towards the shared goals that you and the building might have.”

Jump to a question:

• Who are you, where do you work, and what is the primary focus of your research?

• What are ‘responsive and adaptive intelligent environments’?

• What sorts of environmental variables can be manipulated to affect our moods and behaviors?

• Most people aren’t necessarily bothered by static buildings. Why should they care?

• What does it mean for building design to be ‘human-centered’?

• In the history of architecture, efforts to make buildings more humane have focused on adding natural, rather than technological, elements. How do you view your approach in that light?

• Could you describe your recent efforts to build an 'intelligent workstation'?

• Do objectives like productivity and comfort conflict? What is being optimized for in these intelligent environments?

• How do you manage the user's desire for autonomy in designing these environments?

• How does the interface you use affect occupants' compliance with sustainability goals?

• Is there anything coercive about a building using fake emotional signals to impact human behavior?

• Do you worry about privacy concerns with our environments collecting data about us?

• What sorts of data do you collect to infer people's preferences?

• What would your ideal future look like if these technologies were rolled out successfully?

• Are these interactions one-sided, or do you view them as an interaction between two systems?

• What advice would you give to your fellow researchers about working across disciplines?