Bianca Howard

Bianca Howard

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Bianca Howard’s research focuses on developing modeling, optimization, and control techniques to estimate, forecast and manipulate the timing of energy consumption of buildings and their energy systems. The research aims to deliver impact on policy analysis, design and operation of buildings to deliver net-zero greenhouse emissions goals for communities, cities and countries.

Recent research projects Dr. Howard has directed include: the development and evaluation of model predictive control approaches for delivering demand reduction from groups of electrically heated homes, the development of building occupancy models that incorporate the effects of the local urban environment, the review of the lack of validated urban building energy models for estimating time varying demand and the use of evolutionary algorithms to analyze the trade off between cost and emissions for the English housing stock under fuel poverty constraints.

Dr. Howard received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in 2016, a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in 2011, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2009.

Research Areas

  • Energy Systems
  • Building Design and Energy Conservation
  • Applied Control Systems

Additional information

  • Professional Experience
    • Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, United Kingdom (2021-2022)
    • Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, United Kingdom (2017-2021)
  • Professional Affiliations
    • Board Member, International Building Performance and Simulation
    • Association (IBPSA) England Chapter (2021-2022)
    • Conference Chair, Building Simulation and Optimisation Conference 2022, Loughborough, England
    • Co-opted Board Member, IBPSA England Chapter (2019-2021)
  • Honors & Awards
    • UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Innovation Fellow (2018-2021)
    • US NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Fellow (2011-2014)
  • Education
    • PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
    • MS, Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
    • BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska Lincoln