Evangelos Pantazis

Multi-agent team formation for design problems

Design imposes a novel social choice problem: using a team of voting agents, maximize the number of optimal solutions; allowing a user to then take an aesthetical choice. In an open system of design agents, team formation is fundamental. We present the first model of agent teams for design. For maximum applicability, we envision agents that are queried for a single opinion, and multiple solutions are obtained by multiple iterations. We show that diverse teams composed of agents with different preferences maximize the number of optimal solutions, while uniform teams composed of multiple copies of the best agent are in general suboptimal. Our experiments study the model in bounded time; and we also study a real system, where agents vote to design buildings.

Towards Understanding End-user Lighting Preferences in Office Spaces by Using Immersive Virtual Environments

Buildings and their systems are primarily designed based on several assumptions about end-users’ requirements and needs, which in many cases are incomplete and result in inefficiencies during operation phases of buildings. With advancements in fields of augmented and virtual reality, designers and engineers have now the opportunity to collect information about end-users’ requirements, preferences, and behaviors for more informed decision-making during the design phase. These approaches allow for buildings to be designed around the users, with the goal that the design will result in reduction of energy consumption and improved building operations. The authors examine the effect of design features on occupants’ preferences and performance within immersive virtual environments (IVEs). Specifically, this paper presents an approach to understand end-users’ lighting preferences and collect end-user performance data through the use of IVEs.

Use of Immersive Virtual Environments to Understand Human-Building Interactions and Improve Building Design

Previous research has shown occupants’ behavior and interactions with building systems and components have a significant impact on the total energy consumption of buildings. Incorporating occupant requirements to the design process could result in better operations, and therefore, improve the total energy consumption of buildings. Currently, buildings are primarily designed based on several common assumptions about occupant requirements, which in many cases are incorrect and result in inefficiencies during the buildings’ operation phase. With the recent improvements in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, designers now have the opportunity to accurately collect and analyze occupants’ behavioral information. In this research, through the use of immersive virtual environments, the influence of different design features on end-user behavior (preferences and patterns) and performances are examined. A case study is presented, in which the authors measure the end-users’ lighting preferences to better understand the impact of preferences on end-users’ performances and lighting-related energy consumption.