Integrated Design Research Lab projects awarded I-Corps grants

Two new projects being developed through the School of Architecture’s Integrated Design Research Lab have each received 2020 Innovation Corps (I-Corps) grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Created in 2011, the I-Corps program is designed to support the commercialization of new technology discoveries in science and engineering.

The teams behind both projects include faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and representatives from private companies. The $50,000 I-Corps grants will allow each team to test proof of concept and commercial viability for their projects.

“A Regenerative High-performance Curtainwall for Net Zero Energy Applications” was developed by team members Kyoung Hee Kim, associate professor of architecture and principal investigator; Hamideh Hosseiniirani, an M.S./Ph.D. dual degree student; undergraduate architecture student Isabella Silva; and Dennis Richter, president of Richter Development and Solterra Partners. They propose to incorporate concentrated micro-photovoltaic cells within double pane glass in a factory-assembled curtainwall unit, which will provide energy efficiency, user satisfaction and clean energy production to promote net zero architecture practice.

“An Air-depolluting System for Improved Indoor Air Quality” was developed by team members Chengde Wu, research associate and lecturer in architecture and principal investigator; Ketki Prashant Bapat, a graduate architecture student; Dante Gil Rivas, an undergraduate architecture student; and Tomás Jiménez-Eliæson, partner and design principal at Little Diversified Architectural Consulting. The proposed technology consists of a network of light shelf reflectors coated with a thin layer of nanocrystalline titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst. This passive photocatalytic system is expected to effectively remove indoor air pollutants and provide uniform indoor daylighting illumination.