Nan (Nancy) Ma

Nan (Nancy) Ma is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Healthy, Environmental, and Resilient Buildings (HERB-Lab) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Her research focuses on integrating architectural and computational methods to advance sustainable, occupant-centric buildings. She holds a PhD in Architecture (Building Technology Track) from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Environments from the University of Melbourne.

Her interdisciplinary work spans collaborations with public health, biostatistics, computer science, mechanical engineering, and pediatric psychology. Key research areas include building decarbonization, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) modeling, IoT-enabled smart buildings, and machine learning applications in architecture. Ma has been awarded the 2021 Best Paper Award from Building and Environment and secured grants from institutions like the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and WPI’s GAPSA Fellowship.

Her lab, HERB-Lab, emphasizes innovative solutions for healthy and resilient building systems. Ma’s contributions include pioneering studies on occupant behavior analysis via text-mining and blockchain-based energy management systems. She is actively involved in field studies assessing building envelope impacts on urban health risks and thermal comfort prediction using Bayesian neural networks.