Sep 21, 2021
The Iowa UrbanFEWS project values sharing our research beyond academia. When Mustard Seed Community Farm, a local non-profit in Ames, Iowa reached out to a PhD student on the team, a roundtable discussion about food systems emerged.
Tiffanie Stone led the discussion - her research with the project is focused on understanding the environment and social impacts of different types of food systems.
Sep 14, 2021
Diba Malekpour Koupaei, PhD candidate in the Civil Engineering Department at Iowa State University, presented the team’s most recent research efforts on developing a workflow for the integration of high-resolution tree geometries in urban energy simulation models at the same conference. Her paper, titled “A framework for integrating high-resolution trees in urban energy use models”, focused on the development of an improved modelling framework for estimating the amount and timing of shading from trees and its effects on cooling and heating energy use in residential buildings.
Sep 14, 2021
Sedigheh Ghiasi, graduate student with the team presented ‘A sensitivity analysis to investigate urban heat island (UHI) effect on buildings energy consumption’ at the 17th International IBPSA Building Simulation Conference held hybrid from September 1-3, 2021 in Bruges Belgium. The paper uses weather data considering UHI impact using remote sensing techniques. Our findings showed how UHI can increase annual cooling load in the study area of Des Moines, Iowa.
Apr 27, 2021
Undergraduate Iowa State research students Oluwatobiloba Fagbule in Architecture and Rushi Patel in Mechanical Engineering presented their research on "Validating the impact of vegetative wall coverings on building cooling loads using heat-flux sensors and infrared images" at the National Council on Undergraduate Research, 2021.
Apr 27, 2021
Erin Huckins, M.S. student in the Sustainable Agriculture program at Iowa State University presented "Challenges and Opportunities for Producers and Consumers in Central Iowa Urban Food Systems" at the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture Research Symposium that took place virtually on April 21, 2021. Check out her poster and presentation at the link below!
Apr 13, 2021
Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture and director of the ISU Center for Building Energy Research, collaborated with Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, professor of mechanical engineering; Fei Xu (PhD 2018 Mechanical Engineering), now a research and development engineer at Ansys Inc.; and Songzhe Xu (BS 2012 / PhD 2018 Mechanical Engineering), now a postdoc at the University of Utah, on a recent paper published in the international journal Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments.
Apr 13, 2021
Jan Thompson (Associate Professor, Natural Resource Ecology and Management at ISU), Baskar Ganapathysubramanian (Professor, Mechanical Engineering at ISU), Wei Chen (Ph.D. Student, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, ISU), Michael Dorneich (Associate Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at ISU), Phil Gassman, (Associate Scientist, ISU Center for Agricultural and Rural Development), Sedigheh Ghiasi (M.S. Student, Architecture, ISU), Caroline Krejci (Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington), Matt Liebman (Henry A.
Mar 18, 2021
The Iowa Urban FEWS team is welcoming Tássia Mattos Brighenti to the team in March 2021. Tassia is Brazilian and graduated in with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering at University of Itajaí Valley in 2011. She did her M.S. (2013 - 2015) and Ph.D. programs (2015 - 2019) at Federal University of Santa Catarina. Since then she has been working with hydrological modeling, mainly with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool - SWAT model.
Nov 30, 2020
AMES, Iowa – A new study shows diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields. But a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University who co-authored the study said some marketing and agricultural policy considerations would have to change for farmers to adopt diversification practices more widely.
Sep 22, 2020
"Climate Smart Vegetable Production: The Environmental Attributes of Vegetables Produced in Conventional, Local, and Home Garden Food Systems in the Midwest US ", was presented by Tiffanie Stone at ACLCA (American Center for Life Cycle Assessment) Conference 2020, receiving 2nd place in the poster competition.
Jul 22, 2020
On July 22 and 23, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop titled ‘Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Building a More Sustainable, Resilient, Equitable, and Nourishing Food System.’ Workshop presenters explored three main dimensions of the food system: vulnerabilities, resiliency, and transformation. The workshop included discussions on global change, access to health and food, resiliency in complex dynamic systems, and consumption- and production-oriented strategies for change.
Jul 20, 2020
"LCA and TEA of Conventional Versus Local Production of Vegetables for US Midwest Cities", was presented by Tiffanie Stone at ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering) Conference 2020. The research was co-authored by Tiffanie Stone - Graduate Student - PhD in Environmental Science in Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, ISU, Janette Thompson - Professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, ISU and Kurt Rosentrater, Associate Professor of Agriculral and Biosystems Engineering and Food Science and Human Nutrition, ISU.
Jul 16, 2020
Iowa State University received $253 million in external sponsored
research funding, including a new record of $186 million in federal
research funding, for the 2020 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020. One of the most notable projects receiving NSF funding in FY20 is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional effort being led by Janette Thompson, Morrill Professor, Natural Resource Ecology and Management.
More information can be found here:
Jun 16, 2020
On this episode of River to River, host Ben Kieffer is joined by experts in environmental health and sustainability for a look at the intersection of global crises today. Globally and nationally, people are experiencing a multitude of crises. All at once, individuals are feeling the impact of a global pandemic, police brutality and the continuing effects of climate change.
