Professor of Architectural Engineering
Academic Division: Civil Engineering
Research group: Structures
Email: rc488@cam.ac.uk
Research interests
Dr Ruchi Choudhary specializes in building simulation and environmental characteristics of the built environment. At Cambridge, she is leading the multi-disciplinary Energy Efficient Cities initiative (EECi) with colleagues in transport technologies and urban planning. Her current research concerns urban-scale energy simulation of built environments, with specific emphasis on uncertainty analysis and retrofits of existing buildings. The work investigates how simulation science can support pathways towards energy efficient cities, taking into account large variability among buildings, and a highly dynamic context associated with economics, regulations, and the influence of new emerging technologies.
The research has led to new methods and tools for the simulation community: (a) a simulation platform for multi-period energy retrofits under economic uncertainties, (b) stochastic urban-scale energy model that quantifies the impact of current UK policies, and (c) spatial energy network optimization tool. These tools predict energy and emissions due to buildings at requisite time and spatial resolution.
Strategic themes
Energy, transport and urban infrastructure
Stochastic Energy Simulations of Urban Built Environments; Spatial Analysis of Energy Consumption; Building Energy Retrofits; Design of District Energy Systems.
Complex, resilient and intelligent systems
Bayesian Calibration of Building Energy Models; Uncertainty Analysis of Urban-Scale Energy Consumption.
Research projects
- Energy Efficient Cities initiative
- Geothermal Systems
- District Energy Network Optimization
- Climate controlled Urban Farming
- Uncertainty Analysis of Urban Scale Energy Models
- Energy Management of Diverse and Complex Building Portfolios
- Bayesian Calibration of Energy Simulation Models
Teaching activity
- 4D13 - Architectural Engineering
- 3D8 – Building Physics
- 4M19 – Advanced Building Physics
- MPhil Projects in Energy Technologies
Other positions
- Assistant Professor of Building Technologies in the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology (2004-08)
- Lecturer, Architecture Association (2007-09)
- Research Fellow, Statistical and Applied Mathematics Institute, USA (Autumn 2011)
- Invited Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Sept - Dec 2015.
- Invited Professor, Lab. de Mecanique et Technologie, Ecole Normale Superieure Paris-Saclay, September 2017.
Biography
Ruchi Choudhary is Reader in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge since 2008. She teaches in the Civil Engineering Division of the Department of Engineering. Prior to joining Cambridge, Dr Choudhary was assistant professor of building technologies in the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA (2004-08). She has also taught in the Sustainable and Environmental Design Unit at the Architecture Association in London (2007-09). She received her PhD in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2004.