Panelists:
Monica Neukomm, Technology Manager for Grid
-Interactive Efficient Buildings, U.S. Department of Energy
Monica Neukomm is a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy and currently leads the Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) Initiative for the Building Technologies Office (BTO). Her work at the Energy Department, starting in 2009, has focused on leading clean energy initiatives working closely with industry and government partners. She holds a Masters degree in Public Policy, Energy and Public Finance from the University of Maryland and a Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Oregon.
Sarah Hood, Senior Director of Operations, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, The Tech Garden, CenterState CEO
Sarah Hood serves as senior director of Operations at CenterState CEO’s The Tech Garden, Central New York’s premier technology incubator.
In this role, she is responsible for overseeing operations of The Tech Garden and will lead its strategic and business development. She most recently served as director of The Clean Tech Center at The Tech Garden. Before joining CenterState CEO she was the program manager for Saab Corporation. Hood also served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force.
She earned a Master of Business Administration from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts in public relations and communications from Jacksonville.
Hood is a member of the Truman National Security project, dedicating to advancing national policy and a member of the National Transportation Review Board. Additionally, she serves as a member of the DeWitt Police Commission. State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Greater Syracuse, class of 2019.
Juhanna Rogers, Vice President of Social Justice and Equity, CenterState CEO
Dr. Juhanna Rogers serves as Vice President of Racial Equity and Social Impact at CenterState CEO. In this role, she develops and deploys diversity equity and inclusion strategies that achieve more equitable outcomes both internally and across the organization’s portfolio of work, including helping institutions establish strategic action-oriented plans that drive inclusive change in their respective workplaces. Dr. Rogers previously served as CenterState CEO’s economic development strategist. Her roles evolved from director of performance to director of community engagement & empowerment.
Dr. Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in Integrative Arts from Penn State University – Altoona, a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs, and a PhD in Higher Education with a focus on Race and Equity from Indiana University. She and seven other colleagues made institutional history at Indiana University as the largest group of Black women to graduate simultaneously in the School of Education. This group of women deemed “The Great Eight”— gained national attention and were selected as honorees for the 2016 Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list.
Dr. Juhanna Rogers is a motivational speaker, commentator, artist, and education activist committed to social justice, education, and the arts. As a critical race scholar, she builds platforms for critical conversations on race, justice, and equity. Dr. Rogers has worked nationally and internationally to help address equity in higher education, exploring ways through which underrepresented populations can improve their lives and communities.
Elizabeth Krietemeyer, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
Dr. Bess Krietemeyer is an Associate Professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture and Faculty Research Fellow at the Syracuse University Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. She received her Ph.D. in Architectural Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, where she was a research fellow and worked as an architectural designer with Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) on the integration of advanced building technologies to architectural projects. She has 16 years of professional and academic research experience including architectural design and development of high-performance building envelopes and decision analysis tools for building system design and optimization. Dr. Krietemeyer’s research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. She currently leads a multidisciplinary team on a DOE sponsored project pursuing a holistic deep energy retrofit design solution for low to middle income residences in cold climates.
Bing Dong, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University
Dr. Bing Dong is an Associate Professor within Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Syracuse University. He also serves as Associate Director of GEB at Syracuse Center of Excellence for Environmental and Energy Systems. Dr. Dong’s research interests are grid-interactive efficient buildings, building energy efficiency, occupant behavior modeling at both building and urban scales, buildings-to-grid integration, building controls and diagnostics, and big data analytics. Dr. Dong was Subtask A leader for IEA EBC Annex 66 project: “Definition and Simulation of Occupant Behavior in Buildings” and current serves as activity 2 leader for IEA EBC Annex 79 project: “Occupant-Centric Building Design and Operation”, involving more than 100 researchers from 16 countries. Dr. Dong has led 22 research projects that lead to research awards over $10 million funded by NSF, Department of Energy (DOE), ARPA-E, NYSERDA, industries. He has over 100 journal and conference papers published. Dr. Dong is the receipt of 2018 IBPSA-USA Emerging Contributor Award and 2019 NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Dong is the Associate Editor of International Journal of Building Simulation. Dr. Dong servers as research committee chair for ASHARE Occupant Behavior Working Group, and Board of Directors of International Association of Building Physics (2021-2024). Dr. Dong received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ed Bogucz, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University
For more than 30 years, Dr. Ed Bogucz, an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University, has built successful collaborations among university, industry, and government partners in education, research, technology transfer, and economic development projects. He served as the founding director of SyracuseCoE for sixteen years. Under Bogucz’s leadership, SyracuseCoE created an Innovation Ecosystem of research, demonstration and commercialization projects, which, with significant federal and state funding, expanded the boundary of knowledge and brought many environmental and building innovations to market. Previously, Bogucz served more than eight years as Syracuse University’s Dean of Engineering and Computer Science. Bogucz was recruited by Syracuse University in 1985 as a faculty member in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He taught a wide range of undergraduate courses and received three awards for teaching excellence. Bogucz is Principal Investigator or co-PI, or has served in these roles, for projects totaling more $60 million to date from sponsors including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Economic Development Administration, NASA, National Science Foundation, NYSTAR, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Empire State Development, New York Power Authority, Carrier/United Technologies Corp., and National Grid. He earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University and an M.S. degree in heat transfer engineering from London’s Imperial College.
Joseph Borowiec, Program Manager, NYSERDA
Joseph Borowiec is the Advanced Buildings Team Lead at NYSERDA. Joe and his team are focused on the advancement of building technologies to increase energy efficiency and reduce the GHG emission footprint of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings in New York. Current activities include the next generation of HVAC and smart building technologies. Prior to joining NYSERDA, Joe was employed for 21 years as a research engineer at GE’s Global Research Center. Joe holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, a MS in Computer Science, and a MBA from Union College. He has 21 United States Patents.
Moderator:
Eric A. Schiff, Executive Director, SyracuseCoE and Professor, Physics, Syracuse University
As SyracuseCoE director for the last year, Eric Schiff has been working on ways to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in the community. He has many years of experience as a physics professor, a semiconductor and solar cell researcher, a university and government administrator, and an industry consultant. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.