Visiting Scholar, Harbin Institue of Technology, China
Zhaohan Bai is a visiting scholar under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Schiavon and Prof. Hui Zhang. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Architecture at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Her research integrates physiological sensing, machine learning, and sustainable design strategies to develop personalized thermal comfort prediction methods for sleep environments.
Her work aims to establish a performance-driven framework that enhances occupant health and reduces building energy use under the challenges of a warming climate. Through controlled sleep experiments combining wearable physiological monitoring and environmental measurements, she investigates how nocturnal thermal conditions influence human thermoregulation, sleep quality, and next-morning cognitive recovery. By mapping relationships among skin temperature distribution, heart rate, thermal perception, and behavioral adjustments such as bedding coverage, her research develops dynamic, individualized models capable of predicting real-time sleep comfort.
Building upon these findings, Bai further explores passive and low-energy environmental control strategies, integrating personalized comfort models into adaptive building systems. Her long-term goal is to construct a design-to-operation workflow that unites passive design principles with intelligent sensing-based regulation, promoting green, health-oriented, and resilient indoor environments. Her broader interests include human–building interaction, thermal alliesthesia, and the intersection of climate change, health, and sustainable architecture.