UF Team

Sherry’s research and teaching focuses on housing and community design that fosters the physical, social and economic health of households.  As PI of Project Re-envision, she oversees the activities of the co-PIs responsible for the different phases of the project, and ensures communication, coordination and engagement between team members.
https://dcp.ufl.edu/faculties/sherry-ahrentzen/

Randy’s focus is on housing and community development research and outreach that helps to understand decision-making processes of residents and how that affects their dwelling, cohabiting, and functionality within society. As co-PI, he leads the dissemination phase, which gauges the type of media or information that professionals (construction, caregivers, etc.) will be most receptive to when learning the project’s results.
https://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/fycs-directory/randall-cantrell/

Boyi’s research interests are ergonomics, biomechanics, system safety and human motion analysis. As co-PI, he leads the participant motion analysis effort, to utilize wearable motion sensors to monitor and quantify the physical behavior alterations of by different interior designs.
https://www.ise.ufl.edu/hu/

Robert’s research and teaching is focused on improving building performance as well as addressing the broader environmental impact of the built environment. As co-PI, he leads the cost-benefit economic analysis of the redesign alternatives, including the potential economic benefits of improving the capabilities and well-being of occupants.
https://dcp.ufl.edu/faculties/ries-robert-j/

Stephen is a Florida registered architect, lecturer, and acting program director at University of Florida Citylab-Orlando where he teaches graduate architecture focused on housing and community. As co-PI, he leads the design charrette and the creation of the schematic designs modeled in Autodesk Revit software for the interactive visualizations used in the stereoscopic and VR testing sessions.
https://dcp.ufl.edu/faculties/stephen-bender/

Erin studies the history and preservation of the interior environment, and specifically focuses on 19th and 20th century interior spaces, including social settlement houses, vernacular architecture, and public housing interiors. As co-PI, she is responsible for the archival research and the development of a typology booklet of unit layouts of small attached housing.
https://dcp.ufl.edu/faculties/cunningham-erin/

Cleary is an architect with specialized practice experience in historic preservation and adaptive re-use. Her research centers on historic land-use decisions as a source of challenge in contemporary communities and incentive for developing long-term community resilience. She is coordinator of the Florida Resilient Cities program. https://dcp.ufl.edu/frc/

Deepak is a Design, Construction & Planning PhD student with a concentration in Construction Management whose research focus is on developing BIM based applications. He contributed to the workplan protocols for the cost analysis.

Jithin is a Design, Construction & Planning PhD student with a concentration in Construction Management where he focuses on the application of technology and software in the design and construction of buildings. He developed the Virtual Reality application for Project Re-envision and contributed to the focus groups to create design workflow and data collection techniques.

Chunyao is a Design, Construction & Planning PhD student with a concentration in Interior Design, who focuses on the interdisciplinary research area across historic preservation and interior design. She contributed to the research and graphic design works on Pattern Book of Small Attached Housing: Opportunities and Challenges for Accessibility Improvements. 

Daniela strives to apply her background in research and the social sciences to create a positive impact in the experience of the user in an interior space; inclusiveness, comfort, and functionality are a few of the components she likes to include as part of her design process. As graduate research assistant of the project, she carries out survey/question development, qualitative and statistical data analysis, and recruitment for the VR demonstration testing.

Yuhao is a PhD student who is interested in human-robot interaction and occupational safety. He contributed to the lab environment setup and movement assessment for the VR demonstration testing.

Xu is a Design, Construction & Planning PhD student with a concentration in Interior Design, whose research focuses on people’s perception and response between the built environment and the simulated built environment when using technology in evidence-based research and design project. His contribution includes ergonomics research, furniture design, 3D modeling, and recruitment flyer design.

Xiaojie received her PhD with a concentration in Construction Management, with a research interest in providing healthy built environment for occupants. Her contributions included assistance in proposal and working on the systematic review of immersive simulation technologies for persons with disabilities.

Sai is a Master’s student in the human systems engineering lab, with research experience on gait analysis for distracted walking and is the founding member of Med-Supply.Life. She contributed to the data collection by Xsens and analysis of the impact of different design models on the gait.

Margaret is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Health Education and Behavior who plans to become an occupational therapist. Her role in the project included helping with reviewing materials as well as being trained to use the gait belt to promote participants’ safety.

John is a recent graduate of the University of Florida and his goal is to attend medical school. His main role with the project is to ensure each participant’s safety by guiding them through the VR experience with a gait belt.