My experience focuses on engaging with undergraduate and post-graduate students, although I have also engaged with primary and high school students, and professional students. This gave me a broader vision on the various ways to engage with different students and the multitude difficulties they can encounter during their learning, helping me to tailor my approach to teaching depending on the audience and the environment.

I focus my teaching in areas I consider myself having strong expertise in, such as thermo-physical behaviour of building, their sustainability and energy efficiency techniques while my research focus in building transient behaviour and performance simulation can certainly be integrated as part of the formative experience for my students. My technical experience in the professional field has proven useful in delivering more practical lectures on the application of those technologies in building design and retrofit.

I keep myself up to date on the state of the art and industry practices on my main field of interest and research, cascading on my teaching, and always inform myself thoughtfully before delivering lectures or other teaching activities, not only reading about the subjects but trying to anticipate potential difficulties students could experience on the subject and questions they’d like to be addressed.

Depending on the type of student and teaching environment, I try to adapt my teaching approach to maximise the outcome and improve the general experience of my audience. During tutorials and tutoring, I try to maximise interactivity and cooperation, often leaving the students lead the way in defining what they feel is most useful for them to discuss. In more traditional lectures, direct engagement becomes more difficult and not always appropriate, so I try to maintain the attention of students through practical examples, simple tutorials and questions to the audience if appropriate. 

My reserach interests and expertise focuses mainly in three different fields:

• Thermal Physics applied to constructions and building components, to determine stationary and transient thermal properties and energy performances;
•  Transient energy balance applied to buildings to evaluate energy performances and indoor comfort, Dynamic energy simulations and their application in support of the design process;
• Testing and validation of building components and equipment (both in lab and in operation) to determine thermal properties and energy performances.

From the start of my Ph.D. until now, I was also able to engage with various industry partners, public sector, stakeholders, and architectural and construction companies to deliver professional consultancies, both autonomously or in cooperation with other professionals, in various fields related to energy efficiency in the building sector ranging from, the writing of SEAPs (Sustainable Energy Action Plans), the numerical modelling of a test chamber for virtual tests on radiators and various applications of Building Dynamic Energy and Performance Simulation for design validation and optimization or financial feasibility analysis of building renovations. This gave me professional experience and helped me in working toward applied research. 

Some of the most recent and ongoing projects I’ve been involved in:

• Leading research in the development of a simplified building performance simulation tools to support the integrated design process of new highly efficient buildings
• Currently collaborating with an Italian research group and a PhD student on the integration of building energy simulation with BIM to improve building design and management;
• Currently lead-supervisor of a PhD student in Brighton (Robin Talbot) under the SEAHA CDT on “Retrofitting space heating systems for historic churches: meeting the needs of community, conservation and environmental sustainability”;
• Currently co-supervisor of a PhD student at University of Pisa (Italy) on the design of personal comfort systems and their potential impact on building energy consumption;
• Currently expanding previous research delivered during my PhD studies on simplified building energy modelling for building design, developing it into a fully-fledged web-based screening tool to support building design, both for educational and commercial purposes (https://www.freds4buildings.com/);
• Other ongoing collaborations including co-supervising various student projects in collaboration with other academics and external partners (e.g. analysing and understanding the performances of the ATES system in Cockcroft building; designing a solar canopy for renewable energy generation) and taking part to activities with external partners that may help generate impact (e.g. part of the Greater Brighton Energy Plan steering group).

My research interests are broad and cover the fields of building physics, building energy performance and behaviour, indoor human behaviour and comfort and, building sustainability and integrated design. I've been previously involved in the supervision of 2 successful PhD students, and I'm currently lead supervisor of one PhD student in the field of building energy performance and heritage buildings. I'm keen to supervise more students in relevant reserach fields and always open to potential collaborations.