People

Founding Director (Linkedin)

Mehdi Ashayeri, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Southern Illinois University, where he leads the Urban Intelligence and Integrity Lab (URBiiLAB). Ashayeri earned his Ph.D. in Architecture–Technologies of the Built Environment, from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also holds an M.Sc. in Architecture and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Tehran Azad University. Dr. Ashayeri's research centers on environmental performance and computing, with an emphasis on their implications for human health and integration with human-centered design, engineering, and human-computer interaction. This involves integrating and developing frameworks and software platforms that leverage foundational computational methods—spanning AI, machine learning, natural language processing, physics-based simulation, big data, and sensing—to create efficient, user-friendly applications. In particular, his work focuses on spatiotemporal modeling of built environment performance, exploring factors such as energy, ambient air pollution, and climate change and their impacts on public health, while integrating human feedback systems through large language models and sentiment analysis to inform adaptive, health-centric design strategies.

Current

Zahra Najafi

Graduate Student in ArchitectureGraduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn) 2023 - 2024

Summer Schlepper

Graduate Student in ArchitectureGraduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn) Spring 2024

Former

Christymol Santhosh

Graduate Student in Computer ScienceGraduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn) Summer and Fall 2023

Golbahar Rafie Dehkordi 

Graduate Researcher (Linkedin)Design Professional at HOK (Starting 2024)Primary Advisor: Mehdi AshayeriFall 2022 - 2023

Ebrahim Maghsoudlou

PhD Student in Computer ScienceGraduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn) Summer 2023

Negin Zamani

PhD Student in Criminal JusticeGraduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn) Summer 2023

Soroush Piri 

Graduate Research Assistant (LinkedIn)PhD Student at Morgan State UniversityPrimary Advisor: Mehdi Ashayeri2021-23

Alemtsehay Mesfin 

Graduate Research Assistant 2022-23
Primary Advisor: Mehdi Ashayeri

Bill Broms 

Graduate Research Assistant2021-22

Samin Kamali Sarvestani

Graduate Researcher (Linkedin) Primary Advisor: Mehdi Ashayeri2021-22

Christina Payerhofer 

Graduate Researcher (Linkedin)Architect Technical at SCBPrimary Advisor: Mehdi Ashayeri2020-21

Seth Luitjohan

Graduate Research Assistant (Linkedin)Architectural Designer at CannonDesignPrimary Advisor: Mehdi Ashayeri2020-21

F.  Gholami.

Graduate Research Assistant 2021