Our Mission
The PLACE(E) Lab seeks to advance climate equity through place-based, community-centered improvements to the way that we engineer our water, transportation, energy, and construction systems in the face of climate impacts and societal stressors. In the PLACE(E) Lab, co-creation of and access to, rigorous research to drive climate adaptation for frontline communities is paramount.
Projects by Sector
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A Framework for Equity Outcomes in Stormwater Management Infrastructure (semi-structured interviews with engineering practitioners).
Contact Abbey Murray for more information
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Transportation infrastructure design in shaping community dynamics
Contact Ysabel Yu for more information
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Leveraging behavioral science to combat modern slavery in right-to-work states in the United States
Contact Ben Hyver for more information
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Centering communities and justice in the design of industrial decarbonization pathways
Contact Bethany Gordon for more information
The Designer-Bias Feedback Loop
Designers are people. People are influenced by their environment and their experiences. We work to understand how those influences affect equity and what we need to do about it.
Designers (engineers, planners, policy-makers, voting public) make big decisions that affect many people over long periods of time.
Civil and environmental engineers work on systems that they inherit from previous generations. These systems contain and reinforce the values of previous generations.
We work to understand and address behavioral defaults and biases empowers designers to critically think about the social implications of the work that engineers do.