The lab

Dr. Helen Stopps, P.Eng.

Helen works on the gap between what we know makes buildings healthier, safer and more resilient, and what people experience where they live and work. Her research combines field diagnostics, laboratory testing and modelling to understand how building materials and systems perform in use and which changes improve health and comfort. Helen loves the exploratory side of science and engineering—building, testing and finding out how things really work. She also recognizes that technical performance is only one part of evaluating a technology. Her work asks who it serves, under what conditions, and how its benefits and burdens are distributed. Residents and community organizations inform the questions, what gets measured and how success is defined.

Dr. Fatima Ahmed

PhD, Environmental Science (Indigenous Health) · MASc, Environmental Science & Mgmt. · BASc, Public Health & Safety

Fatima’s research treats housing and infrastructure as public-health issues, examining how conditions in the built environment intersect with health and community wellbeing. Her background spans environmental science, Indigenous health, occupational health and public health, and informs how she approaches community-engaged research across disciplines. As a postdoctoral fellow with NSERC CREATE-IMPACT, she connects community priorities with research and training through interdisciplinary collaboration, mentorship and knowledge translation. Her work is motivated by the view that healthier, more resilient communities require solutions shaped by technical evidence, community knowledge and lived experience—not any one discipline alone.

Odel Linetska

BArchSc · MASc, Building Science · SSHRC CGRS-D · SSHRC–CMHC CGS-M · NSERC USRA

Odel studies housing inequity under a changing climate across low-income, subsidized and First Nations housing contexts in Ontario. Working with communities, she combines field measurements, housing assessments and indoor-air monitoring with interviews to document both building conditions and residents’ experiences of heat, wildfire smoke, flooding and other climate hazards. Her aim is to make overlooked housing conditions visible and produce evidence communities can use to set retrofit priorities, support funding applications and develop responses suited to their own contexts—because no single measurement or intervention captures the whole problem.

Muhammad Faisal Shehzad

MS, Electrical Engineering · BS, Computer Engineering

Muhammad develops a neighbourhood-level Climate Vulnerability Index for Toronto, examining how climate and environmental exposure interact with health, housing, socioeconomic conditions and the built environment. Building on a background in energy systems and decarbonization, he combines evidence reviews with neighbourhood-scale data, statistical and spatial analysis, and methods that look beyond a single ranking to identify different vulnerability profiles and the factors driving them. His goal is to help communities and the City understand not only where vulnerability is concentrated, but why it differs among neighbourhoods, so adaptation efforts and resources can respond to local needs.

Nabil Bleibel

ME, Mechanical Engineering – Applied Energy · BE, Mechanical Engineering · OGS, 2025–26

Nabil’s research focuses on the next step in fault detection and diagnosis: deciding what to do after an HVAC fault is found. Using real building-automation data from an airport, physics-informed and data-driven methods, and HVAC modelling, he develops frameworks for choosing among maintenance, operator intervention and automated corrective action—and for adapting those approaches across different HVAC systems. His goal is to close the gap between fault-detection research and day-to-day building operation, so an alert leads to a practical response that improves performance, energy efficiency and reliability.

Zoe Kiang (she/her)

HBA, Architectural Studies · MSc, Capacity Development and Extension

Zoe’s research asks how green design and sustainability can improve living conditions for Toronto residents who have limited ability to change their housing. Drawing on architecture, systems thinking and community-engaged research, she uses interviews, focus groups and workshops to centre residents’ knowledge and priorities. Her work responds to a gap in green-building research, which often focuses on new development and owner-led retrofits rather than residents who cannot readily change their homes. Her goal is to help shape more comfortable and resilient housing during extreme heat and cold, with residents informing what meaningful improvement looks like.

Natasha K Lunkuse

Electrical Engineering

Natasha studies the opportunities and barriers shaping heat-pump adoption in Toronto’s small commercial buildings. Through interviews, she examines why retrofits proceed or stop and how technical, financial and implementation conditions interact. Her work aims to help municipal governments, utilities, policymakers, energy consultants and retrofit practitioners design electrification programmes that support feasible projects and wider participation. She is motivated by the potential for heat pumps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and emphasizes that neither technology choice nor funding alone determines whether a retrofit succeeds.

Maham Dar

BASc, Architectural Engineering · 2025 SBC Shift & Share Award

Maham studies how climate risks are experienced across Toronto neighbourhoods and how community-led approaches can advance equity in climate adaptation. In collaboration with the City of Toronto and community organizations, her work centres residents’ lived experiences in identifying barriers and opportunities for adaptation. She brings together her background in architectural engineering with climate education and environmental-justice work through Climate Crisis Connect, the community climate-education organization she founded. Her goal is research, policy and design that strengthen community resilience without assuming neighbourhood connections can overcome built environments that create isolation.

Katy Hui Shan Cao

BArchSc · NSERC CGRS-M · NSERC USRA · Enform × BSAO Scholarship

Katy’s interest in building-envelope performance grew from studying building materials and assemblies during her Architectural Science degree. Her MASc research explores new, non-destructive techniques for assessing the condition of building envelopes and identifying early signs of deterioration. In the lab, she combines testing and data analysis to examine how these approaches might strengthen building-condition assessments and support earlier, more targeted interventions. Because buildings shape everyday wellbeing, she wants these techniques to provide practitioners with additional evidence while complementing—not replacing—their experience and judgement.

Navneet Riyat

BArchSc

Navneet is exploring how HVAC and ventilation systems can be evaluated and optimized to support occupant health, wellbeing and low-carbon building performance. Drawing on more than four years in architectural and building-science practice, including technical work with design teams on high-rise developments, she brings experience in energy analysis, thermal comfort, indoor air quality and airtightness. As she develops her MASc thesis, she is interested in how specific mechanical systems interact with building design, heating and cooling demand, cost and overall performance.

Greg Labbé

Greg supports the shared departmental laboratory used by GroundTRUTH and other research groups. His work includes materials testing, building-performance and field testing, laboratory operations, and technical support for student research. TMU staff profile →