Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab

The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) PDC Summit 2025 last week has been a great success! It offered wonderful learning experience all around. Four talented students from the Georgia Tech School of Architecture, Vijay Aadithya, Sharon (Sherry) Tsepas, Beatriz Vargas, and Elisabeth Walker participated in the 2025 PDC Summit Student Design Challenge. Our M.S. in Design and Health student, Beatriz Vargas, was a member of the winning team, and our Master of Architecture student, Elisabeth Walker was among the runners-up team. Elisabeth was also honored to speak as the student representative at the panel discussion during the plenary session of the 10-year anniversary celebration of the PDC Summit Student Design Challenge. We are incredibly proud of what the students achieved in just 48 hours! This experience was a fantastic opportunity for them to collaborate across disciplines, including architecture, nursing, architectural engineering, and construction management. This year's project focused on a very timely topic on designing for behavioral health in the emergency department (ED). A huge thank you to George Smith, Chris Ressler, Leah Meer, AIA, Gabriel G. Auffant, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP BDC, Stephen N. Parker AIA NOMA NCARB LEED AP, Kimberly McMurray, as well as my co-faculty advisors L. James Lo, Shireen M. Kanakri, Jane Carrington, Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, MS-CRM, RN, and Brad Benhart for their invaluable support during this important learning event. With the conference being held in town, we were fortunate to have some esteemed visitors at Georgia Institute of Technology. Special thanks to Professor Debajyoti Pati for visiting our Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab, discussing research ideas, and providing feedback to our PhD students. We also appreciate Erin K. Peavey from HKS for visiting our lab and the senior healthcare design capstone studio, offering desk critiques and advice to our students. It was also wonderful to learn the latest development and innovations in the planning, design, construction, and research of healthcare facilities, reconnect with old friends and make new ones at the PDC Summit! American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) The Center for Health Design #GeorgiaTech #PDCSummit2025 #StudentSuccess #InterdisciplinaryCollaboration #Architecture #HealthcareDesign

The future of healthcare design and construction is based upon interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration. Over the weekend, our Executive Director, Hui Cai worked as one of the faculty mentors for the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) & American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) PDC Student Design Challenge. Student teams in this design competition are comprised of students from five different disciplines from five universities. Georgia Tech School of Architecture (Architecture) Ball state (Architecture) Drexel University (Architecture Engineering) Purdue University (Construction Management) University of Florida (Nursing) Congratulations to our Master of Science in Design and Health student, Beatriz Vargas for being a member of the winning team! Very proud of all students for their achievements in this intense design competition. Elisabeth Walker, Vijay Aadithya,Sharon Tsepas. Go Jackets! #PDCSummit #healthcaredesign #interdisciplinarycollaboration #healthcareeducation

A great workshop on Neuroscience for Built Environment Studies! Proud to see our Ph.D. student Yasaman Gholami co-leading the workshop with her colleague Simin Nasiri at the School of Psychology, and another Phd student Ibrahim Bilau doing live demonstration of how to use eye tracking glasses and wearable device to collect data to support people with MCI. Looking forward to more exciting work at the intersection between neuroscience and architecture! #BuildingBrainCoalition #NeuroNext

Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab is excited to be one of the newest members of the Building Brains Coalition, We will join HKS, Inc.; CADRE;Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy; Center for BrainHealth; Brain Capital Alliance; Perkins&Will; Corgan; Your Brain on Art; ANFA A; The Centre for Conscious Design (CCD); Brain Health Action, EMEA; and International Interior Design Association (IIDA) on this important intiative on reimagining brain health and connecting built environment professionals with those in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, climate science and public health. Discover more about the Building Brains Coalition.?https://hks.onl/3EUFkq9 #buildingbraincoalition #brainhealth #research #design #NeuroNext

This week, the Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab presented at the INTERACTIVITY@GT 2025 Research Showcase hosted by Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech! Our Ph.D. Students and faculty showcased a diverse range of research projects on design and health. The topics include “The socioeconomic disparities in the burden of food purchasing behaviors in major United States”(Yilun Zha), “Co-presence in synthetic environments,”(Yasaman Gholami), “Kitchen Design for older adults with MCI” (@Ibrahim Bilau), Home Design Guidelines for Cognitive Aging in Place (Eunhwa Yang), and Research Highlights in the SimTigrate Design Lab?(Hui Cai). It is our pleasure to present as part of Georgia Tech College of Design and IPaT affiliated lab!

Last week, the Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab and Institute for People and Technology(IPaT) had the pleasure of hosting the SimLEARN VHA team, including representatives from the SimLEARN VHA Executive Director's Office, the Office of Construction and Facilities Management, the Veterans Experience Office, and Guidehouse. We had great discussions on how to integrate physical and virtual simulations and other advanced research tools to drive innovations in healthcare design. We look forward to continuing exploring ways to collaborate with the SimLEARN VHA, CFM, and the Veterans Experience Office to support better and safer healthcare design to serve both our nation’s Veterans and the general public! Thanks Eric Bruns, Devin Harrison,Gary Fischer, Charles Tubbs, Dr. Sherri Boisvert, and Fred S. for visiting us and sharing your great work at VHA. Special thanks to Devin H. for establishing the connection and coordinating the trip to GT. Huge thanks to our team from the Georgia Tech SimTigrate Design Lab and Georgia Tech College of Design: Russell Gentry, Craig Zimring, Eunhwa Yang, Leandro Miletto Tonetto, and our colleagues from the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT): Michael Best, Maribeth Coleman, Clint Zeagler, Tim Trent, Brian Jones, Rudy Gleason, Christine Robinson for sharing their insightful work and making this a great visit for the VHA team. #SimTigrate #GTDesignforHealth #GTCollegeofDesign #GTIPaT #SimLEARN #CFM #VA #Veteranexperience #Innovation #Collaboration #Simulation

Please join our SimTigrate Healthcare Design of the Future Open House on December 9, 6:30pm. The RSVP for our upcoming Healthcare Design of the Future Showcase closes on 11/25. Please register before the deadline to help us finalize the plan for the event. The showcase will feature innovative projects by HCDF students on rural health and recent research projects from our PhD students and faculty at the SimTigrate Design Lab. The link to RSVP is below.?It has both in-person and virtual options. Looking forward to seeing you! Link to RSVP: https://lnkd.in/e2kACuQX

Join us at the SimTigrate Design Lab’s annual Healthcare Design of the Future (HCDF) Showcase, featuring forward-thinking projects by HCDF students on rural health and recent research from PhD students and faculty. This event offers a chance to connect with students, faculty, and healthcare professionals driving innovation in healthcare design.? ? The showcase will be held on Monday, December 9th, from 6:30 to 9:00 PM at the Technology Square Research Building on the 3rd floor. Light refreshments will be provided. We encourage you to attend in person for a fully immersive experience, though a virtual option is also available. RSVP details are below. We look forward to welcoming you to the SimTigrate Design Lab! Link to RSVP: https://lnkd.in/e2kACuQX

We were excited to host a group of faculty and administrators from Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) from Chile at our SimTigrate Design Lab last week. Thoroughly enjoyed the conversation about innovations in healthcare design and research. Thanks for the connection through the GT Enterprise Innocation Institute’s Global Team, lauren Lange, Xingying Lin,and our Dean Ellen Bassett. Thanks my colleagues Leandro Miletto Tonetto and Hugo Sheward for co-hosting the tour and the meeting.

Congratulations Jennifer DuBose on the exciting new role! We wish you all the best and are grateful for your many years of contribution to SimTigrate Design Lab.