At the Chair of Energy Efficient Building (E3D) at RWTH Aachen University, Brazilian Professor Ana Paula Melo is researching the effects of Personalized Environmental Control Systems (PECS) on physiological signals as part of a Humboldt Fellowship.
Professor Ana Paula Melo knows that people are very different when it comes to the ideal room temperature. Her research shows that men tend to prefer cooler rooms, while many women prefer warmer ones. However, it is not just gender that plays a part in this; the climate someone is accustomed to also influences what they find comfortable. People from warmer regions often experience the cool German fall as more uncomfortable than those who have spent extended time in temperate climates.
Professor Melo’s scientific interest is in the interaction between people and their environment and she has been conducting research as a Humboldt Fellow at E3D, the Chair of Energy Efficient Building at RWTH Aachen University, since September. As part of the team led by institute director and host Professor Christoph van Treeck, she is dedicated to developing energy-efficient buildings where people should feel comfortable.
At the end of February 2025, Ana Paula Melo will return to the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil to resume her work as a professor. Research in her home country often involves investigating the effects of the stark contrast between the heat outside enclosed spaces and an air-conditioned environment. "How does exposure to different thermal transitions impact physiological human responses’", asks Melo. Through the Humboldt Research Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports exceptionally qualified researchers and scholars from around the globe.
She chose RWTH Aachen University for her research as this University offers everything she was looking for in terms of quality education and opportunities. "RWTH is an excellent University that brings together knowledge from so many disciplines and E3D has a great reputation for high-quality research", says Melo. Environmental conditions can be simulated in the climate chamber at the E3D Institute at RWTH: Using a thermal mannequin set up in the chamber, researchers can test several thermal transitions, whereas, in the past, experiments with human subjects would concentrate on fewer transitions due to time and resource constraints.
