Biography:

Eunhwa Yang is an associate professor at the School of Building Construction, researching the reciprocal relationship between the built environment and human outcomes across various settings, including workplaces, university campuses, and homes. She employs Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which proposes that human outcomes are constantly influenced by the nested structures of environments. Her contributions include workplace studies, facility operation and maintenance, sustainable building practices and operations, and cognitive aging-in-place. Eunhwa's work supports a diverse range of stakeholders, including office workers, university students, and older adults, as well as facility managers/owners, corporate real estate directors, and designers, in identifying optimal spatial design, usage, and operation.

Eunhwa has been actively involved with the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and CoreNet Global. She has received a young researcher's best paper award and a workshop grant from International Association for People-Environmental Studies (IAPS) and multiple fellowships from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). Eunhwa has taught and developed facility management-related courses at GT. She is an advocate of utilizing and exploring diverse teaching methods, including active learning, experiential learning, and service learning. She was a fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning at GT and the Center for Teaching Excellence at Cornell and led workshops on student engagement, collaborative learning, and rubric development. Her master’s and doctoral students have been recognized in the field, winning the IFMA Foundation scholarships and CoreNet Global Academic Challenges. Eunhwa holds an MS in Building Construction and Facility Management from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Design from Cornell University.

Teaching Interest:

Dr. Yang’s teaching focuses on the principles of facility management service delivery; building operation and maintenance and their associated data analytics; safety and environmental issues that protect and promote occupant health and well-being; and research methods.

Research Interest:

Dr. Yang’s research can be organized into four primary threads: 1) workplace management and strategies for workplace optimization/efficiency, 2) smart facility operation and maintenance through data integration and post-occupancy evaluation (POE), 3) the adoption of sustainable building practices and operations, and 4) design and construction for aging and aging-in-place. Her research has made theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions to these topics, addressing human outcomes and the built environment in various settings, such as workplaces, university campuses, and homes.

List of Recent Scholarly Work:

1. Bilau, I., Koo, B., Fu, E., Chau, W., Kwon, H., & Yang, E. (2025). Visual accessibility through open shelving: Impacts on cognitive load, motivation, physical activity, and user perception in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Aging and Environment, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/26892618.2025.2576213

2. Shagar, M., Zeng, Q., Baru, A., Yang, E., & Pishdad, P. (2025). Systematic review of residential indoor environmental quality assessment surveys and the development of an exemplary novel survey identifying and analyzing tool. Building and Environment, 284, 113448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2025.113448

3. Ma, J.H., Erdogmus, E., & Yang, E. (2025). A user-centered building design approach using immersive virtual reality and discrete choice modeling. Building and Environment, 284, 113400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2025.113400  

4. Koo, B., Bilau, I., Rodriguez, A. D., Yang, E., & Kwon, H. (2025). Quantifying mild cognitive impairments in older adults using multi-model wearable sensor data in a kitchen environment. medRxiv: the preprint server for health sciences. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.24.25328107

5. Machary, H., Motamed Rastegar, R., Gholami, Y., Yang, E., Little, E., Burke, M. A. M., Bilau, I., DuBose, J., & Zimring, C. (2025). Cognitive-aging-in-place: Home design factors influencing instrumental activities of daily living for older adults facing mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Aging and Environment, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/26892618.2025.2506060

6. Yang, E., Chen, C., Li, K., Guo, K., Hua, Y., & Zhang, L. (2025). Challenges and strategies for energy performance contracting: A critical review. Journal of Building Design and Environment, 3(1), 202510. https://doi.org/10.70401/jbde.2025.0001

7. Zhang, X., Wang, Y., Yang, E., Xu, S., & Yu, Y. (2025). Sale to list ratio, for sale inventory, sale count, and housing value. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 18(2), 416-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-08-2023-0113

8. Zhang, X., Yang, E., & Wang, Y. (2025). Time series observation of relationship between United States private residential construction spending and its indicators. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 18(2), 317-333. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-07-2023-0096

9. Zhang, X., & Yang, E. (2025). Observation of relationship between housing value and the number of building permits in the United States using time series method. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 18(1), 106-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-06-2023-0085

10. Zhang, X., Yang, E., Huang, L., & Wang, Y. (2025). Incremental population density improvement via missing middle housing under density-based and form-based zoning ordinances. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 18(1), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-06-2023-0074

11. Ma, J. H., Erdogmus, E., Kangisser, S. J., & Yang, E. (2025). A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of immersive virtual reality on end-user design review. Building and Environment, 267, 112237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.112237

Degrees with Year of Award:

Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Design, Cornell University, February 2016
M.S. in Building Construction and Facility Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, December 2009
B.S. in Architectural Engineering, SungKyunKwan University, February 2005