Dr. Helen Stopps
Areas of Specialization
Building performance, operation and management
Building policy
Social sustainability
Urban planning and development
Data analytics
Data-driven building modelling
Open data
Big data collection and analysis
Spotlight
Helen Stopps chose her undergraduate degree in transportation engineering as a practical way to make a positive impact on environmental and social issues. "The focus of my undergraduate degree on cities, the people in cities and their movement, and how that impacts social equity, inclusion and equal distribution of resources," she said, "has really informed my research and direction."
Stopps' data-driven research measures the performance of buildings on a regional scale and, in combination with qualitative methods, illustrates how variables like policies and stakeholders influence building construction and operation. According to Stopps, the ideas that arise from this type of research could be applied to improve built environments and their systems much more equitably.
"The indoor environments of the buildings in which we live impact our physical health and our quality of life," said Stopps. "We're doing too little to ensure that a building's quality is not influenced by its location or inhabitants' social status." Stopps hopes her research will inform policies and processes and make a higher-level impact than grassroots activism.
"Through both professional and moral codes, we have a responsibility to consider how our engineering and architectural science projects impact the environment, society and people."
- Helen Stopps and Marianne Touchie (2021) Smart choice or flawed approach? An exploration of connected thermostat data fidelity and use in data-driven modelling in high-rise residential buildings, Journal of Building Performance Simulation, DOI:
- H. Stopps, C. Thorneycroft, M.F. Touchie, N. Zimmermann, I. Hamilton, and T. Kesik. 2021. 鈥淗igh-rise residential building makeovers: Improving renovation quality in the United Kingdom and Canada through systemic analysis.鈥� Energy Research & Social Science. 77: 102085, DOI:
- H. Stopps* and B. Huchuk*, M.F. Touchie, and W. O鈥橞rien. 2021. 鈥淚s anyone home? A critical review of occupant-centric control implementations in residential buildings.鈥� Building and Environment. 187:107369, DOI: (* joint primary author).
- H. Stopps and M.F. Touchie. 2021. 鈥淩esidential smart thermostat use: An exploration of thermostat programming, environmental attitudes, and the influence of smart controls on energy savings.鈥� Energy and Buildings. 238:110834, DOI:
Smart Building Analytics Research Group