Author: vsuarez7

The Office of Sustainability had the chance to speak with Tarek Rakha, Associate Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture and Director of the High Performance Building Lab. He is currently on leave as a Regents Innovator to commercialize his research through Lamar.ai, a company he co-founded. Lamar.ai leverages drone technology and AI to revolutionize building diagnostics, offering a faster, cheaper, and more accurate alternative to traditional inspection methods.d Resilience Specialist, in the Office of Sustainability

Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and how you ended up in Atlanta?

I’m originally from Cairo, Egypt, where I trained as an architect. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Cairo University and later pursued a Ph.D. in Building Technology at MIT, after initially starting at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. My doctoral work focused on urban systems — including thermal comfort, mobility, and how these factors influence decisions in the built environment. I began my academic career at Syracuse University, where I first explored the idea of using drones for thermal mapping in 2015. In 2019, I joined Georgia Tech, where I led the High Performance Building Lab and received a major research award from the U.S. Department of Energy called AIRBEM (Aerial Intelligence for Retrofit Building Energy Modeling). That project significantly advanced our technology and ultimately led me to co-found Lamar.ai, where I now serve as CEO while on leave as a Regents Innovator.

Can you tell us more about the drones and your company?

At Lamar.ai, we describe what we do as being the ‘MRI for buildings.’ We use drones to capture both visible-light and infrared images of building exteriors. These images are analyzed with computer vision algorithms we’ve developed over the past decade to detect and diagnose issues such as air infiltration or exfiltration, thermal bridging, water intrusion, and physical damage like cracks. All of this data is mapped onto 3D models, creating a comprehensive visual representation of a building’s condition. Our platform offers three core services: Lamar Detect, which identifies anomalies quickly and cost-effectively; Lamar Diagnose, which provides work orders and solutions; and Lamar Audit, which calculates return on investment and energy savings. Our system is 5–10 times cheaper, up to 10 times faster, and about 50% more accurate than traditional methods — and much safer because no one needs to physically climb buildings. We’ve deployed this technology across North America, the UK, and the UAE, supporting both existing buildings and new construction projects.

How do you envision projects like this working at Georgia Tech?

Georgia Tech’s campus is large and complex, with many buildings that have deferred maintenance needs, especially related to energy performance. Our platform could provide a scalable solution by conducting campus-wide assessments — for example, inspecting 25–30% of buildings each year. This would allow Georgia Tech to prioritize which buildings need immediate attention, whether that’s weatherization, roof replacement, or targeted repairs. We can even detect early signs of mold or HVAC system issues and verify contractor work after repairs are completed. Importantly, our approach is also far more cost-effective: a traditional building enclosure investigation might cost $25,000, but we can conduct the same assessment for around $3,000. By leveraging this technology, Georgia Tech could significantly reduce costs, proactively plan capital investments, and improve building performance across campus.

Is there an opportunity to involve students and faculty in this work?

Absolutely. There are multiple ways to integrate Lamar.ai into educational programs. Students could participate in data collection by learning to operate drones, which would be especially relevant for aerospace engineering courses. On the analytics side, computer science and electrical engineering students could work on refining our AI models or annotating data. Architecture and design students could use the insights from our platform as part of design studios or competitions, similar to what we’re doing with the University at Buffalo’s ‘Resilient Campus’ competition, which focuses on sustainability-driven design proposals. These opportunities not only provide hands-on experience but also help bridge research, education, and real-world impact.

What are the broader sustainability benefits of this technology?

Our work has direct implications for sustainability. By detecting and addressing building inefficiencies, we can significantly reduce energy use, improve occupant comfort, and enhance structural safety. All of this translates into measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, which aligns closely with Georgia Tech’s Climate Action Plan. Additionally, because our decisions are based on real data rather than assumptions, they are more cost-effective and targeted, leading to better resource allocation and a higher return on investment. Ultimately, this technology supports not just sustainability goals but also operational efficiency, occupant health, and long-term building resilience.

Do you have any final thoughts to share?

We’re at a pivotal moment in sustainability and climate action. The challenges we face globally are significant, but the technology now available to us makes it possible to address them more effectively and affordably than ever before. By leveraging data-driven tools like Lamar.ai, we can make informed decisions that not only improve building safety and performance but also reduce environmental impact. My hope is that Georgia Tech — where this idea was born — will fully embrace this technology as part of its sustainability strategy, setting an example for institutions around the world.

The Office of Sustainability recently sat down with Dr. Rounaq Basu, assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning, to learn more about his innovative work addressing extreme heat and mobility. Dr. Basu brings a global and interdisciplinary perspective to Georgia Tech, shaped by his experiences in Latin America, Boston’s Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, and now the City of Atlanta.  

His current project, NO-HEAT (Neutralizing Onerous Heat Effects on Active Transportation), uses high-resolution climate modeling and community engagement to understand how heat impacts people who walk and bike, especially those with limited transportation options. 

We’re excited about the potential for integrating Dr. Basu’s work into a living learning lab on campus where students, staff, and researchers can collaborate to design cooler, safer, and more accessible mobility environments. In addition, Dr. Basu is partnering with Georgia Tech’s Parking and Transportation Services department to develop student-led projects focused on key transportation, micromobility, and parking initiatives—further enriching the experiential learning opportunities and driving innovation in campus mobility. Learn more about his research and vision in the interview conducted by Jennifer Chirico, Associate VP of Sustainability, and Jairo Garcia, Lecturer and Resilience Specialist, in the Office of Sustainability

Can you start by telling us a little about yourself, background, and what drew you to Georgia Tech? 

I began my academic career as a major in civil engineering with a focus on transportation, which led to grad school in transportation engineering. From there, I pivoted to urban planning, where I went to Latin America to work with local agencies and communities to see the effects of new types of transportation on people’s lives. I had the chance to work in Mexico, where I analyzed the effects of putting in a new metro line, and in Brazil, where I explored whether we could provide on-demand micro-transit for lower income communities.  

After I completed my PhD, I worked in the public sector at Bostron region MPO (metro planning org) and managed the multi-model planning design team. I started looking at extreme heat and looking at the transportation element. While there, I brought together datasets on walking and biking to combine extremely hot areas to assess heat risk. After this experience, I moved to Atlanta December 2024 to join the Georgia Tech community and am now working with the Department of Transportation for a project to replicate my Boston work for the City of Atlanta.  

We are excited to learn about your new research with the  NO-HEAT  (Neutralizing Onerous Heat Effects on Active Transportation) project. Can you tell us how you got involved with it and how it works?  

The NO-HEAT project is based on my earlier research as a PhD student and as a postdoc. I looked to create an urban climate model to see how people perceive how hot it feels, essentially comforting at the human scale. This was proposed 10 years ago by European researchers, but it had not been seen in the US. Therefore, this project is likely the first in the US to use the model at a high resolution of 1 meter and examine how the index changes over the course of the day. The process uses data on how hot it feels vs. how many people are walking and biking, giving us a heat risk. This is used to calculate cumulative heat exposure, while including categories such as race, gender, etc.  

I completed a preliminary report for Boston, analyzing correlations between mobility choices and heat exposure. The study identified two groups: people who choose to walk/bike vs people who do not have other options. The analysis compared home-based heat exposure vs mobility-based heat exposure.

Building on this analysis, the NO-HEAT project’s first step involves data analytics and identifying high heat risk locations. This leads into the second step: to partner with community organizations to do walk and bike audits, collecting “lived experience” data. The third step is to collect that information and collectively arrive at mitigation measures to eventually do a pilot and assess the effectiveness of pilot mitigation interventions.  

These steps will cultivate into creating an app that will provide navigation recommendations based on the coolest routes. The beta version will be released in the fall and then the app will be used for pilots. We have also bought heat and air quality equipment to take further measurements.

You describe extreme heat as “˜the silent killer,’ and as “the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States.” How does this apply to our campus?  

I’ve found that people react to pictures and stories, so when you look at hurricanes, etc., the pictures make you feel the damage. This drives concern, donations, and investment. We do not see the same with extreme heat, but we all experience it, making it very bipartisan because everyone is affected by extreme heat.  

Depending on the community – how much they drive, how many parks, green space, trees, etc., many people are affected by extreme heat, and many people die every year from it. We need to think about who is affected most and what we can do.  

In terms of data, 9-1-1 data, heat exceeds other extreme weather events. Extreme heat effects are even more exacerbated if you have other conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, etc. that increase vulnerabilities. 

On GT campus, there is room for us to be more intentional about how we design spaces (e.g., tech square – beautiful, but people do not use it when it is hot). Bus shelters are nice but are made of metal and heat up more. These could be redesigned with more greenery and shade. There are many spaces that are open to heat and are not used for shade. We need to have more spaces that are not just grass to help GT community feel comfortable and safer to get around without driving.  

How could your work be used on campus, serving as a living learning lab with students and staff? 

First, start by identifying high risk locations on campus using the microclimate model and collecting data with sensors. Look at mobility data to count how many people are walking and biking and identify the highest risk locations and then zoom into them while thinking of heat mitigation interventions. Second, assess locations in relation to landscape staff routes and determine mitigation measures. Third, take a broad look at commuting patterns. From this, design a survey to see what we could do to shift people away from cars.  

Before we wrap up, do you have any final words you’d like to share with us? 

If we improve the current condition to make it more comfortable and safer, we can entice more people to walk and bike. In turn, this would also help the current walker/biker population to also feel the benefits of these improvements. Furthermore, the staff population has the potential to make big shifts.