Joyce Kim

Joyce Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She holds a BASc from the University of Waterloo, a MASc from Thomas Jefferson University, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Kim's research focuses on the digital transformation of the built environment to advance low-carbon building design, construction, and operation. She investigates how advanced digital tools, data-driven insights, and artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance human-building interactions, optimize system performance, and improve building energy efficiency and overall environmental impact. Her work utilizes IoT and machine learning (ML) models to predict occupant comfort and behavior, personalize occupant experiences, and support intelligent building design and operation strategies that contribute to decarbonization.

Her research also explores offsite construction methodologies and life cycle analysis (LCA) to further sustainable and low-carbon built environments. She examines how offsite approaches can reduce construction waste, improve construction productivity, and facilitate circular economy strategies by enhancing the potential for material reuse and deconstruction at a building's end-of-life. Concurrently, she applies LCA to quantify and minimize the environmental footprint of building materials, construction methods, system operations, and retrofit strategies across their entire lifespan.

• Digital Transformation & Sustainable Building Systems: Applying AI/ML, IoT, and data analytics for intelligent design, energy efficiency, smart grids, and optimizing building operations to achieve net-zero goals.

• Advanced Construction for Decarbonization: Focusing on offsite construction, life cycle analysis (LCA) for embodied and operational carbon, sustainable materials, and circular economy principles.

• Human-Centric Environmental Performance: Investigating human-building interaction, occupant comfort, and indoor environmental quality to drive energy savings and carbon reduction.

• 2018, Doctorate Architecture (Building Science), University of California, Berkeley, USA

• 2011, Master of Science Sustainable Design, Thomas Jefferson University, USA

• 2006, Bachelor of Applied Science Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• AE 225 - Environmental Building Systems Studio
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
• CIVE 105 - Mechanics 2
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025
• CIVE 400 - Civil Engineering Design Project 1
  • Taught in 2025
• CIVE 700 - Topics in Structural Engineering
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Researchers awarded $1.1 million for lab equipment