Dr Steven Firth

MEng MSc PhD FHEA MEI

  • Reader in Building Performance Modelling
  • Part A Tutor - Architectural Engineering

Research and expertise

Summary of expertise 

I am a Reader in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering with substantial research experience in end-use energy demand in buildings, trial design and evaluation of large-scale household energy studies, ICT for energy efficiency, building physics and simulation, and Smart Home technologies. I have been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on a total of 8 EU and RCUK projects with a total value of £13M.

I am also an advocate for Open Science in Building Energy research.

Current research activity  

  • Digital Engineering and Open Science for Building Energy Research
  • Building Simulation and Performance Modelling
  • Occupant Behaviour and Occupant-centric Building Design

Recently completed research projects 

  • TEDDINET: network of (Build) TEDDI projects, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L013681/1)
  • Design4Energy: Building life-cycle evolutionary Design methodology able to create Energy-efficient Buildings flexibly connected with the neighbourhood energy system, European Commission 
  • REFIT: Personalised Retrofit Decision Support Tools for UK Homes using Smart Home Technology, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K002457/1)

Recent publications

Teaching

I contribute to learning and teaching activities across the Schools programmes including:

Undergraduate

  • CVB043: Sustainable Building Design

Postgraduate

  • CVP300: Electrical Systems: Buildings and Renewable Energy
  • CVP310: Thermal Modelling and 3D BIM
  • ERBE07: Energy Data Analytics

Profile

Professional affiliations

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of the Energy Institute

Awards

  • Loughborough University Winter 2019 CALIBRE Award for Open Research