Mohamed Aly Etman is an architect and interdisciplinary researcher who currently serves as Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Building Environment Visualization Lab at the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning. His research centers on advancing climate resilience and ecological awareness within architectural and urban contexts, employing visualization tools, AI, and computational design to foster accessibility and inclusivity in our built ecologies. His work integrates socio-ecological data into design workflows, promoting resilience through dynamic data fusion and knowledge visualization.

A key contributor at the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (CEA), Mohamed developed SEVA (Socio-Ecological Visual Analytics), an interactive dashboard aimed at enabling data-driven design decisions. This platform synthesizes insights from ecological, health, and building systems data, contributing to the creation of resilient and sustainable urban spaces.

Mohamed’s partnerships with global organizations exemplify SEVA’s capability to visualize socio-ecological elements on a worldwide scale. His contributions extend to UNEP’s World Environment Situation Room, the UNCCD’s Great Green Wall project, and IDRO. His recent work on drought resilience has led to the development of IDRO, an online tool providing decision-makers with actionable drought data and resilience insights, central to his contributions to environmental research.

Before joining UB, Mohamed was a founding researcher at Yale CEA, where he co-led several high-profile projects, including the Ecological Living Module (ELM), a climate-responsive modular home that integrates sustainable materials, clean energy, and urban micro-farming. Showcased on the UN Plaza during the High-Level Political Forum, ELM demonstrated the potential for eco-conscious urban housing and won the 2018 Architect Magazine’s Residential Architect Design Award. Prior to joining CEA, he was a member of CASE, the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, at RPI, where his research was supported by a HASS fellowship, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mohamed practiced architecture in Egypt, where he led building performance analysis and design for projects across Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, and the United States. His experience in these regions provided him with a deep understanding of diverse environmental and cultural contexts, informing his approach to sustainable design and performance optimization.

Mohamed’s research has been widely presented and published in journals, conference proceedings, and design platforms that span architecture, data visualization, and frameworks focused on built environmental ecosystems. His interdisciplinary research approach developed in collaboration with industrial collaborators such as SHoP Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), HeliOptix, FABS (Fresh Air Building Systems), Entertaining Health, AMBIS Tech. Inc., Method Design, FutureAir, and Gray Organschi Architecture. He has previously taught architectural design, environmental design, and computational techniques at institutions including Yale, GSAPP, RPI, CUNY, and the American University in Cairo. Mohamed holds an MSc from Cairo University (2013), an MArchII (2014), and a PhD (2018) from RPI.

• MSc, Cairo University
• MArch II, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute