Nihar Pathak
Nihar Pathak is a Ph.D. candidate and Graduate Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studies buildings the way most people study personalities, by observing how they behave once occupied. Her research combines post-occupancy evaluation, indoor environmental quality, life cycle assessment, and environmental sensing to answer one persistent question: are our buildings actually doing okay?
She teaches "48-768: Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ): Energy, Health and Productivity," a graduate course dedicated to data-driven design decisions, healthy buildings, and influencing spaces into performing better. Along the way, she wrangles sensors, benchmarks real buildings, co-advises community-based research projects, and contributes to book chapters, grants, and peer-reviewed work, often all at once.
A registered architect, LEED AP, and former sustainability consultant, Nihar has worked on everything from homes and hospitals to logistics parks and university campuses, proving that net-zero dreams and mechanical reality can coexist (with enough commissioning).
When not teaching, researching, or serving in too many leadership roles, including Vice President of Finance for CMU's Graduate Student Assembly, she runs on espresso, bakes aggressively savory foods, reads manga, watches anime, and insists that indoor air quality is both a science and a lifestyle.
Research Interests
- Indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
- Post-occupancy evaluation
- Life cycle studies
Fall 2025 Teaching
This course is an introduction to the importance of the indoor environment and human health and productivity. Throughout the semester, the course lectures challenge students’ intellectual curiosity as it relates to the built environment.
Advisors
Associate Professor, CBPD Co-Director, DDes Track Chair & Director for Student Relations
Associate Teaching Professor & AECM Track Chair
