By Cathy Mengying Fang and Patrick Chwalek

XRDS: Thank you, Patrick, for interviewing with us! Before we get started, for people who don't know your work, how would you describe your research interests and the field that you work in?

Patrick Chwalek: Hi, thanks for having me. So, my main interest is in understanding how environments impact the living beings that inhabit them, whether humans or wild animals. More broadly, I want to understand how different parts of the ecosystems interact with each other and how changes to the environment affect the species' behaviors. Typically, research happens inside a controlled environment, like a laboratory or a simulation chamber. My approach has been to develop tools and systems that can be deployed in the wild and at scale.

XRDS: Let's start with your projects around humans and the indoor environment. What were the problems that you were interested in and what systems did you build?

PC: One aspect I became interested in is human discomfort and, more specifically, our perception of indoor environmental quality and how it affects our health. This became especially important and on everyone's mind during the challenging times of the COVID pandemic, when most people remained indoors. The profound shift in our awareness occurred as people grew increasingly attuned to the quality of their surroundings. Yet amidst the clamor of sensationalized news stories, discerning precisely what mattered most to individuals was difficult.