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Patricia Young

Associate Professor

Programs: Health Psychology

Office: Behavioral Sciences Building 221

Phone: 9704916941

Education:

  • Ph.D., University of Florida, 1990

About

Area of Specialization: energy conservation; social influence, normative interventions, healthy homes

Teaching Courses: Research Methods; Environmental Psychology; Energy Efficiency graduate seminar

Current Research: Currently, the majority of my research is focused on energy conservation. Specifically, my current research has two main threads: behavioral engagement and sociotechnical systems.
Behavioral engagement: I specialize in designing, implementing, and evaluating programs whose goal is to promote sustainable behavior change.
Sociotechnical systems: The idea behind sociotechnical systems is that both behavior and technology are integral to the success of sustainable solutions. We designed a home energy management system that can integrate signals from the utility with homeowners’ preferences for how their appliances should operate.

Research Projects

Social and Engineering Constructs for Uniquely Re-Energizing Hurricane-affected Grids: This interdisciplinary project seeks solutions for re-energizing the electric grid in hurricane-affected areas by considering the convergence of unique aspects of social science and power systems engineering. In this research, we will consider data from survey respondents-stakeholders from community, utilities, and relief providers as well as information on power systems engineering principles to achieve high resiliency, low fragility, and acceptable sustainability in electric grid operation.

Publications

  • “Identifying perceived barriers and benefits to reducing energy consumption in an affordable housing complex.” Reaves, D., Clevenger, C., Nobe, M., & Aloise-Young, P.A. Social Marketing Quarterly, 22, 159-178. doi: 10.1177/1524500416632406, 2016
  • “Reflections on retrofits: Overcoming barriers to energy efficiency among the fuel poor in the United Kingdom.” Fylan, F., Glew, D., Smith, M., Johnston, D., Brooke-Peat, M., Miles-Shenton, D., Fletcher, M. Aloise-Young, P. Gorse, C. Energy Research and Social Science, 21, 190-8. . doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2016.08.002, 2016
  • “An application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process for prioritizing user preferences in the design of a Home Energy Management System.” Kadavil, R., Lurbe, S., Suryanarayanan, S., Aloise-Young, P.A., Isley, S., & Christensen, D. Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, 16, 196-206. doi:10.1016/j.segan.2018.07.009., 2018
  • “If you build it, will they come? Getting consumers on board with the future of the smart grid. In S. Suryanarayanan, R. Roche & T. Hansen (Eds.),” Aloise-Young, P.A., Cross, J.E., & Sandoval, P.K. Cyber-Physical-Social Systems and Constructs in Electric Power Engineering (pp. 319-344). London, UK: Institution of Engineering & Technology Publishing., 2016
  • “Creating behavioural engagement programmes that work: A case study from the U.S. Weatherization Assistance Program. Paper presented at the Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society conference,” Sandoval, P.K., & Aloise-Young, P.A. Dublin, Ireland. pp 157-167 https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/research/seeds-conference/seeds-conference-proceedings-2018.pdf, 2018