Tripp Shealy
Associate Professor
Tripp Shealy
113C Patton Hall
Blacksburg, VA, USA 24061
Mail Code: (0105)
Program Area : Construction Engineering and Management
Program Area : Bowman Sustainable Land Development
Biography
My research focuses on engineering design, particularly how engineers and stakeholders consider environmental, energy, and climate factors in land development and construction projects. I explore barriers to technology adoption, develop and test interventions to enhance design thinking and measure the impact of information gaps and cognitive biases on decision-making. This includes studying risk preferences and asymmetric information from initial due diligence through redevelopment.
Climate adaptation and the energy transition are key areas of my research. I measure the implementation and maintenance of nature-based solutions to manage increased heat and stormwater. I am also interested in challenges like NIMBYism and regulatory and permitting challenges when transitioning from car-centric to more human-centered infrastructure systems and the planning, design, and construction of large-scale megawatt solar farms.
Related to technology adoption, my recent work investigates industrialization and modularization in construction. Industrialized off-site construction can enable the scalability of circular economy principles. I am particularly interested in how industrialization affects engineering design constraints, changes stakeholder coordination and risk ownership, and creates opportunities for material design optimization for circularity.
Areas of Interest
(1) Climate Risks, Adaptation Planning, and Nature-Based Solutions
(2) Barriers to Energy Transition and Adoption of Human-Centered Infrastructure
(3) Industrialization in Construction and Circular Economy Principles
(4) Engineering Design Education for Sustainability
- Ph.D. Civil Engineering Clemson University 2015
- M.S. Civil Engineering Clemson University 2013
- B.S. Civil Engineering Clemson University 2010
- Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2015 – 2021
- Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2021 – Present
- Dean’s Fellow, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2024 – 2025.
- Reviewers’ Favorite Paper Award, Shealy, T., Gero, J., Ignacio Jr., P., Song, I. (2023) “Changes in Cognition and Neurocognition when Thinking Aloud During Design,” International Conference on Engineering Design, Bordeaux, France, July 24 – 28.
- Best Paper Award, Poling, K., Shealy, T. (2023) “Uncertainties in design standards create a barrier for long-term disaster recovery: A case study of the West Virginia Bridge Home Program,” Engineering Project Organization Conference, Berlin, Germany, June 20-23.
- Best Presentation, Ignacio Jr., P., Shealy, T., (2023) “Effects of nature-derived stimuli on engineering students’ design creativity,” Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, San Francisco, March 24.
- Distinguished Paper of Volume 10 of the International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, Hu, M., Shealy, T., Milovanovic, J., Gero, J. (2021) “Neuro-cognitive feedback: A prospective approach to sustain idea generation during brainstorming.” International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. doi: 10.1080/21650349.2021.1976678
- Best Paper Award, Shealy, T., Katz, A., Godwin, A., Bell, M. (2021) “Civil Engineering Students’ Beliefs about Global Warming and Misconceptions about Climate Science.” Journal of Civil Engineering Education.
- Alumni Teaching Excellence Award, Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2021.
- Faculty Fellowship Award, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2020 – 2023.
- Reviewers' Favorite Paper Award, Shealy, T., Gero, J. (2019) "The Neurocognition of three engineering concept generation techniques" International Conference on Engineering Design, Delft, Netherlands, August 5-8. doi: 10.1017/dsi.2019.189.
- G.V. Loganathan Award, Charles E. Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE Faculty Achievement Award, determined by current CEE students), 2017 – 2018.
- Best Paper Award, Shealy, T., Ismael, D., Hartmann, A., van Buiten, M. (2017) "Removing Certainty from the Equation: Using Choice Architecture to Increase Awareness of Risk in Engineering Design Decision Making" Engineering Project Organization Conference, Fallen Leaf Lake, CA, June 5-7.
- CEE 3274: Introduction to Land Development Design
- CEE 4014: Estimating, Production and Cost Engineering
- CEE 4034: Smart Sustainable Infrastructure
- CEE 5004: Adaptive Reuse and Redevelopment
- Preparing engineers to address climate change and its implications on sustainability: modeling impact of college experiences on students (NSF #1635534)
- Intentional defaults for more sustainable infrastructure: Studying interventions to alleviate biases in upstream, multi-stakeholder decisions (NSF #1531041)
- France, J., Milovanovic, J., Shealy, T., Godwin, A. (2022) “Engineering students’ agency and career goals to engage in sustainable development: Differences between first-year students and seniors” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,1467-6370. doi: 10.1108/IJSHE-04-2021-0161
- Milovanovic, J., Shealy, T., Klotz, L., Weber, E., Johnson, E. (2022) “Pictures matter: How images of projected sea-level rise shape long-term sustainable design decisions for infrastructure systems” MDPI Sustainability, 14(5), 3007. doi: 10.3390/su14053007
- Hu, M., Shealy, T. (2022) “Priming Engineers to Think about Sustainability: Cognitive and Neuro-cognitive Evidence to Support the Adoption of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Design” Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16:896347. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.896347
- Hu, M., Shealy, T. (2023) “Priming the Public to Construct Preferences for Sustainable Design: A Discrete Choice Model for Green Infrastructure” Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 88, 102005. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102005.
- Gould, Z., Day, S., S, G., Shealy, T., Saad, W. (2023) “A Transdisciplinary Blueprint for Energy Markets Modelled after Mycorrhizal Networks” Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, 14. doi: 10.22545/2023/00226
- Gould, Z., Mohanty, V., Reichard, G., Saad, W., Shealy, T., Day, S. (2023) “A Mycorrhizal Model for Transactive Solar Energy Markets with Battery Storage,” Energies, MDPI. doi: 10.3390/en16104081
- Ismael, D., Shealy, T. (2024) “Emphasizing the Interconnected Benefits of Sustainable Design through the Reframing of Rating Systems Can Enhance Sustainable Design Practices Among Engineers,” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.
- Poling, K., Shealy, T. (2024) “Barriers to Long-Term Disaster Recovery in Rural Appalachia: A Retrospective Analysis of the 2016 West Virginia Flood” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104648
- Milovanovic, J., Hu, M., Shealy, T., Gero, J. (2021) "Characterization of concept generation for engineering design through temporal brain network analysis." Journal of Design Studies. doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2021.101044
- Shealy, T., Katz, A., Godwin, A., Bell, M. (2021) "Civil Engineering Students' Beliefs about Global Warming and Misconceptions about Climate Science." Journal of Civil Engineering Education. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.2643-9115.0000050
- Shealy, T., Katz, A., Godwin, A. (2021) "Predicting Engineering Students Desire to Address Climate Change in their Careers: An Exploratory Study Using Responses from a National Survey" Environmental Education Research. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2021.1921112
- Hu, M., Shealy, T., Milovanovic, J. (2021) "Cognitive Differences Among First Year and Senior Engineering Students when Brainstorming Solutions that include Dimensions of Sustainability" Design Science, 7, E1. doi:10.1017/dsj.2021.3
- Shealy, T., Gero, J., Hu, M., Milovanovic, J. (2020). "Concept generation techniques change patterns of brain activation during engineering design" Design Science, 6, E31. doi: 10.1017/dsj.2020.30
- Coleman, E., Shealy, T., Grohs, J., Godwin, A. (2019) "Perceived Design Thinking Ability Among Freshman and Senior Engineering Students: A Cross-Sectional, National Study" Journal of Engineering Education, Published online. doi: 10.1002/jee.20298
- Hu, M., Shealy, T., Grohs, J., Panneton, R., (2019) "Empirical evidence that concept mapping reduces neurocognitive effort during concept generation for sustainability." Journal of Cleaner Production, 238(33), 117815. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117815
- Shealy, T. and Klotz, L. (2016). "Choice Architecture as a Strategy to Encourage Elegant Infrastructure Outcomes." J. Infrastruct. Syst., 10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000311, 04016023.
- Shealy, T., Klotz, L., Weber, E., Johnson, E., and Bell, R. (2016). "Using Framing Effects to Inform More Sustainable Infrastructure Design Decisions." J. Constr. Eng. Manage. , 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001152 , 04016037.