Education

• Cornell University
  • (2022) Doctor of Philosophy, Systems Science and Engineering
  • (2021) Master of Science, Systems Engineering
• Technical University of Munich
  • (2017) Master of Science, Sustainable Building Science
• Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
  • (2012) Bachelor of Science, Energy Engineering

Keywords

Environmental Performance Simulation; Urban Decarbonization; Machine Learning; Spatial Analysis; Software Development

Biography

Dr. Patrick Kastner is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture and Director of the Sustainable Urban Systems Lab, with a courtesy appointment in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He is a researcher and educator specializing in building performance simulation and design-related decision-making for buildings and cities.

His work focuses on developing computational tools that support data-driven, performance-oriented decision-making in architectural and urban design. He leads the Vertically Integrated Project Surrogate Modeling for Urban Regeneration (SMUR), which brings together students from architecture, engineering, and related disciplines at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Kastner earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Systems Science and Engineering from Cornell University in 2022. During his doctoral research, he developed Eddy3D, a microclimate modeling software toolkit for Rhino & Grasshopper, which has since been adopted by leading institutions in academia and practice. He previously taught at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania.

Originally from Germany, he holds an M.S. in Sustainable Building Science from the Technical University of Munich (TU Munich) and a B.S. in Energy Engineering from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. While in Munich, he studied at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) and led the operations team at TEDxTUM.

Statement of Teaching Interest

His teaching spans building systems and building physics modeling, urban design, and data-driven methods for design and sustainability, and he leads the VIP SMUR program that engages students from sophomore through graduate levels across the Georgia Tech campus. 

Statement of Research Interest

His research develops tools and methodologies that move performance evaluation earlier in architectural and urban design, including machine-learning surrogate models that accelerate time-intensive simulations to deliver real-time, actionable feedback. He is also interested inverse-design approaches and applies these methods to microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort, mobility/walkability, and urban building energy. His software and research outcomes are used widely and are released as with CAD/GIS platforms such as Rhino, Revit, QGIS, and web tools. 

List of Recent Scholarly Work

[J5] * Rahimi, Sina, Marcelo Alvarez, Umberto Berardi, Brian Stone Jr, and Patrick Kastner (2025). “Coupled Urban Physics in Microclimate Modeling: Validating and Enhancing Simulation Tools”. Building and Environment, 113637.
[J4] * Rahimi, Sina, Patrick Kastner, and Umberto Berardi (2025). “Incorporating Convective Heat Transfer and Humidity Effects in Urban Microclimate Modeling: Should we care?” Building and Environment, 112858.
[J2] * Kastner, Patrick and Timur Dogan (2024). “Towards auto-calibrated UBEM using readily available, underutilized urban data: A case study for Ithaca, NY”. Energy and Buildings, 114286.
[J1] * Kastner, Patrick and Timur Dogan (2023). “A GAN-based Surrogate Model for Instantaneous Urban Wind Flow Prediction”. Building and Environment, 110384.
[J7] Kastner, Patrick and Timur Dogan (2021). “Eddy3D: A toolkit for decoupled outdoor thermal comfort simulations in urban areas”. Building and Environment, 108639. issn: 0360-1323.
[J-5] Kastner, Patrick and Timur Dogan (2019). “A Cylindrical Meshing Methodology for Annual Urban Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations”. Journal of Building Performance Simulation 13 1, 59–68.