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Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ph.D. is a design scholar, architect, artist, and Director of the Situated Computation + Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research examines traditional and automated making, human-computer interaction, interdisciplinary creativity, and their intersections with society. It has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Mozilla Foundation, and ideas2innovation (i2i), among others. Dr. Noel is a recipient of the DigitalFUTURES Young Award for exceptional research and scholarship in the field of critical computational design.

Dr. Noel’s scholarship and expertise include design in the Trinidad Carnival, craft practices, architecture, and art.  She builds new expressions, tools, and methodologies to explore social, cultural, and political aspects of making and computational design for new reconfigurations of practice, pedagogy, and publics. Her 2015 TEDx Talk is titled “The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival.” Her work is thoroughly interdisciplinary, with training in architecture, design computation, science, technology, and society (sts) studies, media arts and sciences; and arts education.

A scholar committed to fostering critical perspectives on design, computation, and technology, Dr. Noel has held positions at Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Florida, Penn State University, MIT, the Singapore University of Technology & Design, and has practiced as an architect in the US, India, and Trinidad & Tobago. She has presented her work at universities and conferences across the globe and exhibited her structures and computer interactions in the US and Europe. Noel is currently a board member of The Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA).

Vernelle holds a Ph.D. in Architecture (Design Computing) from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science in Architectural Studies (Design + Computation) from MIT, a B.Arch. from Howard University, and a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the John S. Donaldson Technical Institute in Trinidad & Tobago. She is the founder, creator, and editor of Architecture Caribbean, an online platform that showcased and promoted design by Caribbean nationals.

Sanaz Siyahrood Ahmadzadeh is a Ph.D. student and member of the Situated Computation + Design Lab. Her Ph.D. research is focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence in architectural design. In particular, she intends to examine the role of autonomous AI agents and their interactions with humans in the design process. Sanaz holds dual Master of Science degrees in Architecture with a focus in Design Computation, and in Information Technology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Sanaz was awarded a merit-based scholarship in 2021 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has taught design studios for several years. She is a registered architect in Iran. 

We are currently building our community of affiliate researchers and are looking for collaborators in the computer sciences, social sciences, digital media, engineering, arts, and materials science. For inquiries, please email Vernelle A. A. Noel.