Biography
Dr. Saleh Kalantari is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at Cornell University, with graduate field memberships in both the Information Science and Architecture departments. He leads the Design and Augmented Intelligence Lab (DAIL), where his research focuses on developing digital tools to better understand the impacts of both virtual and built environments on human behavior.
Drawing from advances in complementary disciplines such as the behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and computational modeling, Dr. Kalantari promote a human-centered approach grounded in empirical testing to better evaluate how design choices impact outcomes such as psychological stress and navigation behavior for diverse populations. His team integrates these findings into tools that design practitioners can use to apply evidence-based predictive models of human responses for pre-construction design evaluation. Much of his research is directed toward analyzing human-building interactions during spatial navigation in large facilities such as hospitals. The outcomes of his research in this area have ranged from a novel VR-testing platform for evaluating wayfinding design, to a cognitive agent simulation tool for wayfinding design optimization, to VR tools for enhancing users’ spatial learning. His research agenda has been supported by the prestigious NSF CAREER Award.
The impact of Dr. Kalantari's translational research in design practice has been recognized through a Touchstone Gold Medal Award from the Center for Health Design and a nomination for the National Design Award by Cooper Hewitt. His research has also been supported by the NIH (R01), the NSF (Human-Centered Computing), the Foundation for Health Environment Research, and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Kalantari taught at the University of Houston and Washington State University. He also worked as a design researcher at Parkin Architects Ltd. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University.