By analyzing formulas and construction blueprints, Jules Fischer-White is helping Americans build better green homes as a modeling engineer at
鈥淚t鈥檚 a super cool company. If an individual is going to build a house and wants it to be more energy efficient, we model it and give advice on how to improve their design,鈥� Fischer-White said.
It is much more than simply suggesting better windows or adding insulation.
鈥淲e get plans from the architect, and I model the total floor area as well as internal net volumes of all the rooms, which gives us information for sizing the ventilation system,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e also look at the building envelope, which includes the windows, doors, and other boundary conditions. We geo-locate the project as well and include nearby trees and other shade sources so we can calculate how much sunlight will be entering each window in summer and winter.鈥�
He began the part-time position midway through his senior year, as a chance to use what he has learned in the classroom to make the world a better place.
Fischer-White wrapped up his undergrad in May, but decided to pursue his master鈥檚 through the BAM program.
鈥淚 joined CU Boulder in the spring of 2020, right before COVID. It took a while to get into the flow and meet people and be part of campus life and I want to enjoy my college years. In some ways it feels like I鈥檝e only been here three years,鈥� he said.
Drawn to science and math at a young age, Fischer-White had a unique path to CU Boulder.
Although he is a Colorado native, his family moved to Thailand while he was still a toddler. He grew up there 鈥� and speaks fluent Thai 鈥� but their home was in a town without many opportunities for someone with a budding interest in STEM fields.
鈥淲e lived in an area that鈥檚 rated as one of the best retirement communities in the country, but there weren鈥檛 that many things to do for younger people, especially stuff in science and math,鈥� Fischer-White said.
He returned to the United States for his junior and senior years of high school at a boarding school in Vermont.
鈥淚鈥檇 never really had access to a chemistry lab or physics lab before. There were so many resources I had never seen. That was really exciting to me,鈥� he said.
He decided he wanted to be an engineer, and the interdisciplinary nature of environmental engineering was particularly appealing.
Continuing to live in the United States for college made sense. While Thai universities offer engineering programs, Fischer-White said they are not accredited internationally, which would have limited his employment opportunities.
Although it had been 15 years since his family lived in Colorado, the state was still their home base, at least on paper, making CU Boulder an easy choice.
Earning a master鈥檚 also offers Fischer-White the opportunity to learn more about another passion area: water and sanitation.
鈥淚 want to dive more into it,鈥� Fischer-White said. 鈥淚 love building science, but I also would love to work with Doctors Without Borders as a sanitary engineer. Every time they set up a hospital, they need engineers to deal with waste. It鈥檚 an area where I feel like I鈥檒l always be able to sleep well delivering clean water to people.鈥�
The environmental engineering graduate program offers multiple courses in water management, reuse, and sanitation. Fischer-White hopes to spend the 2024-25 academic year completing his MS before entering the workforce full-time.