Publications
Selected publications and conference papers since joining HKU in September 2023, based on the CV and subsequent updates.
Selected journal articles since joining HKU
9 items
Reframes thermal sensation prediction as an ordinal learning problem with calibrated probabilities for risk-aware comfort decisions. The model yields confidence-aware outputs that are more useful for control and design decisions under uncertainty than a flat seven-point label alone.
Hongshan Guo, Dorit Aviv
Read paperShows how missing-data policy reshapes feature sensitivity rankings and supports MRT-aware, occupant-centric HVAC control. The paper makes clear that preprocessing decisions materially affect what machine-learning models appear to learn from thermal comfort databases.
Hongshan Guo, Ilaria Pigliautile, Yu Chang, Qingyao Qiao, Yichun Li
Read paperFinds that gender differences become most pronounced under high-velocity cooling at lower temperatures, with implications for equitable fan-cooling design. By connecting subjective votes with skin-temperature responses, the study shows why mixed-mode cooling strategies should not assume uniform comfort response.
Chao Cen, Hongshan Guo, Lup Wai Chew, Nyuk Hien Wong
Read paperShows that weather-file baseline quality dominates future demand bias, outperforming more complex workflows for climate-adapted energy projections. Rather than rewarding statistical complexity for its own sake, the paper identifies input fidelity as the main determinant of robust downstream building simulation.
Hongshan Guo, Kanxuan He
Read paperCombines field diagnostics and cross-climate simulation to quantify ventilation, comfort, and energy trade-offs in retrofitted Hong Kong wet markets. It frames wet-market modernization as both a building-performance problem and a public-institution design question.
Hongshan Guo, Yu Chang, Yichun Li, Ying Zhou, Qingyao Qiao, Chun Yin Lai, Eric Schuldenfrei
Read paperDemonstrates that demographic-aware metabolic loads can cut HVAC energy use and reduce gender-based comfort bias relative to the legacy 120 W/person assumption. The work directly challenged a century-old default embedded in standards and helped motivate ASHRAE 1959-TRP.
Hongshan Guo, Ruiji Sun, Youmin Xu
Read paperIntegrates data-driven thermal sensation models with building control workflows to benchmark occupant-aware control across multiple climates. It shows how co-simulation can move comfort models from offline prediction into actionable control testing.
Hongshan Guo, Kanxuan He, Youmin Xu, Yue Lei
Read paperUses physiological constraints inside a neural model to improve robustness and interpretability in large-scale thermal comfort prediction. The approach treats building-comfort ML as a physically informed modeling problem rather than a purely statistical fitting exercise.
Hongshan Guo, Kanxuan He, Yongqiang Luo, Yu Chang
Read paperReviews how comfort studies use personal, contextual, and PMV-related variables, highlighting gaps that limit cross-cultural comparison and model transfer. It also establishes a benchmark-oriented framing for comparing Eastern and Western comfort evidence more systematically.
Yu Chang, Hongshan Guo, Yichun Li, Ilaria Pigliautile, Binlin Chi
Read paperSelected refereed conference and workshop papers since joining HKU
6 items
Smart Building Competition winner.
He K., Guo H.
Recognized at the NeurIPS 2025 Urban AI Workshop Buildings Challenge.
Niu S., Guo H., Ferrara M., Anselmo S.
ICML 2025 CO-BUILD Workshop
Guo H., Chang Y., Hu D.
IBPC 2024
Guo H., Zhou Y., Lai C.Y., Ren C.
IBPC 2024
Guo H., Li Y., Zhou Y., Chang Y., Lai C.Y.
IBPC 2024
Guo H., Coleman J., Gullapalli I.