CBE Indoor Environmental Quality Occupant Survey - Metadata Compilation
Charlie Huizenga, Research Specialist
Center for Environmental Design Research
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
In 2002, The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) developed a web-based survey to gather feedback from building occupants about their indoor environmental quality. Since then, it has been used in over 1,000 buildings worldwide with responses from more than 100,000 people. Although originally created for research purposes, the survey also helps stakeholders identify areas for improvement in building design, benchmarks building performance against others, and supports certifications like WELL. As a result, the survey has become a key resource in the sustainable building industry for understanding the human experience in buildings. You can read more about the CBE Occupant Survey Program here: https://cbe.berkeley.edu/resources/occupant-survey/.
To help us better utilize our building benchmark database, we are working to gather, compile, organize and format metadata.
Role: In this role you will support the CBE research team by helping manage and structure data related to the buildings included in the CBE Occupant Survey database. This work is vital to improving the quality, consistency, and accessibility of the dataset for ongoing research and industry use.
Key Responsibilities
1. Locate and extract relevant metadata from internal records and external sources.
2. Compile and standardize information about building characteristics (e.g., location, type, size, usage, certification status).
3. Organize metadata in a clear and structured format using tools such as spreadsheets or databases.
4. Collaborate with research staff to ensure consistency and completeness of entries.
5. Contribute to quality assurance by identifying and correcting missing or inconsistent data.
6.Create documentation and tutorials as needed to support survey administration and data management.
There may be opportunities for more advanced data science tasks depending on the candidate.
Qualifications: - Proficiency in Microsoft office Suite (Excel,Word, etc.).
- Ability to learn new software quickly.
- Basic understanding of metadata.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.
- Good communication skills for collaborating with the research team.
- Basic understanding of data collection methods is a plus.
- Knowledge of survey methodologies is a plus.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Allison Herbert, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: 390 Wurster Hall. Please note, there is an option for hybrid/remote work.
Related website: https://cbe.berkeley.edu/resources/occupant-survey/
Engineering, Design & Technologies