Doctoral Student Wins Prestigious Fellowship for Low-Income Housing Research
An Illinois Institute of Technology School of Architecture doctoral student has been awarded the highly competitive American Doctoral Fellowship from the American Association of University Women, the oldest non-institutional source of doctoral funding in the nation.
Aamena Mubarak Bakarmom (M.ARCH. ’21, Ph.D. ARCH Candidate) was awarded $25,000 for the 2026–27 academic year for anything related to her research.
Bakarmom is researching how to improve urban energy modeling for low-income communities. Specifically, she aims to update existing models so they more accurately reflect the characteristics and conditions of low-income housing, which often includes older construction materials, aging insulation, and less energy-efficient building systems.
“How do we study anything about these communities if we don’t have the right model?” Bakarmom asks.
“I believe my research will help a lot of people. The motivation comes from my background: We have communities, low income, that most people ignore,” adds Bakarmom. “Any energy policy that we have depends on modeling, so just changing how we measure the numbers will tell us what they need—this is a big thing.”
Bakarmom’s dissertation includes a case study of a small, low-income community in Arizona. Using urban energy modeling, she will first assess baseline energy performance and then evaluate the potential impacts of various retrofit strategies on reducing energy consumption, lowering energy burden, and improving resilience to extreme heat.
“I am truly proud of her achievement and deeply grateful to the AAUW for recognizing her academic excellence and the importance of her work,” says Assistant Professor Youngjin Hwang, who advises Bakarmom. “Her research on energy resilience and accessibility in underserved communities is crucial for our future, and I am confident she will become an exemplary leader for the next generation of women scholars.”
Born and raised in Saudi Arabia, Bakarmom received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Hadhramout University in Al Mukalla, Yemen, and her Master of Architecture from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia, before attending the School of Architecture.
