Carnegie Mellon University

Destenie Nock

Destenie Nock

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Assistant Professor, Engineering and Public Policy

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  • Porter Hall 100A
Address
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

Dr. Destenie Nock is an Assistant Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE), and in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP). She is a leader in energy justice, and energy systems modeling.  She uses multi-criteria decision analysis and applied optimization to better equip policy makers to understand energy planning options. 

The energy justice side of her team is developing novel metrics for identifying those experiencing energy poverty and insecurity, as well as developing optimization models for designing a more equitable power systems. The systems modeling side of her group is developing electricity and transportation optimization and simulation models which investigate how decarbonization and sustainable energy transitions impact vulnerable and marginalized communities.  

Using regression and decision analysis techniques, she was able to identify the trade-offs between different future electricity scenarios in terms of their sustainability for the region and impact on local communities. She applied a similar systems approach to Sub-Saharan Africa by developing an electricity planning tool, which incorporated stakeholder preferences for equality and makes recommendations for national electrification planning.

Nock’s broad research interests are focused around using mathematical modeling tools to address societal problems related to sustainability planning, energy policy, equity, and engineering for social good. She brings to CMU a breadth of professional experience, having worked in industry, national labs, and government settings on issues related to energy systems.

Education

PhD Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,  UMass Amherst
MSc Leadership for Sustainable Development, Queen's University Belfast
BS Electrical Engineering & Applied Math, North Carolina A&T State University

Research

Research Group: IESS, SETS

  • Applied optimization, decision analysis, and data science for civil infrastructure systems
  • Electrical Infrastructure and energy transitions
  • Engineering for social good as it pertains to critical infrastructure systems (i.e. electricity systems, and transportation)

Publications

 

 

Courses

  • 12-706 Civil Systems Investment Planning and Pricing

Recent Awards

  • 2023: George Tallman Ladd Research Award, CMU College of Engineering
  • 2022: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant
  • 2021: Wimmer Faculty Fellow, CMU