Ryan Shelby is a 4^th year Alfred P. Sloan Ph.D. Student Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Mr. Shelby received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 with a concentration in design, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University in 2006 with a concentration in propulsion systems. 

Mr. Shelby is a member of the Berkeley Expert Systems Technology Design Laboratory (BEST) headed by Dr. Alice Agogino and his research interests include sustainability, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, design theory, human centered design, ethnographic methodology, and user needs assessment.

Mr. Shelby's research involves design theory for sustainable product development and developing an expert system tool for predicting adoption rate of sustainable products.  His research focuses on the macro- and micro- decisions that members of residential, industrial, academic, and federal communities make concerning sustainability and renewable energy technologies.  The outcome of Mr. Shelby's research will be an expert systems tool that can predict end users willingness to adopt sustainability best practices and renewable energy technologies.  

The tool uses weighted metrics gathered and technology evaluations from end user groups to estimate the probability of technology adoption.  This tool will be utilized by engineers, scientists, and public policy makers to better design sustainability and renewable energy policies and technologies to meet the needs of targeted end user groups.

Mr. Shelby is the co-founder and project manager for the Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CARES), an engineering and sustainability assessment organization dedicated to co-developing interoperable open source sustainability assessment tools and enabling consumers to be able to make informed decisions about sustainability and renewable energy technologies. 

CARES has received grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) to build a knowledge base of sustainable best practices, renewable energy technology, economic return on investment data, and renewable energy technology implementation results.

To learn more about Mr. Ryan Shelby, please visit http://www.ryanlshelby.com