The biggest challenges facing real estate aren't just real estate challenges. They are challenges related to energy, materials, workforce development, and communities—and they cannot be solved by industry alone or by any single academic discipline working in isolation. Through collaboration across eleven Penn State colleges and partnerships with industry leaders, the Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation brings together expertise in engineering, technology, design, energy, business, and the social sciences to develop solutions that improve the built environment. Our mission is to move promising research beyond the lab and into the real world, creating meaningful impact for communities, industry, and society.

Cocoziello Leadership

Scarett Miller, Director, Cocoziello Institute

Scarett Miller, Director, Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation

Primary Strategic Goals

Establish Penn State as the Nation’s Premier Living Laboratory for Real Estate Innovation
Lead the Nation in Applied Built-Environment Research
Build the Strategic Partnerships, Funding Base, and National Visibility that Sustain the Research Mission
Build a High-Performing, Inclusive Institute Culture
Develop the Next Generation of Built-Environment Innovators

New faculty may want to contact the Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation to:

Become an affiliated faculty at the institute
Become aware of seed-grant funding opportunities
Be involved with our workshops, seminars, conferences, interdisciplinary research
Meet and become involved in new interdisciplinary teams and projects

Top 5 Items Faculty Should Know About Cocoziello

*Top Items faculty should know about Cocoziello Institute*
	Real estate innovation isn't what you think — the Cocoziello Institute is not about buying and selling property; it's about transforming how buildings and infrastructure are designed, constructed, operated, and experienced through technology, data, and applied research.
	Your research probably belongs here — with seven interdisciplinary themes spanning PropTech & AI, energy systems, materials, healthy housing, digital twins, and more, faculty from engineering, architecture, business, social sciences, and beyond all have a home at the Institute.
	Penn State's campus is your laboratory — the Institute treats Penn State's own buildings, construction sites, and infrastructure as full-scale research testbeds where ideas can be developed, validated, and deployed in real operational environments.
	The Institute can help you get funded — affiliated faculty get access to seed grants, proposal development support, industry-sponsored research opportunities, and a direct pipeline to the Institute's industry and advisory network.
	The Institute is built to connect you — with 131 affiliated researchers across 11 colleges, the Institute actively facilitates new interdisciplinary teams and collaborations that would be hard to find on your own.

Relevant New Faculty Programming

Affiliated Faculty Network

The no-commitment entry point into the Institute. Affiliated faculty are connected to a community of 131 researchers across 11 colleges and multiple Penn State campuses, invited to Institute events and convenings, and positioned to discover cross-college collaborators they wouldn't find through their home department alone.

Seed Grants Competitive

Internal grants that fund early-stage, high-risk research ideas with real-world built-environment applications, designed to generate the preliminary data needed to compete for larger external funding from NSF, DOE, and industry sponsors — with awards up to $50,000 for faculty-led teams.

Past Seed Grant Awardees

Living Laboratory

Penn State's own campus — its buildings, construction sites, utilities, and infrastructure — serves as a full-scale research testbed where faculty can embed projects directly into active facilities for real-world validation at a scale most institutions can't offer.

Proposal Development Support

Concierge-level support for faculty pursuing external funding, including writing sprints, red-team proposal reviews, interdisciplinary team-building, and funding opportunity scouting — if you have a strong idea but need help shaping it into a competitive grant, this is where to start.

Industry and Advisory Network (IPAC)

An active industry advisory council connecting faculty to senior leaders across real estate, AEC, PropTech, and energy sectors, opening doors to sponsored research, testbed partnerships, and real-world deployment opportunities.

Faculty IdeaLab

An annual convening where faculty from across Penn State's colleges come together to share research ideas, find collaborators, and explore how their work intersects with the Institute's themes — one of the best ways for new faculty to quickly understand who else is working in adjacent spaces. View the events calendar for upcoming labs.

Built Environment Showcase

An annual event that puts student and faculty research in front of industry leaders, alumni, and the broader Penn State community — a high-visibility opportunity to present your work and connect with practitioners who can become research partners or sponsors.

Fireside Chats & Speaker Series

Throughout the year the Institute brings in senior industry executives and innovators for fireside chats and roundtables, giving faculty direct access to practitioners who are living the problems that research can solve. View the events calendar for upcoming speakers.

Corporate Mixer & Industry Events

Semester networking events that bring faculty together with real estate and AEC industry leaders — an informal but high-value setting for building the relationships that lead to sponsored research and testbed partnerships. View the events calendar for upcoming industry events.

Venture IP Conference

An annual conference focused on intellectual property and commercialization in the built environment, connecting faculty with pathways to translate research into real-world products, startups, and licensed technologies.

IEE Fun Facts

We're younger than your newest grad student — the Cocoziello Institute is in its earliest years, which means faculty joining now have a rare chance to shape its research agenda, culture, and national identity from the ground up.

Over 60% of commercial real estate firms still run on legacy technology — that's the gap the Institute was created to close, and your research might be exactly what fills it.

Seed grants are a startup runway, not a consolation prize — Institute seed grants of up to $50,000 are specifically designed to generate the preliminary data that makes faculty competitive for major NSF, DOE, and industry-sponsored funding.

We Connect Researchers With Industry: The institute regularly engages with developers, builders, investors, technology companies, and public-sector partners, creating pathways for collaboration, funding, and real-world implementation.

We Turn Research Into Reality: The institute focuses on translational research—helping move discoveries out of the lab and into buildings, communities, and industry practice where they can create measurable impact.

Penn State is our Living Laboratory: Faculty and students have opportunities to leverage Penn State's campus as a testbed for new ideas, from digital twins and smart buildings to sustainability and operational innovation.

Real Estate is More Than Real Estate: The Cocoziello Institute brings together expertise from eight Penn State colleges, reflecting the belief that the biggest challenges facing real estate are also challenges in energy, materials, technology, workforce development, and community resilience.

Additional Resources and Contact Information

Resources

Cocoziello Institute Contact Information

James Elliot Building, 120 S Burrowes St. – 3rd Floor
State College, PA 16801
cocoziello@psu.edu