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Research and Innovation Symposium 2024 Speakers (view source)
Revision as of 09:33, 21 May 2024
, 21 MayAdding more speakers
Co-Founder, Monumental
Co-Founder, Monumental
|Zahra Ebrahim is the Co-Founder of Monumental. She is a public interest designer and strategist, and an established bridge builder across grassroots and institutional spaces. Her work has focused on community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. Prior to Monumental, she built and led Doblin Canada, Deloitte’s Human-Centred Design practice. In her early career, Zahra led one of Canada’s first social design studios, working with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes, leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. Zahra is currently an Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, and an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture . She has been recognized as a Next City Vanguard Civic Leader, Ascend Canada’s Mentor of the Year, one of WXN’s Top 100 Women in Canadian Business, and most recently recognized as one of the Urban Land Institute’s WLI Champions. Zahra is currently a Board member of the Toronto Arts Council, and the Board Chair for Park People.
|Zahra Ebrahim is the Co-Founder of Monumental. She is a public interest designer and strategist, and an established bridge builder across grassroots and institutional spaces. Her work has focused on community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. Prior to Monumental, she built and led Doblin Canada, Deloitte’s Human-Centred Design practice. In her early career, Zahra led one of Canada’s first social design studios, working with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes, leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. Zahra is currently an Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, and an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture . She has been recognized as a Next City Vanguard Civic Leader, Ascend Canada’s Mentor of the Year, one of WXN’s Top 100 Women in Canadian Business, and most recently recognized as one of the Urban Land Institute’s WLI Champions. Zahra is currently a Board member of the Toronto Arts Council, and the Board Chair for Park People.
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=== Ursula Eicker ===
Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities
|'''Ursula Eicker''' is the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities and Founder and Director of the [https://www.concordia.ca/research/chairs/smart-cities.html Next-Generation Cities Institute at Concordia University] in Montréal. She works on decarbonization strategies for cities using living labs and urban digital twins for scenario modeling, user engagement and operational optimization.
Her research interests cover zero emission and smart cities, renewable energy integration, and sustainable urban infrastructure. With a team of about 50 graduate students and software developers she is working on multiple eco-district projects in Canada and builds the urban modeling and data analytics platform Tools4Cities. To engage users, 3D city models can be accessed via web interfaces or immersive gamification tools. Prof. Eicker has published 8 books, 20 book contributions, over 140 Peer-Reviewed Papers and more than 340 Conference Papers.
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=== Colin Ellard ===
Professor, University of Waterloo
|Colin Ellard is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory. Ellard works at the intersection of urban and architectural design and experimental psychology. He has developed a novel set of methods by which the human response to the built environment can be measured using a toolkit consisting of both traditional psychological methods and sensor-based measurements of physiology and brain function. Ellard publishes his work frequently in the peer-reviewed scientific literature but he also engages in extensive knowledge mobilization work involving collaboration and partnership with architects, museums and other NGOs. Ellard is an Urban Design and Mental Health Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow and an editor of the Journal of Environmental Psychology and the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. Ellard’s most recent book is Places of the Heart (Bellevue Literary Press, 2015).
To find out more about Colin, [https://uwaterloo.ca/psychology/profiles/colin-ellard click here]
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To learn more about Mary and the CUI, [[/canurb.org/team/|click here]].
To learn more about Mary and the CUI, [[/canurb.org/team/|click here]].
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=== Conrad Speckert ===
Architect, LGA Architectural Partners
|Conrad is an intern architect at LGA Architectural Partners in Toronto with degrees from McGill and Waterloo. He is leading a CMHC-sponsored research project to develop alternative solutions to the building code requirement for two staircases in small multi-unit residential buildings and has proposed a corresponding change to the National Building Code of Canada. This was a recommendation of the 2023 National Housing Accord, the 2022 Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force and the original 2010 City of Toronto Midrise Performance Standards. The work has also been presented at conferences of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, Urban Land Institute, Building Officials Association of British Columbia, Ontario Association of Architects and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. Conrad originally joined LGA as project manager for ‘ReHousing’ - a collaboration with the University of Toronto to visualize gentle density and zoning by-law reform for “missing middle” housing and previously worked for other architects in Toronto, Vancouver, Berlin, and Tokyo.
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