ULI Boston/New England’s Post

Thrilled to share my latest milestone of graduating Magna Cum Laude from Appalachian State University with a degree in Building Science! Huge thanks to my incredible professors, supportive family, and amazing friends who've been with me every step of the way. Your guidance and encouragement have made all the difference. Here's to the next chapter! #GraduationDay #BuildingScience #AppalachianState

I am thrilled to share my thesis project, supervised by Prof. Francesca Rossi from the Sapienza University of Rome. My thesis, "Living Pathways: How Does the Matter of Transportation Affect Livability in the Olympic Village Neighborhood of Rome?", addresses the issue of car dominance and its unsustainable effects in the studied area. The Olympic Village neighborhood of Rome, initially designed for the Olympic games in 1960, is among the city's densest residential areas. Nowadays, the area accommodates cultural, environmental, recreational, and administrative components that provide services on the urban scale. These factors explain the overload of private vehicle traffic, which significantly interferes with inhabitants' lives. Dominant private vehicle traffic has made other means of transportation, like public transport and soft mobility, unsafe and inefficient. Furthermore, the dominance of individual vehicles has severely impacted the utilization of public spaces. This condition demands redefining the urban transportation organization of this area. It was concluded that implementing the objectives of the Woonerf concept can transform the existing status in favor of sustainable transportation and regenerate public spaces to enhance their vitality. The primary objective of this thesis is to manage private vehicle movement by prioritizing sustainable transportation, helping to engender protected public spaces, and designating specific uses for them. The secondary objective is to enhance vegetation in public spaces and pedestrian paths to improve conditions for daily use and communication. Some key tools can regulate private mobility in this way. Planting rows of trees, adding new cycle paths, increasing the width of pedestrian paths, and converting some motorized areas into pedestrian zones can narrow the streets and promote slower private mobility. Additionally, intersections between streets and cycle paths can further slow down private vehicles. Therefore, it has been tried that instead of car mobility, pedestrian and cycle paths form safer public areas for neighborhood inhabitants. P.S.: Kindly review the presentation using this link: https://lnkd.in/gtxWs8ae #Sustainability #SustainableUrbanRegeneration #sustainabiletransportation #woonerf #UrbanDevelopment #urbanplanning

Funded PhD (and MASc) Position(s) for Fall 2024. Please share. Come research how to build more with less. At the city, national and global scale we are facing challenges around how to build more housing and infrastructure with less total environmental footprint. We are researching from an urban form, building form, structural and material perspective. Some examples here: https://lnkd.in/gxNYf8Zd Looking for PhD applicants with a background in architecture, engineering, urban planning and or policy/law. Details on how to apply here https://lnkd.in/g2zeguXF. *list my name in your application under professors of interest to make it easier to find your application* Tip: focus your research statement on work you want to do rather than general statements about your interests (make it relevant to the CSBE). Google search "NSERC graduate scholarship proposal writing advice" for lots of great information on how to write a strong proposal (even if you don't qualify for NSERC this is just a good source of guidance). #phd #research #sustainability #construction #builtenvironment #housing

🎉Congratulations to the brilliant team at Queen Ethelburga's Collegiate in York for their outstanding performance in the CityZen game. The Hullifiers team scooped third place for their top score! 367 teams took part in the digital game designed to inspire young people to follow a civil engineering career path. Participating students at QE said, ‘We found the competition fun although challenging at the same time as we were given scenarios that mirrored real-world problems. I would highly recommend CityZen to everyone who loves problem-solving.’ During the competition, students aged 16-18 played the CityZen digital game and submitted a video considering real-world factors such as budget, sustainability, and improving outcomes for people and communities. Rebecca Alderson, Science Super Curricular Coordinator at QE, said ‘Having participated in the last 3 years of CityZen, the buzz around the competition continues to strengthen year on year. It's great to see students working together from different subject disciplines and applying their knowledge to real like situations. The competition also develops employability skills such as team work, communication, time management and self-management, which students need to be work ready and in preparation for their future studies. I cannot recommend CityZen highly enough.’ Read more and find out the competition winners 👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/eKsUWaYU

My master’s thesis is finally available online! A year ago, I successfully completed my second master's degree, this time in Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. My primary objective in enrolling in this program was to broaden my theoretical skillset and incorporate a global perspective into my comprehension of our urbanized world. Among the diverse courses I had the privilege to participate in, "The Global Politics of Heritage" proved to be particularly enlightening. It not only left a lasting impression but also inspired the focus of my final thesis. Titled "Social Heritage As Leverage: Recognising the Social Dimension of Heritage in Sustainable Urban Development," my thesis delves into the intricacies of heritage in the built environment, citizens' relationships with their urban surroundings, and the often-overlooked topic of socio-intangible heritage in urban preservation debates and redevelopment projects. As cities inevitably evolve it is the responsibility of urban developers to ensure the well-being of citizens, including their sense of connection to both their current and future environments. This thesis introduces the concept of social heritage, which refers to citizens' socio-intangible relationship with the built environment and its heritage, as a significant aspect to consider in (re)development processes. By prioritising the social aspects of cultural heritage, researchers and developers can gain a better understanding of how the built environment affects the people who inhabit and use it, contributing to the creation of sustainable and inclusive urban spaces. Social heritage can also act as a bridge between the familiar and unfamiliar and reinforce citizens' rightful position in urban development.

Yesterday was the #thirdday of the Summer School "Extractive Realities and Ecological Resonances,” organized by #SharedCampus in Athens. In the morning, we took the opportunity to reflect on our observations, feelings, and questions about Elefsina, our previous day's destination. We were all left with a mix of emotions, feeling the urge to take action but also uncertain about whether we should be allowed to do so. Therefore, we continued to explore our insecurities and positions. Being aware of one's presence, privilege, and responsibility when engaging with people and the environment is a crucial step. In this context, examining the binary of 'taking action' versus 'not taking action' and understanding their implications and consequences was very insightful. However, I also believe that adhering strictly to positive and negative binaries can be limiting, as they do not fully capture the spectrum of emotions, subjectivities, and intentions. Instead, what if we explored more fluid approaches to foster collaboration and sharing, to create spaces where it is possible to see and be seen? I do not have an answer to this yet, but I am making an effort to "stay with the trouble" in order to position myself without remaining still.

Geography perspective on home and how it intertwines with social and economic developments, including changes in law and legislation.

📢 NEW PAPER Thanks to my wonderful ASU colleagues! 🔍 KEY HIGHLIGHTS We provide specific recommendations to reform academia for conservation scientists. Our recommendations are based on 71 interviews with engaged conservation scientists. 1) Academic institutions should fully embrace their role of boundary organizations. 2) Academic institutions should incentivize faculty to tackle real-world challenges. 3) Scientists' evaluation metrics should reflect real conservation outcomes.

This post about our paper has been getting a lot of traction, and so I want to highlight another paper that came out of this same research project. This second paper, "Five approaches to producing actionable science in conservation," (https://lnkd.in/gUZH-x_i) is, in my opinion, actually a richer paper than the one discussed in the article. It involved years of research and some seriously intense and time-consuming analysis. But, it is written in academic-speak, addresses a specific research question, and is published in a professional journal behind a paywall (DM me if you need access). And so it has not had nearly the traction that our other paper has. I share this as an example of what we discussed in both papers and the ASU news article: doing rigorous scholarly work and doing work with impact are often two very different tasks.

🌟 The Florida Sea Grant 2024-25 Graduate Student Coastal and Ocean Research Fellowship Program is now accepting applications. The objective of the program is to increase the national supply of individuals educated and trained in the assessment and sustainable utilization of coastal and ocean resources. This #Fellowship will provide graduate students the opportunity to extend their research with the goal of addressing the needs of stakeholders and contributing to the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Given the broad scope of Focus Areas, research can span a wide range of disciplines (e.g., natural or social sciences, engineering, planning and design, science communication, policy and legal analysis, architecture, business, education, arts and humanities, etc.). 🌟 IMPORTANT DATES • Applications due: May 3, 2024, 3:00 PM ET • Notice of competition results: July 26, 2024 • Fellowships begin: September 2, 2024 • Fellowships end: August 29, 2025 🌟Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3IxIf6L