Hello TUX!

A reminder that tomorrow we have a Sanders Series Lecture by Siqi Zhu, Samara Trilling, Brian Ho (Sidewalk Labs) at Autodesk.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Ali, Fraser, Daniel and Tovi

Sanders Series Invited Lecture: Siqi Zhu, Samara Trilling, Brian Ho (Sidewalk Labs): Notes from Computational Urban Design in Practice

October 29, 2019. Autodesk-Research @ 661 University Avenue #200, Toronto, ON.

Lunch reception begins at 12:30 pm. Presentation begins at 1:00 pm.

Abstract

Sidewalk Labs aims to improve the quality of human life in cities through technological innovation. One focus of our work is the improvement of existing urban design processes through interactive visualization, optimization, and cloud computation. In this talk, we will share a case study describing our ongoing experiences in applying computation to the design of the built environment; contextualize this work within a broader history of urbanism and technology; outline the ongoing partnership between domain experts, designers and engineers at Sidewalk Labs; and describe the challenges of making a useful and usable tool for district-scale planning and development.

Bios

Siqi Zhu

Siqi is Associate Director, Public Realm at Sidewalk Labs, where his work imagines how technology transforms the design and implementation of urban streets and public realm. Before Sidewalk, Siqi headed up product design at Envelope, a NYC-based startup that visualizes development opportunities under NYC zoning. He also worked as a senior designer and project manager at Boston-based Sasaki and Utile, where he oversaw urban planning projects for a variety of public, private, and institutional clients across the US and internationally.

Siqi is passionate about great urban public spaces. He is particularly interested in how a human-centered, research- and data-intensive design process can yield fresh insights about—and build stakeholder consensus around—how we improve the urban public realm. He played a key role in creating Boston’s first Complete Streets guidelines, an award-winning design manual noted for technical and visual communication excellence; and Boston’s 2030 city-wide mobility strategy, lauded for its use of data visualization to engage a city-wide constituency in complex mobility planning decisions. Siqi has also worked extensively with municipal transportation and parks departments, the National Park Service, and other public space managers around the country.

Siqi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has led research projects at MIT Senseable City Lab and currently teaches at Northeastern University’s College of Art, Media, and Design.

Brian Ho

I’m an https://brian-ho.io/#Desk interdisciplinary designer working at the intersection of society, technology and the built environment.

I believe design creates joy, community and justice. I love https://brian-ho.io/City cities, https://brian-ho.io/Space infrastructure and https://brian-ho.io/Interface interfaces. I imagine better interactions for complex systems. I’ve helped make https://brian-ho.io/Boston-Bench-Buddy services, https://brian-ho.io/Event-Detection-Interface software, https://brian-ho.io/Alley-Pond-Center buildings and https://brian-ho.io/St-Bernard-Land-Use-Plan plans in https://sidewalktoronto.ca/ Toronto, https://www.boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics Boston, http://www.mkthink.com/ SF, http://www.leroystreetstudio.com/ NYC and http://www.wbarchitects.com/ NOLA … and a few more https://brian-ho.io/#Collaborations things.

I work at https://www.sidewalklabs.com/ Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company reimagining cities to improve quality of life. My work combines machine intelligence, urban futures and human-centered design.

I graduated from the http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/design-engineering/ Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program at the http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/ Harvard GSD and http://www.seas.harvard.edu/ SEAS. I studied at https://www.arch.columbia.edu/ Columbia GSAPP and majored in architecture at http://architecture.yale.edu/school/academic-programs/undergraduate-studies Yale. Oh, and I’m http://www.usgbc.org/ LEED AP BD+C certified.

Samara Trilling

Samara is a software engineer at Sidewalk Labs. She received her BA in computer science at Columbia University, and has worked at Google, SheEO, and Sidewalk Labs.

OUR SPONSORS:

TUX is made possible by the support of our sponsors, Steven Sanders, Autodesk,

University of Toronto Department of Computer Science, and Chatham Labs.