Society. Spaces. Screens

Prashant Matta is a recent graduate from the Masters in Strategic Foresight and Innovation and has been working with Visual Analytics Lab to support its strategic foresight research for complete community development. He uses his background in user experience, strategic foresight, and systems thinking to deliver innovative solutions. He works across research, trend analysis, and systems optimization.

Dr. Sara Diamond, Order of Canada, Order of Ontario, Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Simon Fraser University, is OCAD University Research Chair leading the Visual Analytics Lab and President Emerita OCAD University. Diamond explores relationships between human practices, diverse cultures, and technologies. Funded research focus is visualization and foresight, applied to urban planning, cultural analytics, and wellness. With U of Toronto’s Dr. Eric Miller, she is co-PI of ICity2.0 and leads complete community research. She is on the steering committee of the Abundant Intelligences research network which brings Indigenous knowledge to the field of AI. She founded the Banff New Media Institute, a thinktank on the future of technology.

Richard Schutte is a graduate student completing his final year of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto with a specialization in Computational Design. He is interested in affordable/modular/mass timber housing, generative design, agro-ecology, and transit-oriented communities. He founded the University of Toronto Hyperloop Infrastructure Design team in 2019 and have since won several competitions and awards for research papers on the technical feasibility and socioeconomic impact of HSR infrastructure along the Laurentian Corridor. He is lead RA on the project’s generative Amenity Distribution Model for Downsview using Grasshopper based on personas, complete communities, and amenity need spreadsheets.

Samah Kamalmaz is passionate about fostering resilience in cities and communities, she brings expertise in strategic foresight, systems thinking, and urban innovation. A graduate of the OCAD U Strategic Foresight MDes program and a VAL staff researcher she integrates regeneration metrics with advanced technologies to create sustainable, flourishing cityscapes. She led complete communities research with Autodesk, and Daniels and the development of a refreshed complete community framework and complete community scorecard.

Jeremy Bowes is a tenured Professor in Design at OCAD University. He teaches in the Environmental Design program, and the Strategic Foresight and Innovation graduate program. He is a researcher with the VAL where he is currently leading Strategic Foresight work in complete community planning. He was a researcher with the SSHRC funded Student MoveTO project analyzing and planning student use of transportation, and the StudentDwellTO project, seeking solutions to student housing. He has operated his own design office since 1987 and has pursued a variety of design practice from interior and architectural design to urban design.

Catherine Xayabanha is a VAL Research Assistant and graduate of the OCAD U Industrial Design program. She won the 2023 Esri Scholarship for achievement. She has led the persona development process for the toolkit, including the migration to using LLMs to develop personas. She believes in the power of Co-Design to enhance user experiences and improve client communication. Her primary method is through visualization maps, which allow me to gain insights and understanding of complex relationships and interactions. She strives to create meaningful design solutions that positively impact people’s lives.

Fiona Mawuenyegah is a Research Assistant at VAL. She is a graduate of OCAD U’s Environmental Design Program and works on equitable and supportive housing solutions. She contributed to case study analysis and catchment mapping, and demographic research, and is currently working on persona development using LLMs.

Bonnie Leung has been in the world of interior design since 2010, specializing in multi-residential and hospitality sectors, and is a member of ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario). She is currently pursuing a Master of Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD U. She is an RA with VAL and has helped to lead the Strategic Foresight research, ArcGIS mapping and analysis, and the development of the Complete City scorecard.

Arushi Srivastava is currently a Masters student at EIT Urban Mobility Master School pursuing a degree in urban and transportation planning. She was a Mitacs Globalink fellow at OCAD U’s VAL in 2023 while an Engineering student at India’s Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology in Civil Engineering and contributed to the development of the persona analytics system as well as GIS mapping and data visualization. She is an alumni of VAL.

Kendra Munn is an Urban Solutions Specialist in the Education and Research group at Esri Canada. She contributes to academic research projects in collaboration with universities and creates educational resources and workshops on ArcGIS software. Working with the Professional Services Urban team, she assists municipal organizations in developing Urban models and data preparation workflows through the deployment of packaged services. Kendra holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, applied biology and a master’s degree in geography, geographic information systems from Simon Fraser University. She led void analysis and catchment analysis for our toolkit.

David Kossowsky is a GIS and Urban Design Specialist with Esri Canada’s Education and Research group. David has a Master of Landscape Architecture and Knowledge Media Design degree from the University of Toronto, where he focused his research on computational modelling and simulation, and responsive technologies. Through his position at Esri Canada, David works with urban-focused higher education research projects across Canada to provide GIS and 3D solution consulting, as well as training and professional services consulting relating to urban solutions and visualizations. He led 3D visualization and walkability analysis for the toolkit.

Nour Khalil completed her Master of Aerospace Engineering Student at University of Toronto in 2024. As an RA on the iCity2.0 project she contributed to procedural visualization programming for the toolkit.

Huda Hasan is undertaking a Mitacs Accelerate research fellowship in partnership with Autodesk as part of the iCity2.0 project. She is student in the Masters of Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD U. She has played a leadership role in developing strategic foresight analysis of complete community development and is currently working on case study analysis.

Sanya Mathur is a recent graduate of OCAD University with Bachelor of Environmental Design/Architecture. She has a passion for crafting transformative designs that harmonize functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability and is focused on innovative architecture that integrates science and aims to advance innovation. A VAL RA, she contributes to GIS mapping and scorecard development.

Shipra is an interdisciplinary designer with a background in Exhibition & Spatial Design. As a Designer of Immersive Experiences for National History Museums at Designhabit (New Delhi, India), she discovered the value of making connections strongly rooted in culture, art, and craft. A VAL RA, she is working on GIS network and heatmap analysis and scorecard development and design.

Ava Xia graduated from the OCAD U Environmental Design program in 2024 and won the Esri Scholarship for outstanding achievement that year. She is an RA in the VAL contributing to GIS mapping and scorecard development. She is currently enrolled in an urban design master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, England.

Maria Buitrago was a Colombian Globalink intern in the VAL for the summer of 2024. She provided GIS maps and analytics; provided computational support for procedural visualization, developed data driven demographic personas, and built a system of dashboards which will are now applied to Complete Communities scorecards.

Dhruv Kapri was a Mitacs Globalink intern in the VAL for the summer of 2024. His work focused on applications of Rhino and Grasshopper, with a strong emphasis on integrating various datasets, optimizing workflows, and enhancing the overall design process. He also used ArcGIS to map and analyse catchments. He participated in persona development. He is currently completing his degree at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.

Gowthami Satyavarapu is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the VAL who brings extensive experience in spatial visual analytics. Her PhD, University of Nottingham, The Visual and Spatial Influence of Temples upon South Indian Temple Towns focuses on the application of spatial analytics to represent and analyse heritage sites, which bears relevance to arts and culture in complete community analysis. Before OCAD U she worked at Westport as a Senior Urban Designer, designing warehouses, townhomes, condominiums, and commercial plazas. She has supported GIS mapping and analysis.

Rebecca Martin holds a BA with majors in Fine Arts and English and a minor in Art History from Mount Allison University as well as an MA in Literatures of Modernity from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she has been an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Digital Humanities since 2018. She is the 2024 Olmsted Scholar in the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) University of Toronto. She is a member of the Platform for Resilient Urbanism within the Centre for Landscape Research. She is an RA in the iCity2.0 project, playing a significant role in the development of methodologies for case study description and comparison for the toolkit.

Mena Hamid is currently pursuing a Master of Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty. She has a background in architectural technology and holds a Bachelor of Design from OCAD University in Environmental Design. Mena is interested in the intersection of landscape architecture with urban design and how participatory action research can be used to design inclusive and regenerative public spaces for vulnerable and marginalized communities. She is an iCity2.0 RA working on comparative case studies.

Robert M. Wright is a Professor in the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. He has applied computation design systems for four decades. He is co-PI with Dr. Diamond on the Northcrest Downsview project which provides an application for the toolkit. He places his work within a contemporary and trans-disciplinary framework and holds a strong belief that “Design is built theory” meaning the translation from thought and concept to “built works” is primary and essential to design discourse. Trained in both Ecology and Landscape Architecture he places design as a practice that must at its essence deal with context. Wright is also the Director of the Centre for Landscape Research.