The second in the five-webinar series presented by iCity, Visualization features two presentations by Jeremy Bowes and Sara Diamond.
The OCAD Visual Analytics Laboratory (VAL) has developed a taxonomy of end users, software systems, data types, tasks and interactivity within the domain of smart city transportation planning. This work contributes to a taxonomy by creating Compara, an intuitive, interactive and searchable index that visualizes the attributes of software from a wide-range of applications and technologies. The taxonomy began as a spreadsheet that we transformed into a custom interactive data visualization that helps users find and understand existing tools and their attributes. We then built Vizland which related specific visualization strategies to tasks that Compara tool users would undertake.
Existing technologies for transportation planning, urban design, and decision-making must keep pace with rapid urbanization. Visualization and analysis tools can help by providing 2D and 3D perspectives. Our research teams developed technologies – Betaville and StoryFacets (which includes GraphTrails, as means of recording and revisiting analytics tasks) –and explored ways that these could be integrated as a presentation system. These tools were applied within StudentMoveTO, a large-scale data analytics project which gathered and analyzed students’ transportation strategies for four universities in the Greater Toronto Area. The Visual Analytics Lab continues to apply the results of this research to develop visualization strategies for the second phase of this project.
Jeremy Bowes is a tenured Professor in Design at OCAD University, and teaches in the Environmental Design program, and the Strategic Foresight and innovation graduate program. He has 35 years of experience as an interior, and architectural designer. He has operated his own design office since 1987, and has pursued a variety of design work from film and television studios, interior and architectural design, to exhibit and furniture design. His current practice encompasses residential design; small urban infill, cottage and rural residential projects, with a focus on new sustainable methods, constructional systems and materials. Jeremy has served in numerous administrative capacities, most recently as an assistant dean in the faculty of design, and as a chair of the Environmental Design program. He is also a course leader in the Strategic Foresight and innovation Masters of design graduate program, and an advisor to Slab. His research centres around sustainable living design approaches for habitat dwellings, building on past architectural housing experience, and systems design background. Key areas of research are minimal residential habitat design, sustainable prefabrication, material constructional system methods, and integrated living systems within architectural, urban and rural ecologies.
Dr. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada’s “university of the imagination.” She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists. While retaining OCAD University’s traditional strengths in art and design, Diamond has guided the university in becoming a leader in digital media, design research and curriculum through the Digital Futures Initiative, new research in Inclusive Design, health and design, as well as in sustainable technologies and design. She also played a leading role in OCAD University’s establishment of the unique Aboriginal Visual Culture Program. These initiatives have built strong partnerships for OCAD University with science, business and communities, in Ontario and abroad. Currently, she serves on the Ontario Ministry of Culture’s Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, ORION (Ontario’s high-speed network), SHARCNET, IO (Interactive Ontario), Canadian Women in Communications; i-Canada; is Chair of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronto Advisory Committee. Diamond serves the larger university community through her membership on the Standing Advisory Committee on University Research (SACUR) of the Association of Universities and Colleges and as Chair of the Standing Committee on Relationships with Other Postsecondary Institutions for the Council of Ontario Universities. Diamond is a member of the Council of the Canadian Academies’ expert panel on the State of Science & Technology in Canada.
Note: Registration closes Wednesday, June 10, at 10:59 a.m. and Zoom details will be forwarded to all registrants by email via Eventbrite at 11 a.m.
Click here for PDF of full webinar series agenda, speakers and registration links.
This webinar series, hosted by UTTRI Executive Director Dr. Judy Farvolden, will summarize, share and celebrate the research initiatives and innovations produced over the course of the project, wrapping up with a preview of research proposed for iCity 2.0.
The online presentations are scheduled over five days as shown below. Admission is free and all are welcome. Registration for each webinar is required.
– June 8, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.: Ontologies and Platforms
– June 10, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.: Visualization
– June 12, 2020, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.: Foundations for Planning and Operations
– June 15, 2020, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.: Elements of the Street and its Users
– June 17, 2020, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.: The Long View and Next Steps
Details and registration links for all webinars
The iCity: Urban Informatics for Sustainable Metropolitan Growth project is coming to a close after five years of successful collaboration between UTTRI, OCAD-U and University of Waterloo. Led by Principal Investigator and UTTRI Director, Dr. Eric Miller, the goal of iCity was to find innovative ways to improve urban transportation system performance and design efficient, sustainable cities for the well-being of individuals and society.
iCity researchers co-created innovative ways to improve urban transportation system performance through the design of complete streets, understanding parking behaviour, improving transit resilience, exploring the behaviours of pedestrians, and extending our understanding of the interactions between land use and transportation. Rigorous transportation research, built on a foundation of data, ontologies and platforms was effectively enabled by novel visualizations, resulting in a suite of data standards, dashboards and tools we hope will be useful to our iCity partners and others.
iCity: Urban Informatics for Sustainable Metropolitan Growth is funded by the Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence, Round 7.