Schedule

Thursday May 22nd in MS 427

This schedule is preliminary. Changes can still appear, we will try to finalize the schedule as soon as possible.

10:00-10:15 Coffee, snacks and land acknowledgement

10:15-11:00    Dean Bittner (CTO & founder of RUNWITHIT synthetics)

Title: Synthetic Calgary and Energy Futures

Abstract: Dean Bittner, CTO/Founder and Dr Sandeep Kaur, Technical Lead, Client & Project Fulfillment will talk and answer questions about RUNWITHIT and the techniques used to simulate, analyze and visualize Calgary and its energy futures today and tomorrow.

11:10-11:55    KJ Ross (University of Calgary)

Title: Data visualization and active mobility: computational thinking and design approaches to connect the personal climate action with urban policy

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss my research which focuses on developing data visualization tools to enhance and enable bicycle use in urban centers. Climate change is a pressing and relevant issue in all aspects of life. One significant contributor to climate change is energy use for personal transportation. A common strategy taken by cities for addressing these issues is to shift away from single occupancy vehicles and increase the use of bicycles and other modes of active mobility. In this talk I will address three major themes: first I discuss community contexts as they relate to technology design and the data-science pipeline. Then I will discuss establishing user needs for data systems. I follow this up with a discussion of technology design for communicating information through visualization. Throughout this talk I will highlight key aspects of information visualization, a major subdiscipline within human-computer interaction. I highlight how I apply computational thinking and information design to community-oriented work with the long-term goal of enabling further community-centred action on climate change.

12:05-12:50    Souren Iwazian & Shanukie Vithana (University of Calgary)

Title: Windfarm Modelling under restrictions : A Static Mean Field Game Approach

Abstract: The Alberta government has recently proposed limitations on wind and solar power development in regions designated as pristine viewscapes or areas of high agricultural value. While these restrictions are not yet finalized, they are anticipated to significantly influence the trajectory of renewable energy expansion. In this talk, we introduce a static mean field game framework to evaluate the impact of land-use constraints on wind energy siting decisions. The model incorporates location-specific rewards derived from capacity factors and embeds a spatial covariance penalty to account for interaction effects among developers, discouraging excessive spatial clustering. This formulation allows us to characterize the equilibrium distribution of investments under different policy scenarios. We conclude with a discussion on the resulting implications for revenue generation with and without such restrictions. (Joint work with Souren Iwazian and Deniz Sezer)

12:50-13:35    Lunch

13:35-14:20    Tim Beentjes (CEO of CarbonCred)

Title: Personal Emissions Reductions - A Free Market Solution to Climate Action

14:30-15:15    Dr. Sean Rogers (Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre)

Title: Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre – marine stations contributing to regional and global networks with ocean data