AScUS 2022 Get-Together

With the return to in-person conferences and the associated higher organizational effort, the AScUS Unconference will be held bi-annually in future.
This means that the next full AScUS Unconference will be held in 2023 (more information coming soon).

However, for staying in touch with the community and keeping the AScUS spirit we organize a catch-up event in the form of an AScUS 2022 virtual informal get-together of all former participants and AScUS members.
It will be a one-day event on December, 2nd 2022 featuring short pitches reporting on the progress of activities of last year’s conferences, sharing ideas and proposals for collaboration, or showcasing any other AScUS related activity. The event is about sharing ideas and staying in touch with the AScUS community, and to update the community about your ongoing activities.

The event will be online and free of charge open to all interested persons. Please register here for the event

Date/Time: December 2, 2022 at 15:00-17:00 CET (9:00 -11:00 AM NY/Toronto, 10:00-12:00 AM Sao Paulo)

The AScUS committee has invited some of our most appreciated participants from past un-conference events to join by sharing their progress in a guided roundtable format followed by an open discussion and look forward.

Preliminary Agenda:

• News and updates on AScUS from the AScUS Committee
• Roundtable with previous AscUS unconference participants:
  • Nadine Ibrahim, P.Eng., PhD, PMP Turkstra Chair in Urban Engineering at University of Waterloo
  • Hamilton Ortiz, Energy efficiency Consultant (Associate) at Mitsidi Projetos. Director at Sucata Quântica
  • Mercedes Quesada-Embid, Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Advocacy, Catawaba College
  • Lynnette Widder, Associate Professor of Practice, Masters of Sustainability Management at Columbia University
  
  
• Open discussion and exchange of ideas
• Closing remarks and looking forward from AScUS Committee

This get-together is open to all working on urban sustainability around the globe. You do not need to be a previous AScUS conference participant to join.

> Please register here for the event to obtain the link to the conference room

The AScUS committee is looking forward to welcoming you on December, 2nd!

Our speakers:

• Nadine Ibrahim, awarded the 'best discussion session' at AScUS 2021, is a Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and holds the Turkstra Chair in Urban Engineering. She comes from a cross-section of industry and academia in the areas of urban infrastructure, sustainable cities, and sustainable development. She holds a BASc, MASc, and PhD in Civil Engineering, and a Certificate of Preventive Engineering and Social Development, from the University of Toronto. Reaching beyond the boundaries of Civil Engineering, she combines environmental engineering, and incorporates non-engineering fields including economics and governance. Previously, she was a post-doctoral fellow working on Engineering Education for Sustainable Cities in Africa, launching a “Sustainable Cities” course online, and piloting a Global Classroom, and contributing to re-imagining engineering education in 12 countries in Africa.
  
• Hamilton Ortiz is a mechanical engineer from Universidad Nacional (Colombia) and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Unicamp (Brazil). He has over 10-year experience with energy efficiency in industry and building, as design engineer and consultant, working with energy public policy design in Brazil. In 2018 founded Sucata Quântica, a collaborative initiative of creative reuse in São Paulo. Sucata started acting directly and physically with upcycling of waste materials from São Paulo streets and "caçambas". Caçamba is the name of construction material waste containers. The initiative evolved to a garage-size workshop to produce upcycling furniture and lamps, mainly. He received two awards for his contributions to 2021 AScUS Unconference.
  
• Mercedes Quesada-Embid is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Advocacy at Catawba College (US). She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies, a Master’s in History, and two Bachelor’s degrees: one in Spanish Language and Culture and the other in the Biological Sciences. She is a transdisciplinary scholar with research and teaching interests spanning the social and natural sciences, always with a clear concern for ecological integrity, equitable political-economies, and the building of truly democratic societies through strong community capacity.
  
• Lynnette Widder is an Associate Professor of Practice at Columbia University, teaching on sustainable built environment concerns, from resilient communities to urban metabolism to just transitions for building energy. Trained as an architect, much of her work (beside fulltime teaching) has been in collaboration with the UN Development Program in Guinea, with studies of the bauxite industry and household waste management, using remote sensing data to help communities, governmental agencies, NGOs and companies motivated to improve their current practices to track and measure environmental impacts.