Research

'City, Energy, Information' symposium

The symposium will take place 9:15 a.m.–6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3. Credit: Mina Rahimian / Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State Department of Architecture, the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities present “City, Energy, Information,” a symposium addressing how current ways of extracting, producing, and consuming energy have caused significant transformations in the climate, on Friday, Feb. 3, in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space on the University Park campus. The symposium will provide new insights into how the proliferation of data and novel urban experiments enable innovative technology-driven responses in governance, policy, economics, and the daily life interactions of citizens and serve as an intellectual means to overcome wider energy issues in cities.

The symposium will take place 9:15 a.m.–6:30 p.m., with an introduction from Mehrdad Hadighi, head of the Department of Architecture, and Michael Bérubé, director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and followed by remarks from Penn State President Eric Barron. Guest speakers include Joana Abreu (Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE), Kael Greco ([Google] Sidewalk Labs), Kent Larson (MIT Media Lab), and Cole Roberts (Arup). There will be an invitation-only workshop on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Mina Rahamian, a doctoral candidate in architecture, coordinated the multidisciplinary symposium and workshop to provide participants with an opportunity to examine the unfavorable effects of technology and introduce new possibilities t

“Cities are facing radical changes and dynamic challenges. On one hand, our current ways of extracting, producing, and consuming energy have resulted in emitting greenhouse gases to the environment and have caused significant transformations in the climate. On the other, the digital technology revolution has introduced ubiquitous connectivity and new technologies that are drastically transforming our lives and how we interact with the city,” explained Rahimian.

Invited scholars and practitioners will propose strategies for cities to empower and engage local stakeholders, rethink economic solutions and governance models, and develop a new manifesto for adopting technology and information as a tool towards an energy-efficient future.

For more information and a schedule of events, visit the symposium website: http://iahscdcsala.wixsite.com/cei2017

Last Updated January 18, 2017

Contact