AERIAL FUTURES: THE THIRD DIMENSION
April 25—26, 2019
Boston, MA USA
PROGRAM
Thursday, April 25:
EXAMINING THE LOWER SKY AS A SITE OF MOBILITY
Public Event: 6:30—8:00PM
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium: 48 Quincy st.
Increasing congestion and advances in autonomous technology are set to transform how we move around our cities. Many are now looking to the sky — the third dimension — as an expansive space for new kinds of mobility. Autonomous flying vehicles, such as cargo drones and flying taxis, have the capacity to transform how we move goods and passengers around urban space. Responding to these real-world changes, AERIAL FUTURES: THE THIRD DIMENSION examines Urban Air Mobility (UAM), asking how scalable and on-demand UAM models could reduce road traffic, pollution, accidents and the strain on existing public transport networks. Within these opportunities are also challenges to overcome: noise, community acceptance, cyber security, ‘vertiports’ to ensure safe takeoff and landing, and integration with traditional aircraft operations. Boston and Switzerland have long understood the importance of connectivity and mobility. As a world centers for tech research and design excellence, both locations are at the vanguard of urban mobility design. The presentation and panel will discuss Design Interfaces, the UAM Marketplace, and Regulatory Frameworks.
PANELISTS
Olivier de Weck, MIT AeroAstro
Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
Vassilis Agouridas, Airbus
Lorenzo Murzilli, Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation
Sonja Dümpelmann, Harvard Graduate School of Design, will moderate
DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
PROGRAM BEGINS 6:40PM
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
FIRST-COME SEATING
Event has now ended
Friday, April 26
THINK TANK + SITE VISIT: 8:00AM-5:30PM FULL
Increased urbanization and congestion are challenging mobility around the world. With the rapid advancement of autonomous technology, many cities are looking to the sky as a third dimension for transportation and growth. Self-piloted flying vehicles are unlocking the lower skies, allowing cities to expand their capacity for distribution of goods and passengers.
AERIAL FUTURES: THE THIRD DIMENSION examines the emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market, including opportunities for business and barriers to the operation of cargo drones and flying taxis. The value proposition underscores the potential to create a healthier and efficient future for urban mobility. Scalable, on-demand models for UAM will soon make cities more efficient, reducing transit and construction costs. With point-to-point connectivity that avoids ground traffic, UAM can decongest road traffic, reducing transport time, pollution, accidents and the strain on existing public transport networks.
In order for the safe, effective, and smooth adoption of UAM, cities will need to integrate its operations into the existing urban transportation system. Assimilating vertiports – networks of take-off and landing zones – into the urban fabric is imperative to ensure UAM vehicles can safely fly and land. Despite improvements in communications technology, GPS and big data, the market still faces significant challenges and constraints. New technology must be tested and certified, and other challenges mitigated: noise, community acceptance, cyber security, and integration with traditional aircraft operations.
Boston has long understood the importance of connectivity and mobility. As a world epicenter for tech research and design excellence, the city offers a template transformative of mobility patterns and lifestyles. AERIAL FUTURES: THE THIRD DIMENSION will discuss provocative approaches for the safe deployment of UAM vehicles above urban areas and considerations to best prepare cities for the upcoming aerial revolution.
PARTICIPANTS
Agatha Kessler
Agatha Kessler has worked as an executive in the worlds of finance and technology, building international businesses in emerging products with VISA and Hewlett-Packard. Energized by the intersection of technology, business and design, in 2007 she joined Fentress Architects as CEO. She holds an MBA and has lived in many cities around the world. Currently, as Chairman of Fentress Architects, Agatha serves on a number of boards, including Opera Colorado and the Design Futures Council. With a keen interest in the future of air travel, Agatha co-founded AERIAL FUTURES and currently serves as Chairman of its Board. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Aviation at Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University.
Allen Sayegh
Allen Sayegh is an architect, designer, an educator and the principal of INVIVIA – an award-winning global design firm. He is an Associate Professor in Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Design and the director of REAL, the Responsive Environment and Artifacts Lab at Harvard. REAL looks into the future of built environment from a technologically augmented point of view with a strong focus on sustainability and longevity of responsive and technologically design driven environments. His academic research and professional practice span a period of two decades working on projects of varied scales. Allen’s courses and practice focus on technologically driven architectural design, exploring potentials of media and technology integrated built environment, interaction design and the study of architectural and urban space thought through the impact of changing technology. Allen most recently co-founded the ALIVE group at Harvard– an interdisciplinary team of scientists and designers from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the WYSS Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Andrea Shestopalov
Andrea Shestopalov is Product Manager, UTM and oversees product management for AiRXOS’ Unmanned Traffic Management solution, and First Responder applications. Prior to AiRXOS, Andrea was Sr. Director of Product for Exa Corporation, focused on Exa’s computational fluid dynamics solver, geometry pre-processor, realistic rendering visualization and optimization products. Previous to Exa, she worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center on the Constellation Project, leading up database modeling for the Launch Abort System. Andrea’s research background includes aerodynamic optimization with surrogate modeling featuring genetic algorithms, Gaussian processes and Kriging surface approximations. She pioneered the Optimization process for automotive aerodynamics at Exa and holds a patent that lead to the creation of Exa’s latest tool for optimization post processing. Andrea holds an MS and PhD from Stanford University in Aeronautics and Astronautics and has a BS in both Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from UC Davis.
Andrew Witt
Andrew Witt is an Assistant Professor in Practice in Architecture at the Harvard GSD, teaching and researching in the relationship of geometry and machines to perception, design, assembly, and culture. Trained as both an architect and mathematician, he has a particular interest in a technically synthetic and logically rigorous approach to form. He is also co-founder, with Tobias Nolte, of Certain Measures, a Boston/Berlin-based design futures and technology incubator that combines imagination and evidence for systemic and scalable approaches to spatial problems. The work of Certain Measures is in the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, and has been exhibited at the 2018 Pompidou show “Coding the World,” Le Laboratoie, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and Ars Electronica, among others. Andrew’s personal work has been featured at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. In 2017 Certain Measures were finalists for the Zumtobel Award in both the Young Professionals and Applied Innovation Categories. Andrew is a fellow of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Macdowell Colony, a Graham Foundation grantee, a World Frontiers Forum Pioneer (2018) and Young Pioneer (2017), and a 2015 nominee for the Chernikov Prize.
Charles Waldheim
Charles Waldheim is a North American architect and urbanist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charles’ research examines the relationships between landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism. He is author, editor, and co-editor of numerous books on these subjects, and his writing has been published and translated internationally. Charles is John E. Irving Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he directs the school’s Office for Urbanization. He is recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome; the Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture; the Sanders Fellowship at the University of Michigan; a Visiting Scholar residency at the Architectural Association School of Architecture; and the Cullinan Chair at Rice University.
Christopher Petras
Christopher Petras is a Legal Officer with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Legal Affairs and External Relations Bureau, located in Montreal, Canada. He provides advice and assistance to the Secretary General and, through her, to ICAO organs and Member States, on constitutional, administrative and procedural matters, as well as on problems of international law and air law, and is lead counsel to the Air Navigation Bureau, the largest of the Organization’s five main divisions. Christopher also serves as the Representative of the Secretary General in hearings of staff member grievances before ICAO’s internal administrative review board and appeals before the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) in New York. Prior to joining ICAO in August 2011, Christopher was a uniformed military officer and attorney in the United States Air Force. In 2008, he was the recipient of the U.S. Air Force’s “Thomas P. Keenan Award,” which recognizes its most outstanding attorney in the field of international law. He retired from the service in 2011, after a distinguished twenty-plus year military career.
Curtis Fentress
Curtis Fentress is the Principal Airport Terminal Designer at Fentress Architects, an international design studio he founded in Denver, Colorado, in 1980. He is also the Co-Founder of AERIAL FUTURES. Fentress’ airports have garnered recognition worldwide for design excellence and an outstanding “airside-to-curbside” traveler experience. These include game-changing international airports such as Denver, Incheon and the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. Recipient of the AIA Tomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture in 2010, Curtis has developed a reputation as a hybrid architect, developing iconic design and high-profile public architecture.
Cynthia Davidson
Cynthia Davidson is Executive Director of the nonprofit Anyone Corporation architecture think tank in New York City and editor of the international architecture journal Log and the former ANY magazine, a tabloid she edited from 1993–2000. She is responsible for more than 40 books in print and oversees the Writing Architecture series published with MIT Press. Cynthia also organizes exhibitions, including co-curating the US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and has hosted a number of cross-cultural multidisciplinary conferences on architecture at venues far and wide. Occasionally she writes for periodicals that begin with the letter ‘A’, including Artforum, Arquitectura Viva, AA Files, and Abitare. A former Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, she was recognized by The American Academy of Arts and Letters with its Architecture Award in 2014.
David Rottblatt
David Rottblatt is the Business Development Director for EmbraerX, and focuses on early stage project growth and innovation architecture. He works with industry leaders and strategic partners to develop new solutions seeking to enable the urban air mobility industry to scale. One of the most recent projects David has led is a concept of operations for a new air traffic management paradigm focused on air taxis operating in low altitude urban airspace. Before joining EmbraerX, David held multiple market development roles at GE including international assignments in Brazil, South Africa, and Hungary. Both David’s current and previous roles require navigating ambiguous environments to provide clarity, a skillset he enjoys sharing in order to create value when the road to success is not self-evident. For fun, David is a multi-engine instrument rated pilot, an avid skydiver and scuba diver.
Flavio Leo
Flavio Leo is the Director of Aviation and Strategy at the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) where he is responsible for near and long term aviation planning and policy development related to airport physical planning, airfield and airspace safety and efficiency initiatives; noise and emissions policy and testing/adoption of new airfield technologies at Massport’s three airports – Boston Logan International Airport, L.G. Hanscom Field and Worcester Regional Airport.
Gerry Tierney
Gerry Tierney, Associate Principal and Mobility Lab Co-Director at Perkins + Will, is studying the evolution of urban mobility and its impact on the public realm. A founder in 2012 of Mobility and the City’s REDCAR project, Gerry has collaborated with UC Berkeley’s TSRC on workshops addressing multiple aspects of evolving urban mobility. He has moderated panels at MIT’s 2015 Disrupting Mobility Summit, as well as the 2016 Automobility LA “2050: City of the Autonomous Car”. He has presented on the evolution of emerging mobility and its impacts at ASLA 2017 and APA’s 2018 annual conferences and led several panels on the topic at the University of Oregon’s SCI 2018 Urbanism Next Conference [and will be doing the same at the 2019 Urbanism Next Conference]. He is currently collaborating with Nelson Nygaard, Lyft and the City of Monrovia on studying the impact of TNC’s and autonomous vehicles on curb and vehicle lane demand, the future of micro-mobility, as well as the future of parking.
Jack Robbins
Jack Robbins is Partner, Director of Urban Design at FXCollaborative Architects. He works with public and private clients to create vibrant, sustainable cities, bringing a design-oriented approach to creatively solving complex challenges. He leads mixed-use development projects spanning urban infrastructure, transportation, multi-family residential developments, and large-scale master plans. He brings a keen understanding of the designer’s responsibility to the public. An active voice in the wider design community, Jack frequently speaks at conferences and teaches in the Real Estate program at NYU. His writing has appeared in Architectural Record, World Architecture, and the New York Times. He has a Master of Architecture from Yale and an undergraduate degree from Harvard.
Jags Rao
Jags Rao is Director at Swiss Re and co-leads the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) practice. He is a recognized thought leader in the insurance industry on blockchain and regularly speaks at conferences. He introduced blockchain to Swiss Re in 2015, spearheaded insurance industry's first prototype on blockchain and since then driving Swiss Re's strategic agenda for a successful business change using DLT. Jags coauthored a technical paper on privacy preserving transparency on blockchain networks. His passion is on the deeper and more disruptive aspects of DLT and Machine Intelligence in the new frontiers of Mobility and Risk management. Jags cofounded CrowdPassion platform to drive grass root innovation within Swiss Re in a fast, flexible and agile manner. He has over 23 years of experience in solution consulting, innovation management, service delivery and sales leadership with the blend of technology, business and entrepreneurial background.
James P. Cramer
James P. Cramer is the former Executive Vice President/CEO of The American Institute of Architects. He served on the AIA Board and its executive committee for thirteen years. He is a Richard Upjohn Fellow of the AIA. In 1994 he founded the journal Design Intelligence and the think tank, The Design Futures Council. He Chaired the DFC for 20 years and now serves as Chair Emeritus and Senior Fellow. James is an educator, author, and strategist. He is Faculty Lecturer at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has written six books on the trends, shifts, and challenges of a rapidly evolving AEC Industry. He is an honorary member of AIA, IIDA, and RIAA. He is a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, as well as a Leadership Fellow of the WBSI, La Jolla and Los Angeles. Today, James serves on several governing boards including professional practice, corporate, and not-for-profit. He is also member of several think tanks on the future of the AEC Industry including at the Digital Building Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he offices.
Jaron Lubin
Jaron Lubin is a Design Principal at Safdie Architects, where he has produced an extensive portfolio of proposals, competition entries and realized projects, spanning a variety of geographic contexts, scales and programs. Jaron was Project Architect for the iconic hotel garden Skypark at Marina Bay Sands and relocated to Singapore during its construction. He has continued his focus in Singapore providing design leadership for Sky Habitat and a mixed-use development along Orchard Boulevard. Most recently, as the design team leader for Jewel Changi Airport, Jaron continues work with the client and a team of international consultants to ensure that the design vision for the project is ultimately achieved. He is a frequent writer and lecturer traveling internationally to share the work of the firm. Jaron has taught architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has been an invited juror for design competitions and student reviews at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Michigan.
Jeffrey Decarlo
Dr. Jeffrey DeCarlo is the MassDOT Aeronautics Division Administrator tasked with providing statutory and regulatory oversight for all aviation matters in the Commonwealth, including safety, security, airport development, and UAS programs. Jeff has more than 30 years of aviation operations and consulting experience with the military, industry, academia and government. An experienced principal investigator, he led NASA sponsored air traffic control and airport operations R & D; and has supported aviation systems acquisition activities for the DoD. A former U.S. Air Force and airline pilot with over 10,000 hours in fighter and commercial aircraft, he is a graduate of Fighter Weapons School. Jeff retired from the military as a Lt. Colonel following nearly 25 years of USAF active duty, Air National Guard and Reserve service. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR), the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) New England, and the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), and also serves as Chair for the NASAO Center for Aviation Research and Education.
Jonathan Massey
Jonathan Massey is a Managing Principal with Corgan, where he is the head of Aviation. For the past 25 years, he has played a key role in numerous terminal projects ranging in scale from Shanghai Pudong’s 110 gate Satellite Concourse, to state of the art terminals for Southwest Airlines. Jonathan’s project experience includes passenger terminal feasibility, planning and design, airport master planning, support facility design and operational planning. His focus is functional optimization, a tailored passenger experience and an effective planning and design process. Jonathan is a licensed architect in multiple states and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Josh Sperling
Josh Sperling is an ‘Urban Futures and Energy-X Nexus’ engineer and interdisciplinary researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. He is a former Fulbright Scholar, holds a PhD from the Sustainable Urban Infrastructure program at UC-Denver, and co-leads the Urban Science research thrust of the DOE SMART Mobility Lab Consortium. His research combines engineering, planning, policy, and behavioral science approaches to emerging mobility technologies and services, energy and related infrastructure systems, and decisions for quality of life with energy and other co-benefits in cities and communities. Josh has worked professionally on transportation, buildings, energy, water and other urban infrastructure systems development with global firm, ARUP, in New York, San Francisco, Sydney, and Melbourne; and, contributed as co-lead author to the ‘energy transformations in cities’ chapter of a recent assessment report that included >100 urban researchers/authors, globally.
Kyle Adams
Kyle Adams is a strategist in the Boeing HorizonX organization, supporting pathfinder initiatives within HorizonX, as well as supporting programs within Boeing NeXt. During his time in HorizonX, he has worked on future Boeing programs pertaining to both urban mobility and logistics. Currently, his primary focus is serving as the lead strategist on future of aerial mobility as it pertains to Last Mile logistics. Kyle serves on the Board of Directors for a St. Louis non-profit, Coordinated Youth and Human Services.
Lorenzo Murzilli
Lorenzo Murzilli is Manager, Innovation and Advanced Technologies for the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA). He is an aerospace engineer, innovation manager and specialist in aviation, system safety and drones. As the leader of the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems WG-6 and Deputy Chair of the Swiss FOCA RPAS Working Group, he oversees the policies and risk management processes for all critical drones’ operations in Switzerland and works to improve the perception of unmanned aerial vehicles worldwide. As a guest lecturer at the Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) Lorenzo has developed a striking ability to boost innovation in safety-critical environments and enjoys exploring the intersection of safety and disruptive technologies that can advance the human race forward.
Luciana Burdi
Architect and planner, and with almost 20 years of experience working and managing design and construction projects, Dr. Luciana Burdi is the Deputy Director for Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs for the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport). In her role, Luciana is leading the shift of Capital Programs towards a more innovative, progressive, BIM and Design Technology-driven department. By adopting Lean and Lean Construction principles and concepts, she is also committed to create a culture of continuous improvement focusing on maximizing the value for our customers, improving quality outcomes, while reducing non-value-added activities. Prior to joining Massport, she held several positions at the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Luciana is a member of the CMAA National Board of Directors, the Chair of the CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) Emerging Technologies Committee. In October 2015, she received the CMAA National Award in New Technologies techniques in CM for advancing the use of valuable new technologies in construction management.
Marco Giometto
Marco Giometto is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and research scientist in the computational fluid dynamics team at Amazon Prime Air. His research at Columbia University focuses on the fundamentals of turbulence, and its impact on the transport of mass, energy, and momentum in engineering and environmental systems. Insights from his research have implications in geophysics, engineering, biology, and energy technologies, where heat and mass transfer, evaporation, and skin friction often determine system performance or environmental impact. Before joining Columbia University in 2018, he held postdoctoral positions at the University of British Columbia and at the Center for Turbulence Research, which is jointly operated by Stanford University and NASA Ames.
Mario Diaz
Mario Diaz is Director of the City of Houston Department of Aviation. He is responsible for the executive leadership of the Houston Airport System (HAS) and its three aviation facilities — George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) and Ellington Airport (EFD) — and its more than 1,300 employees. He is one of the industry’s leading authorities in the study of future developments in commercial aviation. In 2013, Mario was named “Airport Director of the Year” by Airport Revenue News Magazine.
Marion White
Marion White is a Regional Leader for HOK Architects' Aviation and Transportation practice. She is a licensed architect with more than 30 years' project management, planning and design experience for aviation projects. She has extensive experience in strategic planning, programming and conceptual design of airport terminal masterplans, new terminal construction and renovation of existing passenger terminal facilities. Marion has a special focus on mitigating project constraints and maximizing opportunities when working within an existing airport environment. She has been involved in a wide range of aviation and transportation projects around the world.
Martin Bechthold
Martin Bechthold is Director of the Doctor of Design Program, director of the Master in Design Engineering Program, and Associate Faculty at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. He teaches courses in design robotics, material systems, building structures and design engineering. He is a registered architect in Germany and has practiced in London, Paris, and Hamburg. During this period, he was associated with firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Santiago Calatrava and von Gerkan, Marg & Partner. Martin’s research broadly looks at material and fabrication technology as a catalyst of innovation for design practice. He directs the Material Processes and Systems (MaPS) Group, a collaboration of faculty, researchers, and students that pursues sponsored and other research projects. Most recently he co-founded Harvard’s Laboratory for Design Technology. He is co-author of Structures and Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing as well as the author of Innovative Surface Structures and Ceramic Material Systems
Matthias Steiner
Dr. Matthias Steiner is a Senior Scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) serving as Director for the Aviation Applications Program of the Research Applications Laboratory (RAL). Drawing from three decades of scientific experience, he leads new initiatives and directs research and development efforts broadly aimed at mitigation of avoidable weather impacts on various sectors, with a particular focus on aviation. Matthias’ vision, leadership, and substantial contributions toward mitigating weather impacts on the aviation industry reach deeply across the traditional boundaries of developing more accurate weather forecasts in order to integrate weather guidance in the decision-making process to better serve aviation operators. At present, he is leading efforts to understand weather sensitivities and requirements for the rapidly growing interests in urban air mobility and using unmanned aerial systems for wide-ranging applications and safe integration into the national airspace system. He has received multiple recognitions for excellent contributions to field programs, scientific missions, and outstanding publications. Most notable, Matthias is a Fellow of both the Royal and American Meteorological Societies.
Milos Balac
Milos Balac received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems at ETH Zurich. His main interests lie in agent-based demand modeling, emerging and sustainable mobility solutions, and optimization of transportation systems. He is currently focusing on demand estimation for Urban Air Mobility concept around the world, and on predicting impacts of this novel concept on transportation systems and mobility patterns.
Olivier de Weck
Olivier de Weck is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT. His highly-impactful research focuses on the evolution and design properties of a wide range of complex man-made systems, such as air- and spacecraft, automobiles, and critical infrastructures. A former Swiss Air Force officer, he also holds degrees from both ETH Zurich (1993) and MIT (2001) and was liaison engineer and later engineer program manager at McDonnell Douglas’ F/A-18 aircraft program from 1993 to 1997, and he spent the last two years at Airbus as a Senior Vice President for Technology Planning and Roadmapping.
Parker Vascik
Parker Vascik is a graduate student with the International Center for Air Transportation (ICAT) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an affiliate of the MIT Strategic Engineering Research Group (SERG). He is a PhD candidate in Aeronautics & Astronautics and is completing a master’s degree in Technology & Policy. His research interests concern the development and application of systems engineering principles to inform decision making on complex socio-technical systems with uncertain futures. Working with the NASA UTM program in 2015, Parker authored a review of the potential impact of operational constraints on the near-term markets for 135 UAS applications. His current research portfolio explores holistic system integration challenges and mitigations for UAS and on-demand mobility aviation.
Peng Du
Dr. Peng Du is currently the China Office Director and Academic Coordinator at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), and Visiting Assistant Professor in the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He has been involved in teaching and coordinating numerous design studios and seminars on tall buildings and sustainable cities, as well as developing proposed/on-going research projects. Peng has been also serving as a Co-Chair of CTBUH Academic & Teaching Committee, juror of multiple international design and research funding competitions, and peer-reviewer of multiple high-quality research journals.
Ruby Sayyed
Ruby Sayyed is an aviation professional with 16 years of experience. She holds a B.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering and started her career as an Aircraft Engineer with Royal Jordanian Airlines, where she then progressed from engineering to operational, safety, and management positions within the airline industry. Ruby joined IATA Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional office in 2010, and then moved in 2014 to Montreal to join the IATA ATM Infrastructure Headquarters team. Within her current role, she drives global ATM policy and advocacy as well as the roll out of global initiatives for ATM efficiency. Since 2016 she’s been leading the project for the safe and efficient integration of UAS into airspace. She is designated as the IATA member to the ICAO Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Panel.
Samantha Flores
Samantha Flores is the Director of HUGO, a research and innovations incubator at Corgan in Dallas, Texas, which actively identifies technology disrupters and examines the various impacts these innovations will have on the user experience and built environment through focused research and experimentation. HUGO keeps a pulse on industry innovations, provides a platform for research outside of a specific project environment, reaches out into innovative fields and enables Corgan to break into emerging markets and industries. It’s a testing ground, with a purpose. Samantha has 6 previous years of experience working with Corgan’s Aviation Studio as an experiential design specialist, developing the evolution of the passenger experience, concentrating on in-depth passenger profiling, design-applied wayfinding analysis, and developing predictions and implementation of new technologies in aviation design. These ideas have developed through her data-driven design work on several projects; one such as the new satellite concourse at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, which upon completion in 2019, will be the largest satellite concourse in the world. She won the Corgan Prize in 2013, which took her to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden to conduct research on the Digital Vernacular
Sarah E. Williams
Sarah E. Williams is the Homer A. Burnell Career Development Chair of Technology and Urban Planning at MIT, where she directs the Civic Data Design Lab. Her research uses data analytics, sensors, and interactive design strategies to communicate and change urban policies. Sarah has been recognized as a Top 25 Thinker at the Intersection of Planning and Technology by Planetizen and a Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine. Her design work has been widely exhibited, including at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the La Biennale di Venezia. Her latest exhibition, TheRoad Ahead: Reimagining Mobility, was on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City through March 2019.
Vassilis Agouridas
Dr. Vassilis Agouridas is Senior Manager, Strategic Innovation with AIRBUS (Helicopters) based in France. He is member of the Strategy, Company Development and Business Ambition Directorate where he is working on growth strategy and new business ecosystems assignments. In the context of ever-growing urbanization and widespread diffusion of digital business enablers, he has been developing expertise in nurturing systemic mobility solutions featuring the 3rd dimension. Vassilis is the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Initiative Leader, on behalf of Airbus, within the Sustainable Urban Mobility Action Cluster of the EIP-SCC marketplace (European Innovation Partnership, Smart Cities and Communities) launched in October 2017 by the European Commission. Forty-two (42) cities and regions across Europe have joined the initiative to explore through mobility demonstrators the 3rd dimension in urban and peri-urban mobility.
