Awais Piracha, Australia

Awais Piracha is a Sydney-based researcher and trainer in the areas of sustainable urban development and use of spatial analysis/techniques in land use and transport planning. Awais was trained as a civil/environmental engineer as well as a town planner. He has served at University of Western Sydney as urban planning academic since 2003. He currently also serves as Director Academic Programs for Geography, Urban Planning, and Heritage and Tourism at that institution. He previously worked as a researcher with the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok and University of Dortmund Germany. In his professional career spanning over two decades, Awais has participated in numerous projects as urban planning spatial analyst. Some of his recent work is: Establishing City Planning Labs in large Indonesian cities, The World Bank (2015-16); Developing methodologies for measuring unmet transport needs in Western Sydney, Transport for NSW Australia (2014-15); Evaluation of 2049 strategic plan and 2030 comprehensive plan for Jiangbei Region, Nanjing, China – Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau (2013-14); The impact of delivery systems on homelessness in the Nepean/Blacktown Region – Western Sydney municipalities Australia (2012-13).

Jianxiang Huang

Jianxiang Huang is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is interested in the shaping of the built environment to enhance human well-being and resource efficiency. At HKU, he leads research projects to assess the thermal, acoustic and energy performances of high density cities. He is the author of CityComfort+, a computer simulation tool that is equipped to simulate pedestrian comfort in outdoor urban spaces. Huang is a member of the Sustainable High Density Cities Lab and Healthy High Density Cities Lab, both are interdisciplinary research centers across disciplines of Engineering, Medicine, and Architecture. He studies place-making using geo-located social media data and he coordinates the Master of Urban Design programme at HKU. Prior to starting a career in academia, Huang worked as an architect and urban designer in China and USA on award-winning projects. He is a LEED accredited professional, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (IACP). Huang holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard University, a Master in City Planning from MIT, a M.Arch and a B.Arch from Tsinghua University.

Aurobindo Ogra

Aurobindo Ogra is a Lecturer at Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Johannesburg, an urban and regional planner with 16 years of multidisciplinary international experience in urban sector. His research interest areas focus across: eGovernance, GIS, urban data management, urban/ spatial analytics, smart cities, city diagnostic assessments, tourism, urban infrastructure & planning, strategic planning, urban/ municipal governance and capacity building.

Aurobindo is a recipient of Local Government & Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) Fellowship, Open Society Institute, Hungary (2008-09). Over the last 10 years, he has worked on multi-sectoral urban projects with donor agencies, national, provincial, local government and private sector. His recent research and project engagements include in areas of: spatial planning data repository, spatial planning compliance & framework, tourism analytics and eGovernance. He is a member of ISOCARP and other national & international professional bodies and voluntary associations in urban planning sector and is actively engaged in areas of academics, research and consulting sector.