Presenting the inaugural Distinguished Lecture for the Center for Infrastructure Resilience in Cities as Liveable Environments (CIRCLE), Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director of CSIC, made the case for better use of data to support resilient infrastructure and associated services to enable societies and communities to be healthy, economically viable and flourish.
Titled ‘Flourishing Systems: Transforming the future of our built environment through smarter information’, the lecture, which Dr Schooling presented remotely in July 2021 and is now available to view online, brought focus to the abundance of data in the world and our ability to digitally capture data about our buildings and infrastructure assets in a way which was not possible even 20 years ago. This, she states, brings opportunity to use data to serve the greater good and better deliver public value.
How can we use better data about these systems to help us provide and receive better services, which help our communities to flourish? How can we use that data to help us address the climate crisis and reinstate the balance between the built and natural environments? Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director CSIC
Presenting the work of CSIC, specifically the ways in which the Centre works collaboratively with industry partners and policy makers to ensure meaningful impact, Dr Schooling explained the value of infrastructure to enable communities to live healthily and thrive.
In the lecture Dr Schooling said: “Our built environment is composed of a complex system of infrastructure systems and buildings which underpin the services which we, their users, value. They are interconnected and inter-reliant. How can we use better data about these systems to help us provide and receive better services, which help our communities to flourish? How can we use that data to help us address the climate crisis and reinstate the balance between the built and natural environments?”
Dr Schooling was introduced by Professor Bill Spencer from the University of Illinois, who is a member of the CSIC International Advisory Group, and Chair for the event. The CIRCLE Distinguished Lecture series is presented by the Zhejiang University-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute, an engineering college on the Zhejiang University (ZJU) International Campus in Haining, China. CIRCLE focuses on developing innovative approaches to make infrastructure systems smart, resilient, and sustainable, ultimately forming more liveable environments for residents.
View Dr Jennifer Schooling’s inaugural CIRCLE distinguished Lecture here.