Dear FCL Global Community,

Let us hear from Joshua Vargas and , two more of our FCL Global researchers participating in the World Cities Summit Young Leaders Symposium 2024!

"It means a lot to be nominated for the Young Leaders Symposium at the World Cities Summit. As a researcher at FCL and co-founder of Young Urbanists of Southeast Asia (YUSEA), I have faith in the power of platforms for young people who will be taking the helm of areas like academia, policy, and civil society in the years to come. I have firsthand experience of this. After I was hit by a truck at age 16, I started doing advocacy work about urban child safety and accessibility. Along with my mayor, I represented my hometown (Zamboanga, Philippines) at the 2018 UNICEF Asia-Pacific Growing Up Urban Surabaya meeting of mayors, where policymakers, academics, and NGO leaders shared best practices in ensuring child safety. My hometown’s delegation had much to share, given our experience in reintegrating young people left behind by the school system after the armed conflict in 2013. But I also learned a lot from others – from public play spaces in Surabaya, Indonesia, to active youth engagement by the government of Shenzhen in China. There was also a presentation by a researcher at MIT’s Senseable Cities Lab, who used data to analyse walkable access to schools in Boston. That presentation made me interested in urban science – and brought me to FCL today.

Beyond sharing our work at FCL, I am excited to learn about the amazing work of other delegates in the areas of science, design, engineering, and governance to make our cities more resilient, liveable, and equitable."

- Joshua Vargas

"I am honoured to be selected as one of the four Young Leaders from Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) Global for the World Cities Summit Young Leaders Symposium 2024. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities Laboratory Global, within the Semantic Urban Elements team. My research interests lie in the interface of urban design, AI, and computation, focusing on computational urban design. My goal is to bridge urban complexity and design creativity by leveraging interactions between machines and humans. I earned my PhD from the Institute of Architectural Algorithms & Applications at Southeast University (SEU) in China, where I also completed my MSc in Architecture. Additionally, I have been working as a visiting PhD student for two years at the Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich.

For me, the Young Leaders Symposium is more than just an event, it is a catalyst for growth and change. I would like to share my projects and research experience gained from working within interdisciplinary sectors, including government agencies, urban designers, and software developers. Integrating AI techniques and urban design knowledge, my research focuses on developing instruments, such as Urban Design Search Engine, for designers to navigate in design space where spatial analysis, urban perceptions, and urban impact fields are interconnected with each other, for design decision-making and evaluations. The chance to interact with leaders in various fields will inspire me to push the boundaries of computational techniques and design principles, creating smarter and more sustainable urban environments. I believe that it will be an exciting experience, and I look forward to it!"

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