Partner, Urban Design at Foster + Partners

Dr. Laura Narvaez Zertuche is a Partner in the Urban Design team at Foster + Partners, where she has lead people movement and data analytics within the firm since 2015. Her work incorporates evidence-based and research-led design that combines informed decision-making with simulation-powered design tools and strategic development of methodologies with their application to architecture and urban design. Laura is a Lecturer at the Chair of Cognitive Science in ETH Zurich and is an advisor for an international multi-disciplinary think-tank called Urban AI, investigating the sustainable uses of artificial intelligence in cities. She gained a MSc and PhD from the Space Syntax Laboratory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

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Urbanizing Artificial Intelligence

Santiago "Santi" Garces, currently the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Boston, has built a career on making government systems more efficient and citizen-centric, leveraging his early experiences in Bogotá, Colombia. Leading Boston's Department of Innovation and Technology, he fosters transformative technology and innovation. Santi's previous roles include impactful tech leadership positions in South Bend and Pittsburgh, where he enacted significant technological and developmental projects. A co-founder of the nonprofit enFocus, and recognized for his innovative contributions to civic tech, Santi combines data science, human-centered design, and a multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary background to drive urban transformation.

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Urbanizing Artificial Intelligence

Associate Professor, Department Chair of Art + Design and Public Policy
Northeastern University

Dietmar Offenhuber is Associate Professor and Chair of Art+Design at Northeastern University in the areas of information design and urban affairs. He holds a PhD in Urban Planning from MIT. His research focuses on the relationship between design, technology, and urban governance. Dietmar is the author of the award-winning monograph “Waste is Information - Infrastructure Legibility and Governance” (MIT Press) and has published books on urban data and accountability technologies. His upcoming book “Autographic Design - The Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World” considers material forms of visualization and evidence construction.

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Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice
ArtCenter College of Design

Mashinka Firunts Hakopian is an Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice at ArtCenter College of Design. She was a 2021 visiting Mellon Professor of the Practice at Occidental College. There, she co-curated the exhibition “Encoding Futures: Critical Imaginaries of AI” with Meldia Yesayan at Oxy Arts, which traveled to the Ford Foundation Gallery in 2023 under the title, "What Models Make Worlds." She is the guest co-editor of the Spring 2023 Art Papers special issue on AI, with Sarah Higgins. Her writing and commentary have appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, AI & Society, Brooklyn Rail, Performance Research Journal, Art in America, and Archetypes with Meghan Markle. Her book, The Institute for Other Intelligences, was released by X Artists’ Books in 2022 and a lecture-performance adapting the book has been presented at the Centre Pompidou, the New Museum, 2220 Arts + Archives, OSU, and Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Urbanizing Artificial
Intelligence