Research Associate

#transformationresearch #sustainability&society #digitaltools

Agota Barabas graduated from “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism (Bucharest, Romania) trained as a Regional and Urban Planner. She gained professional experience by working with various EU-funded projects from the design phase to implementation in Romania. Currently, she is enrolled in the Resource Efficiency in Planning and Architecture Master Program at HafenCity University. She joined the DCS as a student assistant, mainly supporting teaching activities within the Digital City Science – Tools for Exploring Urban Systems seminar. Since 2021 October, she has been actively working on the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis project.

Contact: agota.barabas(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Jan graduated from the Spatial Planning MSc programme at the Wrocław University of Technology and Science in Wrocław, Poland, where he also defended his PhD dissertation. Jan specialises in European projects: he was the co-manager of the first HCU-lead Horizon 2020 project 'MICADO' (2019-2022); he co-authored numerous proposals to various funding schemes, including Horizon, Interreg, DFG, DAAD, bilateral national programmes (DE-PL, DE-IL), and national programmes in Poland and Germany. He researched and published on a broad range of spatial planning-related topics, including simulations/modeling, migrant integration, industrial suburbanisation, or perception of public spaces. He co-organised large academic events such as conferences, congresses, and project meetings and workshops. Jan also holds a Bachelor's degree in English Studies from the University of Wrocław, where he specialised as translator.

Contact: jan.barski(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Katharina M. Borgmann (Dr.-Ing.) graduated from architecture and urban design, and obtained her PhD in city planning. She has gained several years of professional experience during her work as an architect and urban designer in Israel, China, and India. As a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer across Asia and Germany she taught bachelor, master, and doctoral students. Her main research focus is centred around local context and urban pattern analysis in Asia as well as the cross-cultural transfer processes of sustainable urbanisation strategies and their impact on local contexts in South-East and East Asia. Before joining the HafenCity University, she was involved in projects dealing with alternative mobility concepts and scenario development. These research topics as well as her teaching activities are aimed at contributing to a better understanding of sustainable urban development and the role therein of city-building scholars and professionals. Her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and she has received grants and scholarships from German and European funding institutions to support her work.

Contact: katharina.borgmann(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

#GIS #DataVis

Juiwen, also known as Ariel, has been working at HCU as research associate since 2017. She was graduated from University of Edinburgh in 2013 and worked for Hampshire County Council and German Aerospace Center since then. Her specialties focus on GIS python programming, remote sensing and has some experience in system design and implementation. She is working for Sustainable Urban Region (NUR) project since 2020 September.

Contact: juiwen.chang(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate / Tech Lead

#dataviz #webmapping #urbancomplexity

Balázs Cserpes studied spatial planning at TU Wien, his master thesis dealt with questions of the applicability of social media analysis in urban planning. Following the completion of his diploma, he worked as a project assistant at Simlab (Institute of Spatial Planning/TU Wien) on various international research projects, focusing on data visualization, web mapping and digital tools in spatial planning. His research and teaching interests are concerned with visualizing the spatial effects of complex social trends, such as changing working patterns and practices. He joined the DCS team in September 2022 and works as the Tech Lead of the team.

Contact: balazs.cserpes(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

#spatialdevelopment #decisionmaking #mobility #landuse

Benjamin Dally studied spatial planning at TU Dortmund and KTH Stockholm. He then worked on research projects, in municipal consulting, as a freelance planner and in NGOs to promote sustainable spatial development. His eclectic project list includes: A digital tool for the neighborhood energy transition, a guide for the future-oriented transformation of parking garages, the development of a civil society cargo bike sharing system, a baseline study for a regional resource strategy, an investigation into innovative flood protection through house elevation or a concept on the evolution on the German regional development tool Dorfwettbewerb (village competition). His interests focus on the structures and instruments of planning action. At the HCU, Ben is working on digital tools for municipal land development and virtual reality for the education sectorContakC

Contact:benjamin.dally(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate / BIM Lead

#BIM #IOT #Data

Kunal Tuljaram Gaidhankar hails from a small mining town called Kolar Gold Fields in Southern India. He is an Alma Matter to Hafencity University Hamburg where he earned his Master of Science degree in Resource Efficiency in Planning and Architecture and School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi from where he holds his Bachelor of Architecture degree. He has a close affinity to everything BIM and is exploring to bridge it with new innovative digital technologies. He has experience of working on BIM Projects as a lead in the America, Australia, and the Middle East. He also has worked on a wide spectrum of Architectural Projects in India, holding a high regard for Adobe. Apart from which he has volunteered with grassroots and NGO’s for the upliftment of homeless. He has also done humanitarian aid on the call of UN. As a certified Autodesk Expert Elite he complements ongoing research projects with his knowledge of BIM at the Digital City Science lab. With his previous experience as a field researcher and initiator of the Cities fit for Climate Change project by the GIZ, he also shares his interest in collaborative and participatory resident first approach to community development opportunities in developing economies and specially the Indian subcontinent.

Contact: kunal.gaidhankar(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Göktürk Burak Köse, equipped with a degree in electronics and communication engineering from Yıldız Technical University and a specialization in signal and image processing, has made significant strides as a Full-Stack GIS Developer. His professional evolution from frontend development to a broader technical expertise has been marked by contributions to data-intensive applications across the IoT and e-commerce sectors.

In his current role within the DCS Project Team, Göktürk applies his development skills to innovate in GIS software solutions, aiding strategic urban development and planning. His work, deeply rooted in leveraging geospatial technologies, showcases his commitment to addressing urban challenges through technology.

Contact: goektuerk.koese(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Jennifer Jiang is an architect and urban practitioner interested in the research, ideation and implementation of systems thinking approaches as they relate to citymaking, creative technologies and citizen participation. Trained in architecture and urban design (M.Sc.Arch TU Berlin; B.Sc.Arch McGill University), Jennifer has been involved in transdisciplinary, tech-enabled initiatives driven by participatory, urban strategic, and civic resilience thinking. Within Digital City Science, she is the project manager of SURPRISE - Sustainable urban planning and resilient reconstruction in Ukraine with spatial data science, as well as for FORTHCOMING - data-driven and user-centric multimodal mobility for 15-minute city models in suburban contexts.

Contact: jennifer.jiang(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Juan Hernandez Leal is an architect with a global perspective. He completed his master's level studies in Architecture in Barcelona (ES) and gained international experience through his work in Germany, Russia, and Spain. His interest in forgotten architecture led to collaborations with government departments responsible for preserving architectural heritage. Currently, Juan is pursuing a master's degree in Computational Design, focusing intensively on programming. His future goals involve geolocation of data and data visualization. Juan's commitment to academic research has led to positions as a Research Assistant at TH OWL in Detmold and his current position as a Research Associate at HCU in Hamburg.

Contact: juan.hernandez(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

#urbangovernance #urbansystems #digitalplatforms #research

Fernando Montaño, is an architect and urban planner graduated from the National University of Colombia before obtaining an International Master of Engineering in Landscape Architecture from HSWT-Freising. With a portfolio spanning Latin America, Europe, and China, he has worked on diverse projects at the at the nexus of design, planning, and research. His expertise lies in integrating digital tools with public engagement, social insights, and location-based data to drive innovative urban solutions. Currently pursuing a PhD at the HCU- Digital City Science, focused on digital participatory platforms for open urban e-governance, aiming to empower communities and foster inclusive decision-making in city development. Since January 2024 he is working at the HCU for the i-LUM Project. 

Contact: fernando.montano(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate and Adjunct Professor / Synergy Lead

#sociotechnical change #urban mobility #digitization  

In city digitization, planning, design, and studies, he is a generalist specialized in urban bicycling. A student that lived the transition from the analog to the digital representations and realities. Witness of remaining practices and things predicted to disappear by the voices of technological determinism. Received high school professional training in design (1997), a bachelor of product design (2003), master’s (2012), and doctorate (2018) in urban management, and doctor in sociotechnical change (2019). Ignoring any boundaries between theory and practice, he was a consultant for urban mobility design of software and hardware applications that are now circulating around - others soon will be. Well in his professional past, accumulated extensive experience in publishing, entrepreneurship, and institutional communication, not necessarily related to cities. He is now developing his post-doctoral research on a critique of artificial intelligence and intelligent transport system, besides teaching introduction in digital city science.

Contact: rafael.medeiros(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

#research #dynamicurbanism #participatoryplanning

Arjama Mukherjee studied Architecture in Piloo Mody College of Architecture in India and worked in several architectural firms and as an urban planner in an affordable housing project. She received her Master in Urban Planning and Policy Design in the double degree program between Politecnico di Milano and Hafencity University Hamburg in 2021 focusing on application of digital tools to improve participation in urban planning processes in the Indian context. Arjama is a research associate at Digital City Science at HCU where she is project manager for TOSCA, an open source GIS toolkit aimed at fostering integrated urban development in India and Ecuador.

Contact: arjama.mukherjee(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Mehmet Akif Ortak holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Geomatic Engineering from Istanbul Technical University. His professional journey began at the Satellite Communication and Remote Sensing Center (CSCRS), where he cultivated expertise in geospatial data management and its diverse applications, particularly in fields such as agriculture and forestry.

During his tenure at the Basque Center for Climate Change, Akif served as a Data Engineer in the ARIES team. His focus centered on providing essential data for ecosystem services, showcasing his dedication to leveraging geospatial insights for environmental sustainability. Akif actively engages in geospatial data management, web GIS services, and contemporary geospatial technologies. His dynamic contributions extend to Digital City Science's project endeavors, where he plays a key role in the creation of innovative GIS solutions.

Contact:mehmet.ortak(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

#DataScience #AI #GIS

Husain Vaghjipurwala graduated in M.Sc. Advanced Urbanism at the Bauhaus University Weimar and M.E. Town and Country Planning at the Tongji University, Shanghai. Trained in Architecture from the Maharaja Sayajirao University in India, he has worked professionally as an Architect and later as a Research Fellow at KRVIA Mumbai. He has been awarded the second prize at the Europan 15 for the entry Plugin2Produce which deals with a new sustainable urban vision for the city of Boras, Sweden. His work in collaboration with Ten Studio, Zurich titled The Distributed Cooperative has been exhibited at the Seoul Architecture and Urbanism Biennale and eCAADe 2022.

Husain serves as the Data Scientist on the SURE (Sustainable urban Regions) project where he employs AI and data analysis tools to synthesize sustainable development in South East Asia and China. His own research deals with empirical analysis of Housing supply and the creation of Densities in Mumbai. You may occasionally find him staring for long hours at box plots and knowledge graphs, or trying to solve a bug in his code. “I also play good Volleyball”, so he says.

Contact: husain.vaghjipurwala(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Lab Management & Coordination

Catherine Vandermeulen studied Geography at University of Ottawa (B.A), as well as studying Urban Studies at Université du Québec à Montréal (M.Sc). Moreover, she holds Master of Architecture degree in Post-Professional, Urban Agriculture at McGill University. She has worked in the consultancy, urban planning, and research fields in Montreal, Canada, and has a variety of experiences on a global scale. She is currently working as a lab manager for Digital City Science at HCU, where she is responsible for arranging and administering official document work as well as establishing cooperation between projects and team members.

Contact: catherine.vandermeulen(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Ramon is an architect with a global perspective, holding a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from UTPL in Loja, Ecuador, and a Master of Science in Integrated Urban Development and Design from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. His extensive experience in architecture, urban planning, design, and mobility spans projects across South America, Europe and the Middle East. Ramon's portfolio showcases his versatility in navigating diverse scales and complexities inherent in urban development, while his passion lies in utilizing digital tools to create resilient urban habitats. With a keen interest in international collaborations, he is well-equipped to tackle pressing urban challenges and shape the future of sustainable urban environments.

Contact: ramon.vivanco(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Associate

Dr. Bita Vogler is an architect and urban designer with a strong background in academic research and leadership. Her academic journey began with a master's degree in architectural engineering, followed by another master's degree in urban design from Tehran University. During her master's studies in architecture, she was recognized as the best student in her year. After completing her master's degree, Bita won a full three-year scholarship from the Ministry of Science in Iran, which enabled her to continue her academic journey and obtain a PhD in architecture from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, with a focus on shape grammar. This research significantly contributed to a better understanding and categorization of architectural plans. Throughout her professional career, she has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities in various roles. She has led international construction projects, contributed to policy development, and played a key role in drafting criteria for public building designs. At Deutsche Bahn AG (Hamburg), she held positions as project manager and successfully led long-term development projects in Germany. In her most recent role as project manager and research associate at HafenCity University (Hamburg), she plays a central role in the RESCUE-MATE project, focusing on digital urban planning. Dr. Bita Vogler has been recognized for her academic achievements and has received prestigious scholarships and awards throughout her career.

Contact: bita.vogler(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Research Fellow

#digitalurbanism #urbanairmobility #urbanlegacy

Dr. Niloufar Vadiati is an urban geographer interested in post-digital cities and prefigurative urbanism. As a research fellow, she is now leading a (Walter Benjamin) DFG research project at DCS on Grassroots Digital Urbanims. She got her Bachelor of Urban Studies from the University of Tehran and her Master's from the University College London (UCL). At HafenCity University Hamburg, she obtained her PhD in urban geography, focusing on the urban legacy of Mega-Events/Mega-Projects. She has worked as a legacy planner for several consulting firms. She is also the author of a book on the Employment Legacy of the London Olympic Games 2012.

Contact: niloufar.vadiati(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Student Assistant

Burak Bek is an architect graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at IZTECH with a high-honor degree. His architectural background includes involvement in various projects in different fields and scales, ranging from concept design to implementation. He has conducted several projects using BIM tools. He is also co-founder of Mockingbird Youtube Channel that creates tutorial videos, shortcuts and informative content for several computer programmes. Currently, he is studying masters at Hafencity University of Hamburg, in the program Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning with the focus on the sustainable solutions in architecture and planning. He is also researching in the field of synthetic data generation and smart city use cases for the project  "Platform Data Fusion Generator – DaFne”. He has been collaborating with colleagues from a variety of fields and countries on interdisciplinary projects at the HCU. His main interests are artificial intelligence use cases in architecture, smart city concepts, and sustainable architecture.

Contact: burak.bek(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Student Assistant

Max Fegebank is studying B.Sc. Urban planning at HafenCity University Hamburg since 2021. His interests include, in particular, the turnaround of traffic and also sustainability in urban development. The "Digital City Science" course showed him the possibilities of a targeted use of digital instruments in the field of urban planning. Since May 2023 he supports the Tech Lead, Balázs Cserpes.

Contact: max.fegebank@hcu-hamburg.de

Student assistant

Raghab Pokhrel is a graduate of Birendra Multiple Campus (Bharatpur, Nepal) where he completed his Masters in Physics and acquired skills in programming. He then worked for several years as a teacher at a secondary school in Bharatpur, where he taught physics. He is currently studying for a master’s degree in Integrated Climate System Science at the University of Hamburg. Since June 2023 he started supporting the professorship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Rainer Noennig.

Student Assistant

#software-development #Unity #mixed-reality 

Vincent Holtorf is studying M.Sc Digital Reality at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW). His interest in realtime application, mixed reality and every form of digital reality was inspired through his B.Sc Media System at the HAW. Since December 2021, Vincent has been working as a student assistance for the Digital City Science, where he is visualising and implementing the many functions of the Tangiable Table.

Contact: vincent.holtorf(at)haw-hamburg.de

Student Assistant

#energyefficiency #public-private-partnership #circulareconomy

Chintan Patel graduated from CEPT university (Ahmedabad, India) with specialization in the discipline of construction technology. After graduation, he worked as quality engineer for a light rail transit project. He also gained experience in content-management-system through his freelancing for an online contract database. He is currently enrolled in master's program resource efficiency in architecture and planning at Hafencity University. At DCS, he works for the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis project.

Contact: chintan.patel(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Student Assistant

Thea Rehsler is studying B.Sc Architecture at the HafenCity University in Hamburg since 2022. She is interested in innovative smart city concepts and tangible data. She joined the Digital City Science group as a student assistant in June 2023. Here she supports the group by visualising projects and further processing data.

Contact: thea.rehsler(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Matin Akbari - Student Assistant

Matin Akbari studied Architecture and completed his master's in Urban Design in Iran. He dedicated his dissertation to the subject of Urban Greenways, concentrating on Social and environmental empowerment. As a lecturer and researcher at the University of Kurdistan, he developed his experiences in historical-cultural neighborhoods, settlements on topographical terrains, and urban rehabilitation programs. He is also interested in how cities' social and environmental features intertwine. He has been working as a Senior Architect in different architecture firms since August 2012, and he has won two international urban design competitions so far. Since April 2022, Matin has been a research assistant at Digital City Science.

Jan Behrens - Research Associate

Jan Behrens studied Digital Media in Bremen and graduated in the International Cartography Master programme at TU Munich, TU Vienna and TU Dresden. He has also worked as a software developer for several years. He is experienced with programming for rich internet applications, web mapping, usability engineering, and open source methodologies.

Mete Boncukçu - Student Assistant

Mete Boncukcu studied Civil Engineering at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. During his Bachelor, he focused on the Energy Optimization of the buildings. He studied M.Sc. Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning at HafenCity University to get insight into the sustainable vision in urban design. He worked on location-based data analyses and data integration between different digital platforms. He worked as a student assistant from September 2019 till March 2021.

Francesca Ceola - Student Assistant

Francesca Ceola has studied Sustainable Development (MA with Hons) at the University of Edinburgh and completed her masters in Human Geography (MS) at the Institute of Geography and Territorial Planning, University of Lisbon. She is currently doing an Erasmus+ traineeship at HCU with the EU H2020 MICADO project. Her research works’ foci have been to map the intersections between refugee studies, makeshift urbanisms, migrant infrastructures, and socio-ecological urban landscapes. An enthusiast of counter cartographic methodologies, she is involved in transdisciplinary collective projects in Lisbon and Hamburg that interlace counter-mapping with migrations and performative and visual arts.

Élida M. Dreer - Student Assistant

Élida M. Dreer graduated from the Federal Technological University of Paraná in Brazil, where she studied Bachelor in Architecture & Urban Planning and Technology in Graphic Design. She gained professional experience as IT developer for database, BI, and BPM projects. In the field of architecture, she worked in the certification of sustainable buildings and in projects for modeling and simulating bioclimatic architecture. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning at HafenCity University. Her main interests are bioclimatic design and data-based technologies for sustainable cities and buildings.

Corinna Endreß - Student Assistant

Corinna Endreß studied Social Sciences at the University of Augsburg and is currently doing her M.A. in Sociology at the University of Hamburg (UHH). She supported the participation process of the "Medifly" project at the City Science Lab since October 2021. In her research, she’s been focusing on urban sociology, especially feminist and inclusive urban and transportation planning, as well as the mobility transition - how it can be made ecologically and socially sustainable and what social conflicts accompany the issue of mobility.

Ecesu Esmen - Student Assistant

Ecesu Esmen studied Architecture at Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) and continued her studies in Urban Design Master Program at the same university. She gained experience in the fields of architecture and urban design by working in various companies in Turkey and Germany. Currently, she is a graduate of the Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning Master Program at HafenCity University. Her main interests are sustainable architecture and development, climate responsive architecture, and net-zero carbon policies.

Tim Fraske - Research Associate

#geography #urban mobility #socio-technical systems

Tim Fraske, M. Sc. studied geography in Kiel and Heidelberg. His research focuses on urban and economic geography, especially the analysis of socio-technical systems, digital transformations, and urban mobility. During and after his studies, he gained practical experience at the Fraunhofer IAO Stuttgart. Since August 2021, he has been working as a research associate at HafenCity University Hamburg in the i-LUM project.

Dr. Ayse Glass - Research Associate

#Architecture #ArtificialIntelligence #DataGeneration

Dr. Ayse Glass has a doctorate in architecture, her specialty is acoustics, as well as algorithmic and generative design. After studying architecture, she completed her Master's degree in building physics and materials science with a focus on concert hall acoustics. She received her doctorate in construction technology. She developed a design method and an interactive simulation program, together with a computer scientist. Part of the work was to analyze the generated data for design optimization. She is also a practicing architect with buildings in Istanbul, Italy, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and Libya. She is currently researching in the field of synthetic data generation and smart city use cases for the project "Platform Data Fusion Generator - DaFne". She is interested in music, for example with performances at the Thalia Theater as a musician.

ChingWei Hsieh - Studentische Hilfskraft

#IT #DataAnalytics

ChingWei Hsieh arbeitet derzeit an ihrer Bachelorarbeit an der Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg. Sie hat Information Engineering studiert und interessiert sich sehr für Datenanalyse, Cloud-Infrastruktur und Technologie. Zuvor arbeitete sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an einem Programm zu Unity und absolvierte ein vom Fraunhofer Institut in Berlin gegründetes Praktikum. Derzeit arbeitet sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der HafenCity Universität Hamburg im Projekt LIG.

Jan Jessen - Student Assistant

Jan Jessen studied Computer Science at TU Dresden and Media Technology (B.Sc.) at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. In his freelance work, he works on developing interactive ways of visualizing data as well as finding and verifying new ideas with rapid prototyping. At the moment, he studies "Digital Reality" (M.Sc) and works on further developing the CityScopes-Platform for GRACIO project.

Swati Kulashri - Research Associate

#cityplanning #policyresearch #smartgovernance

Swati Kulashri received a Bachelor degree in Architecture from the National Institute of Technology Trichy, a Master degree in City planning from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in India and a second Master degree in European Territorial Development from Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany. In India, she worked as a scientist for two years in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research where she was a Co-Principal Investigator for several national flagship projects. She worked with several national and state level ministries, the UNDP, local authorities and end-users to achieve the project goals of regional development, infrastructure planning, upgradation of rural areas and capacity building. She also worked as an Architect and Planner for one year at the NBCC Limited in India where she prepared master plans for smart sub-cities in New Delhi. In Germany, she worked with EU-Interreg projects focussing on sustainable urban development and mobility in the Baltic Sea Region. Currently, she is working as a freelance consultant for Digital City Science to manage the on-going and potential cooperation projects with developing and emerging countries. Her interests include interdisciplinary research and innovation strategies for regional development.

Anna Maria Landgraf-Hollenstein - Communication and Event Management

Anna Maria Landgraf-Hollenstein studied Journalism (B.A.) and Political Science and Philosophy (M.A.). During her studies she worked as an intern for several media outlets, e.g. arte Germany, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and ZDF in Washington D.C.. She worked as a freelance journalist for the german documentary filmmaker Stefan Lamby among others. In addition to her journalistic work, she was also involved in the „Medienbericht für die Bundesregierung 2016“ published by the Hans-Bredow-Institute. After her time in Journalism, she began to work as a Project Manager at fischerAppelt for several media campaigns.

Andre Landwehr - Research Associate 

#mobility #data #analysis

Andre Landwehr studied Sustainable Urban Management at Malmö University in Sweden and Industrial Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer/Oldenburg. After his studies he worked for two urban innovation and participation projects at the environmental authority of the city of Malmö. Before studying and working in Sweden, he worked for several years for a Hamburg-based company in the conception and development of online tools in the field of technical building equipment and energy efficiency.

Hülya Lasch  - Research Associate

#urbanhealth #socio-spatialinequalities #geospatialdata #GIS

Hülya Lasch studied urban and regional planning (Bachelor) at the Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir/Turkey. She completed her master's degree in urban planning at the Hafencity University. She has worked as a student assistant, at DCS, on the rebuilding and updating of HCU's geoportal. She also supported the projects SmartSquare and Gracio, where she was focusing on accessibility, geospatial data visualization, citizen participation and digital planning tools. Since May 2021, she has been working as a research assistant at the Chair of Urban Development and Quantitative Methods in Urban and Regional Research with Prof. Dr. Jörg Pohlan at HCU. Her scientific interests are urban health, city ​​epidemiology and socio-spatial inequalities. She again joined the DCS to work on the project Medifly and to support geospatial data related projects.

Dr. Jesús López Baeza - Research Associate / Science Lead

#research #project management #urban dynamics

Dr. Jesús López Baeza is a PhD in Architecture. He has led and participated in several national and international projects in Europe and Asia. His work encompasses social cohesion, activities and livability of urban spaces, and citizen preferences in urban public spaces, urban identity production, spatial perception, agent-based modeling, among other dynamics in the field of advanced socio-spatial analysis.

Jonas Luft - Research Associate

Jonas Luft studied "Computer Science - Digital Media and Games" at Trier University of Applied Sciences and completed his master's degree in computer science at the Technical University of Berlin. He worked as a research assistant at HCU and did research about algorithmic solutions for social issues. Since May 2021, he is writing his dissertation "Automatic georeferencing of legacy maps" at the HCU g2lab (Lab for Geoinformatics and Geovisualization) with Prof. Dr. Jochen Schiewe as part of the sharing.city.college.

Marie Malchow - Research Associate

Marie Malchow studied Cultural Studies, Knowledge Management and Logistics at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and the University of Mumbai (B.A.), as well as studying Urban Planning at HafenCity University and Middle East Technical University Ankara (M.Sc.). Since January 2018, she had been working as a research assistant at HafenCity University, within the Digital City Science department. Among other things, she coordinated the EU H2020 project MICADO.

Christine Montag - Research Associate

Christine Montag studied business administration at the University of Applied Science in Rosenheim. Since then, she has gained practical experience in digital marketing, agile project management/scrum, business coaching and training. She has been working at HCU as a research assistant for the Digital City Science in the research and development project with LIG Landesbetrieb Immobilienmanagement und Grundvermögen. Since January 2022 she is working as as Talent Acquisition Manager in the HR section at Gebr. Heinemann. 

Martin Niggemann - Research Associate

#urbansociology #urbannarratives #technologyimpact

Martin Niggemann studied „Social Sustainability and Demographic Change“ at the Institute for Applied Social Sciences at the FH Dortmund and Social Pedagogics at the Catholic University in Paderborn and Cologne. Before working at the HCU, Martin worked in quartier management and as research assistant at the FH Dortmund. In his work, he concentrates on socio-cultural dimensions of Urban Studies, the qualitative surveying of urban spaces and the research in perspectives and impact that digital technologies have in the urban context. He joined the SmartSquare research project at the HafenCity University in January 2018.

Julia Sievert - Research Associate

Julia Sievert studied Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning at HafenCity University and Environmental Studies at Knox College (Galesburg, IL). During her studies, she combined open data-driven analysis of urban densification practice with bottom-up material stock modeling. She maintains an ongoing interest in the sustainable, efficient use of materials in urban development.

Mohammad Sohanur Rahman - Student Assistant

#geoinformatics #environment #hydrography

Mohammad Sohanur Rahman completed his bachelor degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. Geographic Information System (GIS), Python and Data Science become his point of interest when solving the problem related to Urban Planning, Environment and Sustainability. He is perusing master degree in Geodesy and Geoinformatics from HafenCity University Hamburg. His research interests lie in the area of Geoinformatics, Sustainability and Hydrography. He is working as Student Assistant to support the SURE project in Digital City Science.

Ferdinand Stoll - Communication Lead

Ferdinand Stoll was already dealing with the relationship between people and environment and the resulting boundary formations during his studies in film studies (B.A.) and philosophy (M.A.) at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and the Università di Bologna. He then worked as a public relations officer in the press office of a state ministry, but for a long time is focused on various cultural projects with a focus on music and film. He is involved in the conference of the Haldern Pop Festival - a forum to discuss current issues of culture, society and politics - and is in charge of the festival magazine, where he can pursue his passion and immerse himself in different musical worlds, when he is not roaming the urban space with his camera in search of new connections.

Dobroslav Totev - Research Associate / Tech Lead

Dobroslav Totev during and after his studies of Computational Visualistics at the University Koblenz-Landau has gained extensive experience in the field of agile software development. Before joining HafenCity University he was helping companies in developing innovative software solutions as an IT Consultant. As a lead technologist, his role in the team was to support, consult, and cross-connect the ongoing research and innovation projects.

Maksym Yermakovych - Student Assistant

Maksym Yermakovych is currently finishing his Master in Geodesy and Geoinformatics at Hafencity University. He studied Cartography at the National University of Kyiv and was involved in engineering and land management project in Ukraine. Maksym is working as a student assistant at Digital City Science since November 2021, where he is a part of LIG and TOSCA projects. His main interests are geospatial data analysis and digital mapping.

Mert Can Yilmaz - Student Assistant

Mert Can Yilmaz is a graduate of Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey), where he studied City and Regional Planning (BSc) and Urban Design (MSc). He is currently pursuing his studies with a second master's degree in Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning at HafenCity University. He is working as a student assistant since May 2020 and is also a research assistant in Global Change and Spatial Strategies at the HCU. As an urban planner and technology-enthusiast, his research interests include resource efficiency, resilience, and discourse on the digital transformation of cities and urban planning.

Yuxiang Zhang - Entwickler

Yuxiang Zhang studierte Architektur und Stadtplanung an der Tsinghua Universität und der TU Berlin und arbeitete im CHORA Conscious City Lab, bei MAD Architects und im Li Xiaodong Atelier. Derzeit entwickelt er an der HCU webbasierte Systeme für datengetriebene Sozialplanung und Wissensverbreitung in der Stadt.