CARTE AI/DS Seminar Series: Machine Learning for Understanding Construction Resource Use and Embodied Greenhouse Gases. Big Problem/Small Data

The Joint CARTE (University of Toronto) and University of Seoul Applied AI/DS seminar series welcomes Professor Shoshanna Saxe.

Registration: Please register through here.

Abstract: We are currently facing two pressing 21st challenges that are in tension. On one hand, there is demand for a massive expansion of the built environment to meet social and economic goals. On the other, the use of construction materials (which currently make up ~20 – 25% of annual greenhouse gas emissions) must be dramatically reduced to meet global climate change commitments. The talk will also explore the challenge of working on the big problem of built environment resource use and embodied GHG with little data and will discuss efforts to create detailed resource use in buildings data from scratch. The talk will also explore early stage machine learning efforts to use images to better understand construction resource use in buildings and cities.

Bio: Dr. Shoshanna Saxe is an Associate Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Sustainable Infrastructure. She is a Distinguished International Associate of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and sits on Waterfront’s Toronto Capital Peer Review Panel. She investigates the relationship between the infrastructure we build and the society we create to identify opportunities – and pathways – to better align infrastructure provision with sustainability.